Teaching children with autism to request information

Question asking behavior, or requesting information, is often deficient in children with autism and can prove challenging to teach. Currently, there exists a paucity of research regarding the types of teaching strategies that are effective in teaching children with autism this crucial skill. The purpose of the present study was to examine strategies to teach two children with autism to request information using "when?: "who?," "where?," and "which?" Results indicated successful acquisition and maintenance of all 'wh' questions. Generalization to untaught scenarios within the same request form was observed more quickly when a general response topography was taught than when a specific response topography was taught. The applied value of the current findings is discussed as well as areas for future research. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.