An Analysis of the Training Level Necessary to Increase Independent Question Asking in an Adult with Schizophrenia

Abstract The question asking behavior of an adult male with chronic schizophrenia was targeted for improvement. In the first training phase, a brief pre-phase instructional lecture on the importance of asking questions during a conversation was followed by a 3-step prompting procedure and praise for appropriate question asking behavior during sessions. The second training phase consisted of the same pre-phase instructions plus a pre-phase discrete trial training component that the participant mastered before sessions began. Sessions during the second phase were identical to those during the first phase. Independent question asking increased somewhat during the first training phase and increased substantially during the second training phase. The necessity of the discrete trial training component and issues surrounding skill generalization with this population are discussed.