Enhancing appropriate and variable responding in young children with autism spectrum disorder

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit challenges with social skills variability.
• Traditional social skills training methods may not sufficiently address the need for flexible and appropriate social responses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the efficacy of lag schedules of reinforcement combined with prompting and multiple exemplar training for enhancing social skills variability in young children with ASD.
• To compare the effectiveness of this combined intervention against multiple exemplar training alone.

Main Methods:

• Three children aged 5-7 with ASD participated in an 8-week social skills training program.
• A multiple probe design across target social skills was employed to evaluate intervention effects.
• Intervention involved training multiple exemplars, lag schedules of reinforcement, and prompts.

Main Results:

• Multiple exemplar training alone showed minimal improvement in appropriate and variable social responding.
• The addition of lag schedules of reinforcement and prompting to multiple exemplar training led to significant increases in appropriate and variable responding, surpassing baseline levels.

Conclusions:

• Lag schedules of reinforcement, when used with prompts and multiple exemplar training, are more effective for increasing appropriate social skills variability in children with ASD.
• This combined intervention strategy offers a promising approach for improving social functioning in this population.