The Effects of Preference on Spontaneous Verbal Requests in Individuals with Autism

Children with autism are characterized by the absence of functional spontaneous speech. This study assessed whether the type of stimulus materials (preferred versus nonpreferred) would affect the frequency of spontaneous verbal requests in these children. The results of the repeated reversals analysis revealed that the frequency of spontaneous verbal requests was higher in the preferred materials condition than in the nonpreferred materials condition. The results are discussed in relation to issues involving motivation and the development of naturalistic, context-appropriate speech training procedures.