The Effects of Response‐Stimulus Pairing on Toy Play and Stereotypy in Three Children on the Autism Spectrum in China

Li and colleagues worked with three preschoolers with autism in China.

They used response-stimulus pairing (RSP) to make toy play more fun.

Adults first let the child press a switch that produced a quick song or light show.

Next they placed toys near the child.

The team measured how much the kids played and how often stereotypy happened.

They used a multiple-baseline design across the three children.

Toy play rose and stereotypy dropped for every child.

The gains stayed strong when the team checked again two weeks later.

No extra rewards were given during play; the earlier pairings did the work.

Lepper et al. (2017) also used pairing with autistic children, but they required a button press before each sound to grow vocalizations.

Li kept the button press yet aimed the pairing at play and stereotypy, showing the same trick works for different skills.

Glugatch et al. (2021) boosted play too, yet they taught neurotypical siblings instead of using RSP.

Li proves an adult can get similar play gains without training a second child.

Goldman et al. (2021) cut stereotypy with short exercise bursts.

Li got the same drop with brief sound-light pairings, giving you two tools for one problem.

You can add RSP to your toolbox in under ten minutes.

Start a session by letting the child trigger two or three fun sounds, then move straight to toy play.

No edible or token reinforcers are needed, so you avoid satiation.

Try it when stereotypy bumps up or when play looks rote.

Track both behaviors for a week; if you see Li’s pattern you have a low-cost fix that lasts.