Teaching Children with Autism to Follow Rules Specifying a Behavior and Consequence.
A short burst of multiple-exemplar training lets kids with autism follow brand-new rules without extra teaching.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three boys with autism, joined the study. None could follow new rules that told them both what to do and what would happen next.
The team used multiple-exemplar training. They gave many short examples of rules like "Touch car, get sticker." Kids practiced until they got 90 % right across two sessions.
Then the kids saw brand-new rules. The test was simple: could they follow the new rule the first time they heard it?
What they found
After training, every boy followed new rules on the first try. They kept the skill one month later with no extra teaching.
The skill spread to new places. Kids used the rules in a different room and with different adults.
How this fits with other research
Wilson et al. (2023) did the same thing with job facts. They taught half the relations and the rest popped up for free. Both studies show equivalence-based teaching works for kids and adults.
Syriopoulou-Delli et al. (2012) used blocked trials to teach identity matching. Both papers used single-case design and got fast gains, but C et al. went further—kids could follow totally new rules without extra trials.
Breider et al. (2024) moved the work into real clinics. They taught parents to handle non-compliance. C et al. taught the child directly; Breider taught the parent. Together they show you can attack rule-following from either side.
Why it matters
If a child can’t follow novel rules, daily life is one long prompt. This study gives you a quick script: pick two clear parts—action and payoff—run 10-12 examples, then test. You can finish in a single session. Try it next time you introduce a new classroom routine or safety rule. One month later, you may still not need to prompt.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Rule-governed behavior (RGB) results from contact with a verbal description of a contingency as opposed to prior contact with that contingency. Despite its importance, research on the establishment of RGB with learners who do not display the skill is limited. Tarbox, Zuckerman, Bishop, Olive, and O'Hora (The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 27, 125-139, 2011) used multiple-exemplar training (MET) to teach children with autism spectrum disorder to follow rules specifying an antecedent and a behavior. We conducted a systematic replication of the Tarbox et al. study with three boys diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and extended those methods to rules specifying a behavior and either a preferred or nonpreferred consequence (e.g., "If you clap, then you get candy"). In baseline, participants typically followed a given instruction regardless of whether the consequence was preferred or nonpreferred. Following MET, all participants responded accurately to novel rules, indicating that MET may be an effective method to establish basic RGB repertoires.
The Analysis of verbal behavior, 2016 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1977.10-349