Teaching a young child with autism to request assistance conditionally: a preliminary study
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Updated: Jul 3, 2026

A Familiarization Protocol Facilitates the Participation of Children with ASD in Electrophysiological Research
Published on: July 31, 2017
Joe Reichle1, Patricia L Dropik, Elizabeth Alden-Anderson
1Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. reich001@umn.edu
Purpose:
Investigators taught a 5-year-old boy with autistic disorder and severe language delay to conditionally use requests for assistance.
Method:
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:
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.
Conclusion:
This study highlights the need to assess conditional use of newly taught communicative behavior.
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