Increasing Social Communication by Teaching Texting to Autistic Children

In the present study, we increased the social communication of four autistic children by teaching texting conversation skills on smart phones.

A multiple baseline design across two dyads was used to assess the texting conversation intervention, with additional generalization probes taken across texting partners and FaceTime® sessions. One-month maintenance probes were also assessed.

All four participants increased their conversational texting, and their conversation content was novel. Generalization across texting partners occurred, and skills were maintained. Appropriate verbal content spoken during FaceTime® probes was also observed.

Results are discussed in terms of the potential benefits of teaching autistic children social communication through text.