Increasing novel toy play actions in children with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disabilities

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can often demonstrate restricted and repetitive patterns of free play with toys, limiting their contact with the social and tangible reinforcement that is the result of more varied play. Lag schedules of reinforcement have been shown to increase novelty and variability of play actions in children with intellectual disability (ID; Baruni, R. R., Rapp, J. T., Lipe, S. L., & Novotny, M. A. (2014). Using lag schedules to increase toy play variability for children with intellectual disabilities. Behavioral interventions, 29(1), 21-35.). The current study extended the findings of Baruni et al. in three boys with ASD and ID, aged 8-10 years, in the United Arab Emirates. Novel actions increased for all participants during Lag 2 conditions following a systematic prompting strategy. Toy engagement, while variable, either increased or maintained across the intervention period. Maintenance and generalisation of behaviour change are discussed.