Abstract
The purpose of this study was to test the use of Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) in the secondary school setting. There were two main goals: (a) to evaluate secondary education providers’ ability to implement PRT with fidelity following a PRT training program; and (b) to evaluate the effects of school-implemented PRT on the social communication skills of adolescents and young adults with ASD, specifically, question-asking behavior. This concurrent multiple baseline design study across dyads investigated the use of PRT in the secondary school setting with adolescents with ASD. Specifically, it examined the impact of PRT on question-asking behavior. Education providers (n = 3) were trained to implement PRT with a secondary student with ASD. All education providers improved in their ability to use PRT strategies, though struggled with fidelity. Two students exhibited clear effects with noteworthy improvement in their use of targeted question initiations. For targeted question initiations, the weighted value for the Tau-U phase contrast between aggregated baseline and intervention phases was 0.80 and statistically significant (p < .0001). PRT is a promising approach to increasing question-asking behavior in secondary students with ASD when implemented by a trained education provider. Continued research should be a matter of priority in order to expand social skills instruction for adolescents with ASD with the hope of ultimately making a positive difference in adult outcomes.
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This work was supported by a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from the Graduate School, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT.
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All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at a large Northeastern public university.
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Informed consent was obtained from education providers and the legal guardians of students who participated in the study; the signed consent form informed participants and legal guardians that researchers may publish findings after completing the study. Verbal assent to participate was obtained from student participants.
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Kowitt, J.S., Madaus, J., Simonsen, B. et al. Implementing Pivotal Response Treatment to Teach Question Asking to High School Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-024-06405-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-024-06405-3