Audience Control and the Emission of Stereotypy and Social Verbal Exchanges in Children With Autism and Developmental Disabilities

In 2 experiments, using a within-subjects alternating-conditions design, we measured our participants’ stereotypic and verbal behavior under 2 audience conditions. Our participants were 8 children, ages 10 and 11 years, diagnosed with autism and related developmental disabilities. We measured the percentage of intervals with occurrences of stereotypy (Experiment 1) and the number of verbal operants emitted per minute (Experiment 2) in the presence of 2 types of audiences: members of the participants’ own special education class and typically developing peers from general education classes. Results from both experiments demonstrated that participants emitted a lower percentage of intervals with stereotypy and higher rates of social verbal operants in the presence of their typically developing peers than in their self-contained special education classrooms.