Self‐control as generalized operant behavior by adults with autism spectrum disorder

Dunkel-Jackson and colleagues worked with three adults who have autism.

The team wanted to see if the adults could learn to pick a bigger reward that came later instead of a small one right away.

They slowly made the wait longer and required the adults to do a simple job during the delay.

Choices were tracked in a quiet room with two picture cards: one card meant a small snack now, the other meant more snacks after the wait.

All three adults started picking the larger-later snack most of the time.

They also stayed busy with the work task instead of pacing or asking for the reward early.

When the trainers moved the game to a new room, the adults still chose to wait, showing the skill partly carried over.

Fox et al. (2001) did the same wait-plus-work plan with children who have autism and got the same good result.

Faja et al. (2015) and Leezenbaum et al. (2019) looked at preschoolers with autism and saw short, messy waits; those studies did not teach the skill, they just measured it.

The 2016 adult study lines up with Clarke et al. (2003) who used a hand-open task during delays with brain-injured adults and also saw more self-control.

Zhou et al. (2023) later used a cousin method—say-do rules plus fading delays—to stop food stealing in kids, proving the idea works for real-life problems too.

If you serve adults with autism, you can add brief work tasks while they wait for a preferred item.

Start with a short wait, then stretch it a few seconds each day.

The client learns to pick bigger pay-offs and stays calm during the delay, skills that help in jobs, day programs, and group homes.