An indirect method for increasing the rate of social interaction in an autistic child.

The treatment of a 9-year-old autistic boy who manifested a low rate of social interaction with his parents and older sister is described. Previous attempts to persuade the parents to devote more time to interacting with the child had failed. The parents then were instructed to give the child training in handwriting. A dramatic improvement in the S's ability to reproduce the alphabet was observed. More importantly, a great increase in the rate of interaction between the child and the members of his family was documented. The percent of 10-second intervals in which the S spoke to his family or they spoke to him jumped from 19% during baseline to 89% during the intervention phase. Post-intervention rates of interaction continued to be higher than during baseline.