Functional independence of appropriate giving and appropriate asking for socially isolated and nondisabled children

Sharing is an important social behaviour for promoting reciprocal interacti on and interactive play among peers, but previous studies have only trained giving and accepting behaviours. We trained appropriate asking in addition to giving, and tested for functional independence. Three socially isolated children were first trained either to ask appropriately for their turn wit h a toy, or else to offer the toy to a confederate child, and this was reve rsed after stability. There was an immediate increase in whichever behaviou r was trained, but the other behaviour showed no increase until it was dire ctly trained. This was replicated with two nondisabled children. Follow-up assessments on all five children showed some maintenance up to a month afte r training. These studies demonstrate that appropriate giving and asking ar e functionally independent, at least in this experimental setting; that thi s is not restricted to socially isolated children; and that asking does not emerge from training giving alone. It was argued that, while these results could be due to instructional control rather than the more natural consequ ences of sharing, such social rules or norms are typically taught as instru ctions from teachers and parents.