During the COVID-19 outbreak, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommended that everyone 2 years and older wear a face mask while in a community setting. However, children with autism may be reluctant to wear a mask, particularly for extended durations. In the current study, we implemented a graduated exposure procedure to teach mask wearing for a minimum of 1 hour in an early intensive behavioral (EIBI) intervention clinic to three children diagnosed with autism. We subsequently probed mask wearing, and if necessary implemented the graduated exposure procedure, in each participant’s home and in a mock physician’s office. Finally, we collected probe data on mask wearing in another community setting and 1 month post-treatment maintenance data in the EIBI clinic. During baseline, participants wore masks for 0 second to 5 minutes. After treatment, all participants wore the mask for at least 1 hour in each setting, with maintenance probes indicating 4 to 5 hour mask tolerance.

在 COVID-19 爆发期间，疾病控制中心 (CDC) 建议每个 2 岁及以上的人在社区环境中佩戴口罩。然而，自闭症儿童可能不愿意戴口罩，尤其是长时间戴口罩。在当前的研究中，我们实施了一个分级暴露程序，在早期强化行为 (EIBI) 干预诊所中向三名被诊断患有自闭症的儿童教授戴口罩至少 1 小时。随后，我们在每个参与者的家中和模拟医生的办公室中探索了口罩的佩戴情况，并在必要时实施了分级暴露程序。最后，我们收集了在另一个社区环境中佩戴口罩的探测数据和 EIBI 诊所的治疗后 1 个月的维护数据。在基线期间，参与者戴口罩的时间为 0 秒到 5 分钟。治疗后，