Teaching conversational speech to children with autism spectrum disorder using text-message prompting.

The present study was designed to teach conversational speech using text-message prompts to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in home play settings with siblings and peers. A multiple baseline design across children was used. Children learned conversational speech through the text-message prompts, and the behavior generalized across peers and settings. Maintenance of treatment gains was seen at 1-month follow-up probes. Social validity measures indicated that parents of typically developing children viewed the participants' conversational speech as much improved after the intervention. Results are discussed in terms of the efficacy of text-message prompts as a promising way to improve conversational speech for children with ASD.