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® 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® presentation. Findings suggest that an auditory and visual stimulus can be used to increase appropriate sharing.