The role of response delay in improving in the discrimination performance or autistic children

This study investigated the influence of a response delay requirement on the discrimination performance of autistic children. In the context of a multiple baseline design with subsequent repeated reversals, two conditions were compared: a no-response-delay condition, where the child was allowed to make the target response immediately after presentation of the discriminative stimulus versus a response-delay condition, where the target response was permitted three seconds following the discriminative stimulus when the therapist would signal the child to respond. The results showed that the response-delay condition produced higher levels of correct responding than the no-response-delay condition. In addition, teachers in the research setting rated the response-delay procedure to be a practical and effective teaching technique that could be implemented in a classroom setting. The results were discussed in relation to the literature on impulsivity, and were interpreted as indicating that the response-delay procedure provides a valuable technique for teaching autistic children.