Abstract
Two autistic children were taught to convey a message from one teacher to another, which occurs within the ordinary context of a school for mentally retarded children. For example, the subject was taught to tell "Mrs.〜, lunch is ready. Please come" to a second teacher. Whether the subject spontaneously forwarded the message or only with prompting, the teacher provided social reinforcement. After the message-forwarding behavior was established, instruction was given to forward a reply message. For example, a child was taught to tell the message "She said 'please go ahead and eat first'", when he/she returned to the first teacher. Both children succeeded in learning this two-way communication behavior, generalized it in their ordinary interpersonal relations wherever they happened to be, and maintained this behavior for a long time. As for the reply message, however, one child confused it with previous message-forwarding, while the other could only show one form of the reply. The benefits and points to keep in mind when teaching verbal communication behavior in school life were discussed.