Increasing independence in self-care tasks for children with autism using self-operated auditory prompts

This study was conducted to determine the effects of self-operated auditory prompting systems (SOAPs) on independent self-care task completion of elementary-school-aged children with autism and intellectual disabilities. Prerecorded verbal prompts on a student-operated tape recorder were employed to facilitate independence in washing hands and brushing teeth. The participants were three students enrolled in a self-contained class for students with autism eligibilities in an elementary school. All students showed marked improvement in their performance of each task immediately following implementation of SOAPs. These results can be interpreted to confirm and extend previous research on self-operated auditory prompting systems in adolescents and adults with moderate intellectual disabilities and provides support for the idea that this intervention may be appropriate for younger students as well as those with autism.

Research highlights
► SOAPs facilitate independence in washing hands and brushing teeth.
► 4 students with autism increased independent performance in both tasks.
► SOAPs appropriate for use with elementary school-age students with autism.
► SOAPs appropriate for use with self-care tasks.