Teaching "Rock-Paper-Scissors" to an Autistic Child With a Severe Intellectual Disability: Effects Included Increased Behavioral Variability and Reduced "Rock-Paper-Scissors Echolalia"

Abstract

Study objective: To teach a 6th grade boy to produce increased behavioral variability while reducing "rock-paper-scissors echolalia," that is, the child changing his move to match the opponent’s move when playing rock-paper-scissors. Design: Pre-check, baseline, intervention, and follow-up. Setting: Individual sessions, face-to-face across a desk in the special needs classroom. Participants: A 6th-grade boy with severe intellectual disability and a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Independent variables: 6 intervention procedures, including reinforcement with Lag 1, verbal prompts such as "scissors", and prompts to reduce rock-paper-scissors echolalia, such as having the instructor hold the boy’s hand to prevent him from changing his move. Measure: The percentage of trials in which the boy made a move that was different from the move he had made on the 2 preceding trials. Results: The boy was able to play rock-paper-scissors with some variability, that is, without repeatedly making the same move and without cyclic responses. In addition, rock-paper-scissors echolalia no longer occurred. Conclusion: The boy’s ability to play rock-paper-scissors was successfully improved. However, it might be challenging to use the present procedures in some educational settings due to the procedure being difficult to implement.