THE EFFECTS OF CLICKER TRAINING TO INCREASE HEEL-TO-TOE WALKING IN THREE CHILDREN WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

Abstract

This current study was an extension of Persicke et al. (2014) and was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of clicker training on increasing the amount of heel-to-toe strides for three children with Autism Spectrum (ASD). Persicke et al. assessed the effectiveness of TAGteach™ procedures in combination with a correction procedure. This current study used only the clicker training phase. The results of the current study suggest that clicker training can serve as an effective intervention to increase heel-to-toe strides, thereby decreasing toe walking. Baseline levels of all participant’s heel-to-toe strides were below 30% of steps. All three participants increased their heel-to-toe steps above 80% following the implementation of clicker training, and results maintained throughout all fading trials. Social validity measures indicated that clicker training was easy to use and understand. Future research should investigate delivering an auditory stimulus through a device other than a clicker to increase the treatment fidelity and social validity due to a clicker being associated with animal training. This research demonstrated that clicker training can be a viable intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder who exhibit toe walking.