Increasing sharing in children with autism spectrum disorder using automated discriminative stimuli

Appropriate sharing of a high-preference item is a common problem among children with autism spectrum disorder (Baron-Cohen et al., 1985). The purpose of the current study was to evaluate whether a multiple schedule of reinforcement could be used to promote appropriate turn-taking behavior. Participants included one dyad of siblings and one dyad of non-related peers who were identified as having poorly developed sharing skills. The first dyad included a 6-year-old diagnosed with autism and his typically developing sister. The other dyad included a 4-year-old and 5-year-old, both diagnosed with autism. During sessions, an auditory and visual stimulus in the form of a PowerPoint (R) presentation played in the background to signal each participant's turn with a mutually preferred item. Following baseline, we used a progressive prompt delay to teach the participants to attend and appropriately respond to the stimuli presented in the PowerPoint (R) presentation. Findings suggest that an auditory and visual stimulus can be used to increase appropriate sharing. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.