J Appl Behav Anal. 2017 Oct;50(4):717-732. doi: 10.1002/jaba.420. Epub 2017 Sep 26.

Teaching children with autism to request help with difficult tasks.

Journal of applied behavior analysis

Nicole M Rodriguez, Megan A Levesque, Victoria L Cohrs, Jessica J Niemeier

PMID: 28952144 DOI: 10.1002/jaba.420

Abstract

We taught three children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder to request help using an interrupted chain procedure during which we manipulated task materials such that the child was either incapable or capable of independently completing a link of a behavior chain. We initially observed undesirable generalization of requests for help during capable trials when teaching was introduced during incapable trials for two participants and to a lesser extent for the third participant. However, with repeated exposure to differential prompting and reinforcement across incapable and capable trials, differential responding was observed across EO-present and EO-absent trials for all three participants during both teaching sets and one generalization set that was never exposed to teaching procedures. These findings suggest that it is important to consider the antecedent conditions under which the response should occur when teaching children to request help.

© 2017 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Keywords: autism; contrived establishing operations; generalization; help; interrupted chain; mands; requesting assistance

MeSH terms

• Autism Spectrum Disorder / psychology
• Child
• Child, Preschool
• Education of Intellectually Disabled / methods
• Female
• Help-Seeking Behavior*
• Humans
• Male
• Reinforcement, Psychology

Publication Types

• Case Reports
• Journal Article