Teaching teenagers with autism to seek assistance when lost.

Bridget A. Taylor, Carrie E. Hughes, Erin Richard, Hannah Hoch, & Andrea Rodriquez Coello (2004). Teaching teenagers with autism to seek assistance when lost. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 37, 79-82.

Three teenagers with autism were taught to respond to a vibrating pager to seek assistance in community settings when physically separated from their parents or teachers. A multiple baseline probe design across participants demonstrated that, upon being paged, participants successfully handed a communication card to a community member indicating that they were lost. Generalization was assessed in nontraining community sites and on outings with the participants' parents.

DESCRIPTORS: autism, safety skills, vibrating pager, getting lost, seeking assistance