Teaching children with autism to detect and respond to sarcasm

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Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated that children with autism often have difficulty using and understanding non-literal language (e.g., irony, sarcasm, deception, humor, and metaphors). Irony and sarcasm may be especially difficult for children with autism because the meaning of an utterance is the opposite of what is stated. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of a training package, including rules and in vivo multiple exemplar training, to teach three children with autism to detect and respond appropriately to sarcastic statements. The training package was effective and generalization was obtained across novel exemplars, settings, and people.

Highlights

► Taught children with ASD to understand sarcasm with multiple exemplar training. ► Generalization occurred across novel people, settings, and sarcastic comments. ► Results are encouraging for research on teaching nonliteral language and cognition.

Section snippets

Participants and setting

Participants included 3 children receiving applied behavior analytic services from a community-based in-home service provider. Children ranged in age from 6 to 7 years old and had current diagnoses of autistic disorder. At the time of the study, participants were receiving 2–10 h per week of behavioral therapy, and had been receiving in-home behavioral therapy for approximately 3–4 years. To be included in the study, participants’ parents and clinical supervisors needed to prioritize the detection

Results

Fig. 1 depicts the percentage of correct responses to sarcastic statements across all phases of the study. Note that asterisks represent accuracy on novel exemplars. In baseline, two of the three participants, Reggie and Kevin, did not respond correctly to any sarcastic comments, for example, saying with frustration “No, worms are not yummy!” Hans responded correctly to 1 out of 3 comments during baseline sessions 2 and 4. All participants showed immediate increases in correct responding to

Discussion

This study used rules, video clips, and in vivo training across multiple exemplars to successfully teach three children with autism to detect and respond appropriately to sarcastic comments. These results are encouraging because they provide further evidence that non-literal language deficits can be remediated using simple behavioral teaching procedures such as the provision of rules and multiple exemplar training. Perhaps most importantly, all three participants not only mastered the skill,

References (19)

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