Teaching a Young Child With Autism to Request Assistance Conditionally: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Investigators taught a 5-year-old boy with autistic disorder and severe language delay to conditionally use requests for assistance. A within-participant multiple-probe design across 3 functional tasks was implemented in order to evaluate the child's acquisition and conditional use of requests for assistance during intervention with each task. Results indicated initial acquisition of requests for assistance followed by a brief period of overgeneralization. As independence in completing a task increased, requests for assistance correspondingly decreased. The participant's conditional use of requests for assistance and independent task completion were sustained across time. This study highlights the need to assess conditional use of newly taught communicative behavior.