Extinction-induced Variability in Young Children with Autism

Response variability is an integral part of an organism's interactions with its surrounding environment. Children with autism are often characterized as lacking variability in their responses. This decrement may be a result of a limited amount of extinction-induced response variability. A procedure was developed to determine the extent to which children with autism demonstrate extinction-induced variability with respect to response location. Results suggest that the participants with autism demonstrated more extinction-induced variability with respect to response location than the participants of typical development. Conversely, the participants with autism demonstrated less extinction-induced variability with respect to additional response topographies when compared to the participants of typical development. The results are discussed in terms of the utility of variable response topographies and the need for directly reinforcing response variability in children with autism. Suggestions for future research are discussed.