Teaching Children with Autism to Request Help with Difficult Tasks – N. M. Rodriguez, M. A. Levesque, V. L Cohrs, & J. J. Niemeier (2017)
Background
As children grow and develop, it is important for them to learn how to be independent but also when to ask for help. In some cases, asking for help can be overused, which results in dependence and can limit quality of life. Sometimes children also learn how to ask for help in a few specific situations but cannot do so in other situations where the skill is needed. Understanding the right times to ask for help or when to persevere to do something independently is particularly challenging for learners with ASD. This study evaluated whether the way in which asking for help is taught can impact the usefulness of the skill in new settings for children with ASD.
Who was involved?
Three children between the ages of 4 and 8 years old, diagnosed with ASD, participated in the study. All three children were enrolled in a university-affiliated program. None of the children were able to reliably request help for tasks they could not independently complete. The researchers used several tasks (e.g., opening a jar, lifting a box) where asking for help would be most useful to the children. For example, if engaged in a coloring activity and told to color a shape when crayons were visible in a nearby glass jar, the child would be expected to try to open the jar to access the crayons. To ensure the behavior was only used after unsuccessfully attempting a task, some of the tasks were designed to be too difficult to perform without help (e.g., lid of the jar screwed tight, item out of reach). Assistance was only provided in response to asking for help during tasks designed to be too difficult to be performed independently. In the final stage of the study, a new set of tasks was used to see if the children asked for help in the new situations not included in the training.
What was the outcome?
All three children learned to ask for help only after first attempting a task. As expected, the children initially asked for help before attempting a task, showing overuse of the skill after they first learned to do it. Eventually, asking for help was used only after an unsuccessful attempt to complete the task by themselves. When the children were exposed to new tasks, they continued to ask for help after first trying the task themselves and being unable to complete it, indicating this skill generalized to situations not included in the training.
What are the strengths and limitations of the study?
This study was able to show that children with ASD can be taught to ask for help and that certain ways of teaching can improve the likelihood that they will try something before immediately asking for help. By presenting the children with situations in which they could not do something and only providing help upon request when the child tried but was unsuccessful at a task, the researchers were able to show that children could show greater independence before asking for help if trained to do so.
Although this was effective for all three children, the researchers note that general requests for help might be less desirable than specific requests (e.g., “I need help with “). Additionally, an attempt to complete the task was defined as two seconds of engagement (e.g., 2 seconds of twisting the jar’s lid). However, longer or more variable attempts to complete a task are typically needed in daily life. This means that future research may need to look at teaching individuals to engage with a task longer or in multiple ways before asking for help to increase independence in ways that are truly meaningful.
What are the implications?
This study outlines an effective method for teaching children with ASD to tell when to ask for help. Results suggest that children may initially ask for help without first attempting the task as they are learning this skill. With continued teaching and only providing help after a child tries a task, overuse of requesting decreases and more appropriate requests occur. This approach might also help to increase perseverance when faced with novel or challenging situations, which are part of everyday life for all individuals.
