Teaching children with autism spectrum disorder to mand for information using "which?".
Set up a simple hiding game, prompt "which?", and kids with autism will use the question everywhere.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Marion et al. (2012) worked with three children with autism.
The team wanted the kids to ask "which?" when they needed information.
They set up missing-item games.
A toy was hidden in one of several containers.
The child had to ask "which?" to find it.
Trainers used prompts, praise, and small treats.
They measured if the kids used the question with new toys and new containers.
What they found
All three children learned to say "which?" during the game.
They still used the word when the toys and containers changed.
The skill stayed strong weeks later.
No extra teaching was needed for this spread to new items.
How this fits with other research
Jessel et al. (2022) took the idea further.
They taught kids to ask for items they had never seen.
Both studies use the same trick: create a need, then reward the question.
Green et al. (1999) did the early work.
They showed that toddlers with autism should learn to ask for things before they learn to name things.
Carole et al. built on that base by adding a more complex question.
Chezan et al. (2019) used the same teaching style for a different goal.
They taught kids to reject food they did not want.
Together these papers show one method works for many functions: ask, reject, or get new info.
Why it matters
You can add "which?" to any hiding or choice game you already run.
Set up a small mystery, prompt the question once, then hand over the item.
The child gets the item only after asking.
In a week you may see the question pop out in new places without extra drills.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We examined a procedure consisting of a preference assessment, prompting, contrived conditioned establishing operations, and consequences for correct and incorrect responses for teaching children with autism to mand "which?" We used a modified multiple baseline design across 3 participants. All the children learned to mand "which?" Generalization occurred to the natural environment, to a novel activity, and to a novel container; the results were maintained over time.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 2012 · doi:10.1901/jaba.2012.45-865