Teaching Children with Autism to Use Cell Phones to Seek Assistance when Lost

Authors: Claire McDowell 1*, Nicola Hardy1 and Sinéad Smyth2

DOI: 10.23880/pprij-16000137

Volume 2, Issue 5

Abstract

This study aimed to increase community safety skills of two children diagnosed with ASD. Participant 1 was taught to answer a mobile phone and follow the caregiver’s instructions to hand over the phone to a safe community figure. Training and testing of all component skills was conducted in the school setting and multiple probes were conducted in a community setting. This research demonstrates that it is possible to teach safety behavior in a school setting, in a way that generalizes to community settings.

Keywords: Seeking assistance, and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); Cell phone; Child safety; Self-help

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