Work

Teaching children with autism to challenge lies while playing board games

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Children with autism may have difficulties identifying and responding to lies, which can leave them vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation. Ranick et al. (2013) described efficacious procedures for teaching children with autism to identify deceptive statements. We replicated Ranick et al. with procedural modifications that included incorporating naturalistic differential reinforcement baselines, evaluating for faulty stimulus control, and including naturalistic probes in training. The treatment package consisted of multiple-exemplar training while the investigator and the participant played board games. Three boys between the ages of 6 and 9 years, diagnosed with autism, were presented with five trained deceptive statements and five probe deceptive statements. All three participants learned to challenge deceptive statements and distinguish them from nondeceptive statements, and all three maintained the skill after 1 month and generalized to novel deceivers.

Source: Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis

DOI: 10.1002/jaba.70059

Authors: Zeinab Hedroj, Catalina N. Rey, Michael Passage, Paige O'Neill

Institutions: Nebraska Medical Center, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Saint Louis University, Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Language: English

Topic: Behavioral and Psychological Studies

Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,470