Evaluation of a caregiver training program to teach help-seeking behavior to children with autism spectrum disorder

Alarmingly, nearly half of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) engage in behaviour that causes separation from caregivers. More than half of these children go missing for a concerning duration of time and/or enter into dangerous situations. Caregivers often do not feel prepared to address these serious concerns. This study evaluated the effectiveness of behaviour skills training (BST) for teaching caregivers how to also use BST in conjunction with a tactile prompt to teach their children with ASD help-seeking behaviour. Participants included five caregiver-child dyads. Children were diagnosed with ASD and were between the ages of 5-10 years. A non-concurrent multiple probe design across three dyads with a concurrent replication across an additional two dyads was used to evaluate whether the BST procedure increased child safety responses when separated from caregivers in store settings. Child behaviours were measured using a 3-step help-seeking behaviour chain: (1) calling out for their caregiver in a louder than conversational voice, (2) locating a store employee, and (3) informing the employee that they were lost. All children met mastery criteria (a safety response score of 3 across two consecutive trials), and four of the caregivers were able to successfully fade the tactile prompting device in the natural environment. This study contributes to the limited empirical research on caregiver implemented safety training using BST to teach help-seeking behaviour to children with ASD.