Teaching non-verbal children with autism to request desired items using single signs

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is the most commonly occurring developmental disability in the United States, affecting 1 in 150 children. One-third to one-half of children with ASD do not have functional spoken language. It is important to identify effective intervention strategies for children with ASD in order to mitigate the individual, familial, and societal impact of this disorder affecting more than over 250 million children today. The purpose of this study was to provide a test for teaching an alternative communication system using single manual signs to non-verbal children with ASD. Many children with ASD have motor-planning deficits that may affect sign language learning. Specifically, this research was designed to determine whether physical prompting was a critical teaching component. Three non-verbal children with ASD were taught to request desired items using two different sign language intervention treatments. Language targets were chosen from a motivation assessment where caretakers listed and ranked items for desirability. The first treatment included the experimenter labeling the language targets with speech and sign. The second treatment included the experimenter labeling the language targets with speech and sign, and then physically prompting the child to produce the sign. A single subject, repeated-measures design was used. Results indicated that all participants made significant progress requesting desired items in the second treatment condition. Physical prompting was a critical factor in the success of treatment using sign with children with ASD. There are promising clinical implications for sign language as an intervention tool using the methodology described herein for children with ASD.