Comparison of Prompting Techniques to Teach Children With Autism to Ask Questions in the Context of a Conversation

Abstract

An adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare the efficacy of echoic and textual prompts to teach three students with autism (ages 8–15) to ask questions related to two pre-selected topics of conversation. Participants were first required to answer questions related to the topics to determine whether accurate responses were within their repertoire. This was followed by a transfer of stimulus control procedure to teach participants to ask relevant questions to the experimenter on the same topics. Probes with a novel conversation topic were conducted in the natural environment with a peer, and follow-up probes were conducted after training. Results indicate questions taught using an echoic prompt were acquired in fewer trials to criterion than questions taught using a textual prompt for two of the three participants. Limitations and implications for future research will be discussed.