Comparing the Effects of Single and Multiple Target Trials in Teaching Skills to Children Diagnosed with Autism.

Abstract

Children with autism generally have difficulty communicating with others (Sundberg & Partington, 1998). Therapists working with these children must decide how to most effectively and efficiently teach new skills such as verbal behavior. Various procedures are used to teach new skills to children with autism, but no studies currently assess how many targets should be taught during one session. The purpose of the current study was to investigate two different procedures to teach new skills to children diagnosed with autism. One procedure involved teaching one target (for a skill) until mastery before beginning to teach a second target. The other procedure involved teaching multiple targets at the same time until all targets were mastered.