Increasing Opportunities for Question-Asking in School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Effectiveness of Staff Training in Pivotal Response Treatment.

High attrition meant follow-up data was only available for five of the original 14 children, limiting conclusions about long-term maintenance. The study design did not randomly assign participants, and baseline trends were positive for ten children, suggesting some improvement might have occurred without the specific PRT intervention. Generalization probes were collected by the researcher, which may have influenced staff and child behavior due to the awareness of being observed. Collateral skills were measured using staff-completed questionnaires rather than direct observation, which may be less sensitive to specific behavioral changes.

Do not assume that Pivotal Response Treatment training will automatically improve communication in group settings. The study found that while staff successfully increased question-asking opportunities in one-to-one sessions, neither the staff nor the children generalized these skills to group situations like meals or play, and maintenance of child question-asking was low at follow-up.