Teaching a Child to Wear Prescription Eyeglasses

Children with neurodevelopmental disorders are likely to experience cooccurring vision disabilities (Simmons et al., 2009), and, as such, may require prescription eyeglasses. However, some individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders may not, initially, tolerate wearing their prescription eyeglasses and may require intervention to do so. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a graduated exposure program in combination with differential reinforcement without extinction to teach a child to wear prescription eyeglasses. We first taught the child to tolerate the proximity of his eyeglasses and then longer durations of wearing his eyeglasses. Intervention effects extended to novel locations and, most importantly, with his caregivers.