Using a Textual Prompt to Teach Multiword Requesting to Two Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.
A small printed prompt can turn a one-word grabber into a full polite request in four days.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Two preschoolers with autism who could read but only used one-word requests got a simple card. The card showed the full request in big letters: "I want the red truck."
Adults gave the card only when the child reached for the toy. They faded the card over four days. No extra rewards were added.
What they found
Both kids jumped from zero to 12-15 full sentences each session. When the card disappeared, the sentences stayed. One month later, they still asked in full words.
How this fits with other research
Lopez et al. (2020) saw the same fast jump when the text came through an Apple Watch instead of a card. The watch buzz let kids carry the prompt in the grocery store.
Yamamoto et al. (2024) tried the same textual trick for adult workplace small talk. Gains were weak and shaky. The difference: kids wanted a toy; adults did not care about saying "thanks."
Bishop et al. (2020) and Kaneda et al. (2025) also boosted spoken requests, but they used echoic prompts or turned off SGD voice output. Text alone is simpler and needs no extra tech.
Why it matters
If a child can read, you can skip echoic drills and gadgets. Print the request on a card, fade it in four days, and watch full sentences appear. Try it next time you run mand training.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by social and communication impairment, but some children appear to have relative strength in areas such as reading printed words. The present study involved two children with limited expressive communication skills, but relatively stronger reading ability. Based on this existing strength, we evaluated a textual prompting procedure for teaching the children to produce multiword spoken requests. The effect of providing textual prompts on production of multiword requests was evaluated in an ABAB design. The results showed that multiword requests increased when textual prompts were provided and decreased when the prompts were removed. In subsequent phases, the textual prompts were successfully faded by gradually making the printed text lighter and lighter until eventually the prompts were eliminated altogether. We conclude that identification of children's strengths may assist in identifying effective prompting procedures that could then be used in teaching functional communication skills.
Behavior modification, 2019 · doi:10.1177/0145445519850745