ABSTRACT

This study was a single-case study of a verbal and pictorial-plus-verbal work-reinforcement contingency prompt with a three year-old child with autism/ASD who engaged in challenging behaviors and task avoidance when faced with task demand. In baseline, he received no prompt regarding any reinforcement contingency and was simply presented with task demand. For the verbal-only prompt, he was given a gestural and verbal prompt indicating that he would receive access to a preferred item after working. For the pictorial-plus-verbal prompt, he was given the same verbal and gestural prompt but was also shown a “first-then” card with pictures representing both ‘work’ and his preferred reinforcer. Results showed a notable decline in challenging behavior and increase in task engagement over the course of the study; however, there also appears to be notable bleed across the different conditions. There is also some limited support for the superiority of a pictorial-plus-verbal contingency prompt.

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