Direct assessment of preferences for social interactions in children with autism.
Social time is not a built-in prize for kids with autism—test first, then teach if needed.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Six children with autism sat at a table with two big buttons.
Pressing one button brought a teacher to talk and play.
Pressing the other button kept the teacher away.
The team watched which button each child hit to see if social time was truly fun or just noise.
What they found
Every child chose differently.
Some kids worked hard to keep the adult close.
Others worked just as hard to keep the adult away.
The study showed that "social interaction" is not one-size-fits-all.
How this fits with other research
Morris et al. (2021) built a faster test that does the same job in half the time.
Their quick method now replaces the 2013 long version.
Petrovic et al. (2016) took the next step: after you find a child who ignores social praise, let them watch a peer pick the social game.
Just watching flipped most kids from toys to people, proving you can teach social value once you know the starting point.
Why it matters
Before you use praise, high-fives, or "time with teacher" as a reward, run a two-choice check.
If the child walks away to avoid you, swap the reinforcer instead of raising your voice.
Pair the fast Morris scan with the B et al. watch-and-learn trick and you can turn neutral kids into social seekers in one afternoon.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Qualitative and quantitative differences in social interactions are core symptoms of the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnostic criteria, although there is heterogeneity among individuals with ASDs. This study used a concurrent operants arrangement to evaluate whether social interactions functioned as positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, or as neutral stimuli for 6 individuals with autism. Data suggest that clinicians who work with individuals with ASD should ascertain the functional properties of social interactions prior to using them as a consequence in interventions.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 2013 · doi:10.1002/jaba.69