Teaching daily living skills to children with autism in unsupervised settings through pictorial self-management.
We investigated the efficacy of pictorial self-management to teach daily living skills to 3 low-functioning children with autism. Stimulus and response generalization, stimulus control of self-management materials, and maintenance of behavior change were also assessed. Results showed that children with autism could successfully use pictures to manage their behavior in the absence of a treatment provider, generalize their behavior across settings and tasks, and maintain behaviors at follow-up. In addition, when compared to baseline, all children showed a substantial decrease in stereotypic behaviors. When picture order was manipulated in stimulus control probes, the children followed the new picture sequence, suggesting that the pictures were controlling their behavior. Further, a savings effect was demonstrated, in that 2 subjects reached criterion on second and third behaviors within less than 25% of original training time.
Pierce
K L
KL
Psychology Department, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0109.
Schreibman
L
L
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D002648:Child; D004495:Education of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities / Q000379:methods*; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results