The questioner is a teaching strategy that expands the world for people with autism by teaching how to respond to common statements made by others using follow-up questions.
A questionnaire is a tool meant to be used by parents and professionals in their work with children and adults with autism. The goal of the strategy is to teach those individuals to participate in interactions more independently, spontaneously, and genuinely.
This includes the hope for generalization by teaching a wide variety of follow-up questions to be paired with a variety of common statements that students hear in daily life situations. Students with autism rarely respond to statements other people make that are either directed towards them or others around them.
This strategy creates a predictable pattern in conversation which replicates an unfinished task for a student with autism. They will ask the questions because they are intrinsically motivated to finish what is “started” by others.
Jenna is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) who currently works as an Autism Specialist for a well-known school district in Southern California. She is also a part-time Lecturer at San Diego State University, where she educates college students in the area of behavior, autism, and evidence-based practices. In her work, she supervises...