Teaching the conditional use of communicative requests to two school-age children with severe developmental disabilities

Purpose: Two boys with severe developmental disabilities were taught to conditionally use requests to obtain desired snack items. Method: When items were in the possession of another person (teacher, peer) or proximally distant, learners were taught to emit communicative requests. When items were proximally near, learners engaged in a self-selecting response. Results: Results suggest that the conditional discriminations were established quickly. Both learners generalized their conditional discriminations to other contexts within the classroom. Clinical Implications: This study demonstrates the importance of attending to conditional discriminations when teaching communication requests.