The Effect of Teaching Initiations on the Communication of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial Publisher Pubmed



Mohammadzaheri F¹ ; Koegel LK² ; Bakhshi E³ ; Khosrowabadi R⁴ ; Soleymani Z¹ Show Affiliations
Source: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders Published:2022

Abstract

This study examined the effect of Pivotal response treatment (PRT) to improve verbal initiations in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, age 6–12 years old, using a Randomized Clinical Trial design. Intervention was conducted three times a week for 2 months, for a total of 24 one-hour sessions. The PRT intervention taught a variety of questions and attention/assistance-seeking initiations. The treatment as usual (TAU) group received standard language intervention. Results showed that the PRT group made significant improvements in their number of verbal initiations as well as collateral gains in general communicative skills and mean length of utterance (MLU) compared to the TAU group. Theoretical implications of including motivational approaches to develop social initiations are reviewed. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.