Teaching Teenagers With Autism to Seek Assistance When Lost

Abstract

Three teenagers with autism were taught to respond to a vibrating pager to seek assistance in community settings when physically separated from their parents or teachers. A multiple baseline probe design across participants demonstrated that, upon being paged, participants successfully handed a communication card to a community member indicating that they were lost. Generalization was assessed in nontraining community sites and on outings with the participants' parents.

Evaluation of Video Modeling and In Situ Training to Teach Firearm Avoidance Skills to Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…In summary, this study is one of the few that evaluates procedures for teaching safety skills to children with autism (e.g., Godish et al 2017;Gunby et al 2010;Taylor et al 2004) and targets safety skills to prevent firearm injury. The results show that video modeling was effective for only one of the three participants.…”

“…Gunby et al (2010) used BST and IST to teach abduction-prevention skills to three children with autism. Other researchers have taught children with developmental disabilities skills to avoid stranger abduction (Gast et al 1993), skills to seek assistance when lost (Taylor et al 2004), and pedestrian skills (Batu et al 2004). Godish et al (2017) evaluated the effectiveness of video modeling to teach abduction-prevention skills to children with ASD.…”

Teaching Teenagers with Autism to Answer Cell Phones and Seek Assistance When Lost

“…The second observer remained out of view of the participant but observed him covertly at all times to ensure his safety. During these sessions, if the participant did not seek assistance from an adult within approximately 2 min (the interval used by Taylor et al, 2004), the trial was ended and the teacher reunited with the participant.…”

“…There is an emerging body of research examining strategies for teaching individuals with disabilities to seek assistance when lost (e.g., Johnson et al, 2006;Taber et al, 2002;Taber et al, 2003;Taylor, Hughes, Richard, Hoch, & Rodriguez-Coello, 2004). For example, Taber et al (2002) taught 14 middle school participants with moderate cognitive disabilities to identify when they were lost and to call their teachers for assistance when lost.…”

“…To this end, Taylor et al (2004) developed procedures for teaching 3 teenagers with autism to seek assistance by responding to pager cues when separated from their teachers in the community. The participants in this study were not able to recognize when they were lost and did not know how to seek assistance.…”