Teaching social referencing to toddlers with autism

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2016

First Committee Member

MacDonald, Rebecca

Second Committee Member

Dube, William

Third Committee Member

Thompson, Rachel

Abstract

"The purpose of this study was to teach 3 toddlers with autism social referencing using a multiple baseline across participants design. Social referencing is a chain of behavior in which a child gaze shifts from an ambiguous situation to an adult, and then changes their behavior based on the adult’s facial expression. Participants were trained using differential reinforcement and time-delay prompting to gaze shift from an ambiguous object, an unknown container, to an adult and reach or not reach based on the adult’s facial expression. Mastery at the table with a previously unknown container was followed by generalization probes on the floor, with a second experimenter, and 2 other unknown containers. All participants acquired social referencing during training, and the skill generalized to a second person, another setting, and to novel containers. The implications for using differential reinforcement and time-delay prompting to teach social referencing are discussed."

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