Teaching Children with Autism to Identify Known and Unknown Information across Self and Others.

This study evaluated procedures for teaching three children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder the perspective-taking skill of identifying known and unknown information by others based on what they were sensing across all five senses: see, taste, feel, hear, and smell. Using a multiple baseline across participants design, this study evaluated a training package consisting of rules, multiple exemplar training, error correction, and reinforcement. The treatment package successfully taught participants to identify known/unknown information based on what individuals sensed. Generalization across untrained stimuli and people was observed from baseline to posttraining for all participants.

Teaching a perspective-taking component skill to children with autism in the natural environment.

We evaluated procedures for teaching three children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder the perspective-taking component skill of tacting what others are sensing across all five senses: see, taste, feel, hear, and smell. Using a multiple baseline across participants design, we evaluated a training package consisting of multiple exemplar training, reinforcement, and error correction. The treatment package was implemented in the natural environment and was effective for teaching participants to tact what others sensed. Generalization across untrained stimuli and people was observed from baseline to posttraining for all participants. We discuss how this component skill may be related to teaching further skills related to perspective taking such as tacting what others know, predicting future behavior based upon one's beliefs, and creating false beliefs in others for the purpose of adaptive deceptive behaviors such as keeping secrets, surprises, and bluffing during games.

Teaching children with autism to identify and respond appropriately to the preferences of others during play.

We observed three children with autism spectrum disorder during structured play dates in which play partners displayed interest or disinterest in the toys with which they were playing. We then taught subjects to identify play partners' preferences and to make appropriate toy offers using a multiple-exemplar training package consisting of rules, midplay preference questions, prompting, and praise with observed generalization across untrained partners.