Addressing working memory in children with autism through behavioral intervention

Children with autism often struggle with executive function (EF) deficits, particularly with regard to working memory (WM). Despite the documented deficits in these areas, very little controlled research has evaluated treatments for remediation of EF or WM deficits in children with autism. This study examined the use of positive reinforcement for improving performance on Counting Span tasks which are said to measure the central-executive component of working memory. Large improvements in performance were obtained for all participants, as was maintenance and generalization to untrained stimuli and untrained responses. Results suggest that basic behavioral intervention procedures may be successful in improving performance on complex behaviors such as those labeled as “working memory.”