Improving social initiations in young children with autism using reinforcers with embedded social interactions.
Children with autism often exhibit low levels of social engagement, decreased levels of eye contact, and low social affect. However, both the literature and our direct clinical observations suggest that some components of intervention procedures may result in improvement in child-initiated social areas. Using an ABAB research design with three children with autism, this study systematically assessed whether embedding social interactions into reinforcers, delivered during language intervention, would lead to increased levels of child-initiated social behaviors. We compared this condition with a language intervention condition that did not embed social interactions into the reinforcers. Results indicated that embedding social interactions into the reinforcers resulted in increases in child-initiated social engagement during communication, improved nonverbal dyadic orienting, and improvements in general child affect. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed.
Department of Counseling, Clinical, School Psychology, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, Koegel Autism Center, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9490, USA. koegel@education.ucsb.edu
Robert L
RL
Koegel
Ty W
TW
Vernon
Lynn K
LK
Koegel
D000339:Affect; D001288:Attention; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010988:Play and Playthings; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012919:Social Behavior