Reduced delay of gratification and effortful control among young children with autism spectrum disorders.
Young children with autism already lag at waiting and self-control, but short practice sessions with embedded tasks can catch them up.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers asked 6- to 7-year-old children with autism and matched typical peers to play a waiting game. Each child sat at a table with a small treat. If they waited ten minutes without eating it, they got a bigger treat later.
Parents also filled out a short form about how well their child could stop, calm down, and shift activities—skills called effortful control.
What they found
Kids with autism waited less time and were more likely to grab the early treat. Parents rated their effortful control lower than parents of typical kids.
Within the autism group, children who had the lowest effortful control also had the most severe social symptoms.
How this fits with other research
Leezenbaum et al. (2019) ran the same marshmallow-style task with preschoolers and saw the same pattern—an almost perfect replication. The deficit shows up even earlier than age six.
Fox et al. (2001) seems to disagree at first glance. Their single-case study found that children with autism could learn to wait when given a small job during the delay. The key difference: R taught a skill, while Susan et al. simply measured what children already did.
Dunkel-Jackson et al. (2016) later showed the skill can be taught to adults. Taken together, the picture is clear: children with autism start off poorer at waiting, but practice with structured tasks can close the gap.
Why it matters
If a client struggles to wait or switch activities, do not assume defiance. Build the skill first. Start with short delays and give the child something simple to do while they wait—like sorting cards or clapping to a beat. Over weeks, stretch the wait time and fade the help. Stronger delay skills now may protect adaptive functioning later.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We explored internal control of behavior using direct observation and parent report. Previous research has found that both the delay of gratification task and parent-reported effortful control predict later social ability and more positive outcomes in typically developing children. Children with autism spectrum disorder have previously been reported to have reduced effortful control, whereas delay of gratification ability has not been tested in a group with autism spectrum disorder. The current study compared 21 children with autism spectrum disorder and 21 typically developing children between 6 and 7 years of age-all of whom had cognitive ability at or above the average range. Children with autism spectrum disorder were less able to delay gratification, and their parents reported significantly reduced effortful control; however, scores on these measures were unrelated within the group with autism spectrum disorder. Among the children with autism spectrum disorder, lower effortful control was associated with more severe clinician-observed social symptoms.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2015 · doi:10.1177/1362361313512424