Teaching Children With Autism to Respond to Joyful and Fearful Expressions Within Social Referencing

We used a multiple baseline design across 4 participants to determine the effects of discrimination training, verbal instructions, and manual guidance on the differential responding of children with autism to fearful and joyful expressions within social referencing. All 4 participants learned to discriminate the expressions presented within the context of social referencing, but generalization to other people, stimuli, and settings was limited. A discussion of social referencing and future directions for research are discussed.