Teaching the First Component of Social Referencing to Preschoolers with Autism; Reacting to New and Missing Objects in the Environment

Abstract

Deficits in social referencing have been associated with autism spectrum disorder. It may lead to deficits in language, symbolic abilities, and other social-cognitive behaviors. When deficits in social referencing are detected, teaching such behaviors should be a priority, but effective teaching procedures are lacking. We consider social referencing as a behavior chain and suggest teaching each component in the chain in sequence. We introduce a program to teach the initial component of social referencing, reacting to new and missing objects in the environment through initiating interaction with another present person. Six children with autism spectrum disorder participated. All children acquired the skill within six months and generalized it to new people and materials. Future research could aim to replicate these findings and to develop effective procedures to teach other component skills of social referencing.