Teaching Children With Autism to Ask “What's That?” Using a Picture Communication With Vocal Results

Abstract

Being a competent communicator is complex and goes beyond expressing simple needs and wants to include having the ability to ask and respond to wh-questions. For individuals with autism spectrum disorders who use pictures to communicate, initiating communications such as questions can be difficult and it has been shown that some picture systems do not include question asking in the curriculum, such as the Picture Exchange Communication System. This study attempted to address this lack of question asking in teaching communication with pictures. The current study investigated how augmentative and alternative communication users learn to communicate, with methods of how vocal individuals with autism spectrum disorders have been taught to ask wh-questions, to teach nonvocal individuals with autism spectrum disorders to ask the question "What's that?" using a picture communication. The results showed that all 3 participants learned to vocally ask "What's that?" without requiring the communication picture, and the training for all participants was completed within 1 to 2 days. Secondary findings included the successful generalization of this question to nontrained settings, communicative partners, and stimuli. This study extends the limited literature on teaching wh-questions to individuals with autism spectrum disorders and supports findings of vocal outcomes with individuals who use picture systems to communicate.

Teaching individuals with autism spectrum disorder to ask questions: A systematic review

“…Generalization across people (i.e., conversation partners) was measured in 38% of studies (n = 8) (e.g., Charlop & Milstein, 1989;Esbenshade & Rosales-Ruiz, 2001;Williams et al, 2000). Positive results regarding generalization across people were reported by five studies (Endicott & Higbee, 2007;Koegel et al, 1998;Ostryn & Wolfe, 2011a;Taylor & Harris, 1995;Williams et al, 2000).…”

“…However, the studies so far have tended to involve participants with speech. Only one study (i.e., Ostryn & Wolfe, 2011a) used assistive technology (i.e., picture exchange communication system) to enable question-asking by nonspeaking participants. Given that AAC systems have been successful in supporting other communication and social skills for people with ASD (Ganz, Davis, Lund, Goodwyn, & Simpson, 2012;van der Meer & Rispoli, 2010), it seems likely that these might also enable nonspeaking participants to ask questions.…”

“…School settings were used in 52% of studies (n = 11) (e.g., Betz, Higbee, & Pollard, 2011;Ostryn & Wolfe, 2011a;Williams, Perez-Gonzalez, & Vogt, 2003). Clinic settings accounted for 9% of reviewed studies (n = 2) (Koegel, Koegel, Green-Hopkins, & Barnes, 2010;Palmen, Didden, & Arts, 2008).…”

“…The most common type of prompt was a vocal model, or echoic prompt, which was used in 95% (n = 20) of the studies (e.g., Endicott & Higbee, 2007;Marion et al, 2011;. Other prompts included a video model (Charlop & Milstein, 1989), a picture exchange model (Ostryn & Wolfe, 2011a), indirect and direct verbal instructions (Palmen et al, 2008), and an imitative/sign model (Sundberg et al, 2002).…”

“…Learning to ask questions (i.e., to mand for information) is paramount for academic success, social interaction, adaptive functioning (e.g., locating a restroom in an unfamiliar environment), and many forms of employment (Brown, 1968;Brown et al, 1969;Chouinard, 2007;Fahey, 1942;Koegel, Carter, & Koegel, 2003;Lewis, 1938;Light & Binger, 1998;Ostryn & Wolfe, 2011a;Secan, Egel, & Tilley, 1989;Skinner, 1957;Smith, 1933;Sundberg & Michael, 2001;Sundberg & Partington, 1998;Tyack & Ingram, 1977). Koegel et al (2003) pointed out that teaching question-asking might also allow students to access more learning opportunities in less restrictive settings.…”