Fading a concurrent activity during self-control training for children with autism.
Once kids with autism learn to wait for the big reward, you can drop the busy-work toy and the skill sticks.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three children with autism practiced waiting for a bigger reward.
While they waited, they could play with a small toy.
The researchers slowly took the toy away and watched if the kids still waited.
What they found
All three kids kept picking the larger, later reward even after the toy was gone.
They did not need the distractor to stay calm during the wait.
How this fits with other research
Clarke et al. (2003) first showed that giving kids a toy while they wait helps them learn self-control.
Capio et al. (2013) now shows you can later drop that toy and the skill stays.
Vessells et al. (2018) added light-up signals and got even longer waits, proving the toy is not the only tool.
Together the papers form a chain: start with a toy, fade the toy, add signals if needed.
Why it matters
You can run self-control lessons without keeping extra toys forever. Fade the distractor once the child waits well. This keeps the program lean and closer to real life where toys are not always around.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We evaluated a modified technique for teaching self-control and increasing the duration of waiting for access to a preferred item among 3 children with autism. Participants initially chose an immediate small reinforcer over a delayed large reinforcer and a delayed large reinforcer with a concurrent activity requirement for the duration of the delay. When the delay to the larger reinforcer with the concurrent activity requirement was gradually increased from 0 s to the terminal delay, participants switched to and maintained selection of that option, thereby demonstrating increased self-control. Finally, the duration of the concurrent activity was gradually reduced without changing the duration of the delay to the large reinforcer. All 3 participants continued to select the delayed large reinforcer, showing self-controlled responding in the absence of a concurrent activity.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 2013 · doi:10.1002/jaba.77