Motivation in childhood autism: can they or won't they?

Research in the area of motivation in autistic and other children suggests that autistic children may be capable of performing at a higher level than they typically function. This article describes research in the area of 'learned helplessness' which suggests that autistic children's handicaps may expose them to frequent failure and to an unusual level of non-contingent reinforcement which may produce a 'learned helplessness' state of extremely low motivation, with a consequent abnormally low overall functioning level. The present article also discusses research on strategies which might be employed to improve autistic children's exposure to favourable response-reinforcer contingencies. This would be expected to improve the general level of motivation in such children, with related gains in the acquisition, generalization maintenance of a broad array of target behaviours.