Assessing the efficacy of pictorial preference assessments for children with developmental disabilities

The team worked with six children who had developmental delays. Each child looked at photos of toys on an iPad and tapped the one they wanted.

Some kids got the toy right after they tapped its picture. Other kids only looked at pictures with no toy given. Later the staff thinned the schedule so a tap only produced the toy after three or five correct picks.

Pictures alone predicted the best toy for only two children. The other four children picked toys that did not work as reinforcers.

When the staff started giving the toy only after several correct taps, the pictures slowly became stronger signals. All four remaining children then picked toys that actually kept them working.

Radley et al. (2019) later used the same picture idea but let an entire classroom answer at once with Plickers cards. Their group method still gave each child a turn to handle the picture, keeping the visual cue that Heinicke showed can be trained.

Wanchisen et al. (1989) first showed that a quick presession choice among real items cuts problem behavior. Heinicke updates that idea for classrooms that cannot dump out toys every time. The update works if you first pair the pictures with the real item on a lean schedule.

Morris et al. (2023) reviewed social preference tools and praise video clips over photos. Their review reminds us that pictures are just one mode; if a child does not care about photos, switch to videos or real objects before abandoning the assessment.

You can run a pictorial preference scan in under two minutes and avoid hauling toys around. If the chosen item does not work as a reinforcer, do not toss the pictures. Instead, give the child the item only after two or three correct taps for a few days. This thin schedule turns the picture itself into a learned reward signal and saves you from starting over with a new assessment.