Increasing Opportunities for Question-Asking in School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Effectiveness of Staff Training in Pivotal Response Treatment

Abstract

Deficits in question-asking are common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Furthermore, their opportunities to self-initiate questions are often hindered by directive behavior of their conversation partners. This study assessed the effectiveness of staff training in pivotal response treatment (PRT) on staff member-created opportunities and self-initiated questions of school-aged children with ASD. Generalization and maintenance were also assessed. Participants were 14 staff members and children with ASD attending an inpatient treatment facility. Data showed that PRT resulted in significant increases in both staff member-created opportunities and child-initiated questions. Generalization to group situations and collateral changes in children’s language, pragmatic, and adaptive skills, and maladaptive behaviors did not occur. Implications for clinical practice and directions for future research are discussed.

Effectiveness of Parent Education in Pivotal Response Treatment on Pivotal and Collateral Responses

“…A systematic review has reported evidence for the effectiveness of PRT for increasing initiations and producing collateral improvements in communication, language, affect, play, and challenging behaviors (Verschuur et al 2014). Although the effectiveness of PRT has mainly been demonstrated in preschool children with ASD and cognitive impairments, some studies indicate that school-aged children with average cognitive abilities may also benefit from PRT (e.g., Doggett et al 2013; Huskens et al 2012; Verschuur et al 2017).…”

“…To allow for dissemination of PRT to a large number of children it is important that parent education can be effectively delivered by PRT trainers who are part of community-based treatment facilities (e.g., Brookman-Frazee et al 2012b; Bryson et al 2007) and thus more research on this topic is warranted. In addition, it is important to determine the effectiveness of parent education in PRT for parents of school-aged children with ASD, average cognitive abilities, and comorbid psychopathology, as there is limited information about the effectiveness of PRT in this population (e.g., Verschuur et al 2017). Furthermore, thus far there is little evidence for collateral changes in parental stress and parental self-efficacy as a result of parent education in PRT (Verschuur et al 2014).…”

Educators’ engagement with children with autism spectrum disorder in a learning environment with multiple technologies in Finland and China

“…It is known that educators' supportive interaction with children with ASD facilitates their learning. Thus, effective teacher-led interventions and methods, for example to teach communication and interaction skills have been developed (Leaf et al, 2015;Verschuur, Huskens, Verhoeven, & Didden, 2017). Meanwhile, there have been a growing number of studies on technologies to facilitate the self-directed learning of children with ASD (Cannella-Malone, Brooks, & Tullis, 2013;Smith, Shepley, Alexander, Davis, & Ayres, 2015;Uzuegbunam, Wong, Cheung, & Ruble, 2015) in order to increase independent learning of children with ASD.…”

Training Teachers to Implement Classroom Pivotal Response Teaching during Small-group Instruction: A Pilot Study

“…25 Most research supporting the effectiveness of PRT has been conducted with pre-schoolers with ASD and cognitive impairments, although an increasing number of studies indicate that school-aged children and adolescents or young adults with average cognitive abilities may also benefit from PRT. 26,27,28,29,30 As PRT is designed to be implemented in natural contexts and students with ASD spend several hours per day at school once they enter primary education, PRT has been considered an appropriate EBP to be translated into an educational setting.…”