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Research Summary
Decision-Making
Shabani, D. B., Katz, R. C., Wilder, D. A.,
Beauchamp, K., Taylor, C. R., and Fischer, K. J. (2002). Increasing
social initiations in children with autism: Effects of a tactile
prompt. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 35,
79-83.
The authors identified three goals of the
present study: (a) to replicate a previous study conducted by
Taylor and Levin (1998), (b) to extend previous work by also
evaluating the collateral effects of the tactile prompt, and (c) to
attempt to reduce the frequency of prompts.
Three children with autism participated. All
were in either a general education kindergarten or 1st grade
classroom with an aide. Two of the students received training at
school; the third participant received training at home. Peers did
not know about the training.
A 25-second noncontinuous partial-interval
recording system was used to collect data on verbal initiations and
verbal responses to peer initiations during 10-minute free-play
sessions. An ABAB design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of
the tactile prompt on verbal initiations and verbal responses to
peer initiations. During baseline, no prompts were provided.
Training consisted of prompting three specific initiation phrases
(e.g., Look at this. I have ___. Do you want to play?). The tactile
prompt (i.e., a JTECH Series 27 pager that vibrated for 3-5 seconds
when activated by a remote control) was activated approximately
every minute. At that time, the adult provided a model of the
initiation phrase. The child was reinforced if he imitated the
phrase. The verbal models were gradually faded. During the tactile
prompt condition, the tactile prompt was activated at least once
during each 25-second observation interval and a second time if the
child did not initiate or respond. During the prompt fading phase,
reductions in prompting ranged from 5% to 30% based on the average
frequency of verbal initiations in prior prompt phases.
During the tactile prompting phase, verbal
initiations increased and averaged 72%, 71%, and 88% of the
intervals for each participant, respectively. Verbal responses to
peer initiations also increased and ranged from 20% to 50%.
According to the authors, prompt fading was partially
successful.
The authors concluded that the tactile prompt
was an effective and unobtrusive way to assist children with autism
to initiate and respond to peers. Limitations were noted.
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