Using Concurrent Training to Teach Children With Autism to Say "Thank You" Spontaneously in Various Situations and Facilitation of Generalization

Abstract

In the present research, concurrent training of a routine behavior was used with 2 boys with autism (an 8-year-old and a 13-year-old) to teach them that routine and also to teach them to say "thank you" spontaneously in the context of the routine. The routine consisted of 5 situations, such as requesting an object, borrowing an object, and requesting instructions. Generalization of the participants' behavior to daily living situations was monitored by their families and their homeroom teachers. The results indicated that the younger boy acquired the target behavior in the 5 situations, and the older boy, in 4 of the situations. In addition, in their daily living situations, they generalized the behavior of saying "thank you" not only to situations similar to those that they had been taught (e.g., requesting an object), but also to situations that they had not been taught (e.g., being given an object although they had not requested it). Moreover, generalization of saying "thank you" was observed in situations in which they had not been given an object (e.g., being helped even though the participant had not requested help). The present results suggest that generalization of a target behavior to daily living situations may be facilitated by establishing a routine that consists of various situations and teaching it by means of concurrent training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)