Wrong-item format: a promising intervention for teaching socially appropriate forms of rejecting to children with developmental disabilities?

Abstract

This paper describes an intervention for teaching communicative rejecting. The wrong-item format involves presentation of an unchosen item to create a need for the child to indicate no and provide an opportunity to teach socially appropriate forms of rejecting. In this preliminary study, the wrong-item format was used to increase socially appropriate forms of rejecting in two children with developmental disabilities. Socially appropriate rejecting increased during intervention but one child also made correct responses during baseline. This makes it difficult to attribute these increases to the effects of intervention. In addition, as intervention progressed, both children began to indicate “no” prior to being offered the wrong item. Future research is required to address these methodological issues. Nonetheless, our preliminary results suggest that the wrong-item format may represent a promising intervention for teaching communicative rejecting.

• communication intervention
• developmental disabilities
• socially appropriate rejecting
• wrong-item format