Kowitt Jennifer S, Madaus Joseph, Simonsen Brandi, Freeman Jennifer, Lombardi Allison, Ventola Pamela
Department of Educational Psychology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA.
Department of Education, University of Saint Joseph, 1678 Asylum Avenue, West Hartford, CT, 06117, USA.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2024 Jun 7. doi: 10.1007/s10803-024-06405-3.
The purpose of this study was to test the use of Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) in the secondary school setting. There were two main goals: (a) to evaluate secondary education providers' ability to implement PRT with fidelity following a PRT training program; and (b) to evaluate the effects of school-implemented PRT on the social communication skills of adolescents and young adults with ASD, specifically, question-asking behavior. This concurrent multiple baseline design study across dyads investigated the use of PRT in the secondary school setting with adolescents with ASD. Specifically, it examined the impact of PRT on question-asking behavior. Education providers (n = 3) were trained to implement PRT with a secondary student with ASD. All education providers improved in their ability to use PRT strategies, though struggled with fidelity. Two students exhibited clear effects with noteworthy improvement in their use of targeted question initiations. For targeted question initiations, the weighted value for the Tau-U phase contrast between aggregated baseline and intervention phases was 0.80 and statistically significant (p < .0001). PRT is a promising approach to increasing question-asking behavior in secondary students with ASD when implemented by a trained education provider. Continued research should be a matter of priority in order to expand social skills instruction for adolescents with ASD with the hope of ultimately making a positive difference in adult outcomes.
本研究的目的是测试关键反应训练（PRT）在中学环境中的应用。主要有两个目标：（a）评估中等教育提供者在参加PRT培训项目后忠实地实施PRT的能力；（b）评估学校实施的PRT对患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的青少年和青年社交沟通技能的影响，具体而言，即提问行为。这项针对二元组的同期多重基线设计研究调查了PRT在中学环境中对患有ASD的青少年的应用。具体来说，它考察了PRT对提问行为的影响。教育提供者（n = 3）接受了培训，以便与一名患有ASD的中学生一起实施PRT。所有教育提供者在使用PRT策略的能力方面都有提高，尽管在忠实度方面存在困难。两名学生表现出明显的效果，他们在使用目标提问发起方面有显著改善。对于目标提问发起，汇总基线和干预阶段之间的Tau-U阶段对比的加权值为0.80，且具有统计学显著性（p < .0001）。当由经过培训的教育提供者实施时，PRT是一种有望增加患有ASD的中学生提问行为的方法。持续的研究应该是优先事项，以便为患有ASD的青少年扩展社交技能教学，希望最终能对成人结局产生积极影响。
