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

Behav Anal Pract. 2022 Dec 21;16(3):837-848. doi: 10.1007/s40617-022-00768-8. eCollection 2023 Sep.

Abstract

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.

Keywords: autism; know; multiple exemplar training; perspective taking; theory of mind.