TECHNOLOGY FOR ESTABLISHING DEICTIC REPERTOIRES IN AUTISM

Abstract

Children on the autism spectrum often demonstrate little variability in their use of language and interaction in social situations. Some of these difficulties have historically been attributed to weak or absent perspective-taking abilities. Relational Frame Theory has recently emerged as a framework for understanding complex social behavior and cognition, including perspective-taking, from an ecological viewpoint. Previous studies have illustrated the applicability of such a framework with children from ranging from pre-school to school-age, with and without an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Despite early support for these approaches, researchers have strived to deliver these intervention protocols in more naturalistic and naturally-occurring contexts. The purpose of this study was to further extend a relational training protocol into naturalistic contexts (e.g., social situations free of adult prompting). This study utilized a novel protocol in which a same-aged peer delivered an intervention to improve the relational responding thought to underpin perspective-taking abilities. Through developing software specific to relational responding and child-use, school-age children appropriately delivered a multiple exemplar teaching protocol across multiple levels of difficulty. Results indicate that a relational training protocol delivered using technology was effective in improving relational repertoires (e.g., perspective-taking), could be implemented by a school-age student and was preferred over traditional teaching methods.