Using Choice with Game Play to Increase Language Skills and Interactive Behaviors in Children with Autism

Children with autism often exhibit significant language delays and extremely disruptive behaviors when confronted with task situations or other interactions in which they would rather not partake. The developmental literature suggests that language skills may be increased by engaging in play interactions, but children with autism are unlikely to engage in interactive toy and game play. Providing choice opportunities may increase responding and adaptive behaviors in children with autism. Therefore, this investigation was conducted to assess the effects of choice during language intervention on disruptive behavior, social play/ pragmatic behaviors, and language development. Participants exhibited problem behaviors, a lack of engagement in interactive play, and delayed acquisition of grammatical morphemes. Within a reversal (ABAB) design, Choice and No Choice conditions were compared in a naturalistic language intervention procedure using play. Results indicated that when choice is permitted during language intervention within a play context, disruptive behaviors are considerably reduced, and levels of appropriate social play/pragmatic skills increase, thereby reducing interventionist redirection. Moreover, the children participating in the study showed generalization of the targeted language structures only to their home environments following intervention in the choice condition. Findings and directions for future research are discussed with regard to the importance of providing choice for children with autism.