An Evaluation of Instructive Feedback to Teach Play Behavior to a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder

One five-year-old boy with autism learned picture names at a small table.

While he named each picture, the teacher quietly added a play tip.

Example: after the child said "apple," the teacher said, "You can pretend to eat it."

No extra time, no new trials—just a quick sentence slipped in.

The team then watched if the boy later played with toy apples on his own.

They tested the same thing in the play corner to see if the skill moved there too.

The child started pretending to eat, pour, and bounce toys after only hearing the tips.

Play showed up in the first session and kept growing across four weeks.

It happened at the table and on the carpet—no extra teaching needed.

Instructive feedback created new play without taking a single extra minute.

Erhard et al. (2025) used the same trick—extra comments during tact trials—but for bilingual words, not play.

Their kids also learned the untaught information, showing the tactic works across skills.

Vladescu et al. (2021) and Cordeiro et al. (2022) used the same fast-switch DTT design, yet they tweaked set size and mastery rules instead of feedback.

All three studies found small changes that save time, lining up with Grow’s no-extra-time result.

Berkovits et al. (2014) looks opposite at first glance: they taught inside real play, not at a table.

The two studies don’t clash—one shows how to birth play from DTT, the other shows how to teach inside play.

Use both: pull play out of drills, then drop drills into play.

You can grow play skills without adding sessions or minutes.

Next time you run tact trials, tack on one playful line: "You can feed the doll" or "Blocks can stack high."

Track if new play pops up during breaks or free choice.

One sentence may unlock whole new scenes for kids who usually line toys up.