The effects of pivotal response treatment in teaching question-asking initiations to children with autism spectrum disorder

In this study, it was aimed to determine whether pivotal response treatment (a) is effective in teaching and maintaining question-asking initiations to children with autism spectrum disorder, (b) is effective on generalization of question-asking initiations to different conditions, (c) leads to changes in language development and other developmental areas. In addition, the opinions of parents of children on the importance of the aim of the study, acceptability of the treatment used in the study, and significance of the findings of the study was investigated. The study was conducted with four children with autism spectrum disorder. In the study, a multiple baseline design across participants was used and replicated with five different questions. The findings of the study showed that pivotal response treatment (a) is highly effective on teaching and maintaining "What is this?", "Where is it?", "Who is this?", "What happened?", and "Whose is this?" question-asking initiations to children with autism spectrum disorder, (b) is effective on generalization of question-asking initiations to different persons, environments, materials, and times, (c) leads to changes in language development and other developmental areas in children with autism spectrum disorder. Moreover, the opinions of the parents of the children who participated in the study regarding the importance of the aim of the study, acceptability of the treatment used in the study, and significance of the findings of the study were highly positive. The findings of the study were discussed based on the literature, and recommendations were made towards implementation and further studies.