Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often have difficulties initiating and maintaining reciprocal conversations with others. In this study, we examined if an interdependent group contingency would improve reciprocal conversation of children with ASD when they were paired as conversational partners. We also assessed children’s social preference through their choices between spending time with their peers or by themselves. In a multiple-baseline design, we found that the group contingency immediately produced independent reciprocal conversational responses, sustained conversational exchanges, and increased preference for peers across all participants. Improvements were further maintained even after the group contingency was removed and novel peers were introduced.

中文翻译：

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改善自闭症儿童的互惠对话和社会偏好

自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 患者通常难以发起和维持与他人的相互对话。在这项研究中，我们研究了当 ASD 儿童作为对话伙伴配对时，相互依赖的群体偶然性是否会改善他们的相互对话。我们还通过孩子们在与同龄人共度时光或独处时间之间的选择来评估他们的社会偏好。在多基线设计中，我们发现群体偶然性立即产生了独立的互惠对话响应、持续的对话交流，并增加了所有参与者对同伴的偏好。即使在小组意外事件被删除并引入了新的同伴之后，改进也得到了进一步的维护。