Sharing is Caring: Teaching Sharing and Requests to Share to Children with Developmental Disabilities using Token Reinforcement

Abstract

Children with developmental disabilities often have deficits in social communication and interaction. Sharing behaviours have been found to be some of the most important in facilitating social relationships through play. The current study aimed to increase sharing and requesting toys from peers, using token reinforcement. A token economy was introduced during free-play in the classroom for Kyle, Tony and Justin, aged seven, eight and 10. Participants were taught how to make a request at a communication level appropriate for them, as well as how to share an item that a peer requested. Tokens were delivered contingent on engagement in target behaviour. Once the criterion number of tokens was reached participants gained access to the reinforcer. The results suggest this method was successful at increasing independent sharing and requests to share for all three participants. Further, the behaviours maintained above baseline levels following the withdrawal of the intervention and a small amount of generalisation with siblings, was observed. These findings suggest token reinforcement can be an effective intervention to increase sharing behaviours in children with developmental disabilities.