Increasing social initiations in children with autism: effects of a tactile prompt

An ABAB design was used to assess the effects of a tactile prompting device (i.e., a vibrating pager) as a prompt for the social initiations of 3 children with autism during free-play activities with typically developing peers. Results indicated that the tactile prompt was effective in increasing verbal initiations for all 3 children, and responses to peers' initiations were higher for 2 participants when the tactile prompt was used. Efforts to reduce the frequency of prompts while still maintaining rates of initiations were partially successful for 1 participant.     

Maintaining social initiations of withdrawn handicapped and nonhandicapped preschoolers through a response-dependent fading tactic

The effects of a teacher-implemented intervention and fading package on the social initiations of three withdrawn preschool children were investigated. Subjects' social initiations and any peer responses were recorded sequentially during free play. Intervention involved teacher prompting and contingent praise of specific social initiations (sharing, assisting, verbally organizing play) by each subject toward an available peer. Results indicated that (a) teacher prompts and praise increased the frequency of subjects' target initiation, (b) target initiations typically received a positive peer response, (c) subjects' extended interactions with peers also increased, (d) abrupt, complete removal of teacher prompting resulted in similarly abrupt reductions in subjects' social initiations, whereas response-dependent fading maintained subjects' initiations and interactions above baseline levels. Follow-up data 2 1/2 months later showed that the social initiations and interactions of two of the children remained above baseline levels.This research was supported in part by Grant No. 007802088, U.S. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, and by Grant No. HD15051 from the National Institute of Child Health and Development. The authors wish to thank John Aiken, Gwen Beegle, Evelyn Parker, and Luis Olivera for their asistance in data collection, and Paula Goodroe, Kathy Green, and the children of the Experimental School for their cooperation in conducting this study.     

INCREASING HANDICAPPED PRESCHOOLERS' PEER SOCIAL INTERACTIONS: CROSS-SETTING AND COMPONENT ANALYSIS

The purposes of our study were: (a) to train a set of observationally determined social behaviors via peer initiation; (b) to determine if effects generalized across classroom settings and to directly intervene if generalization did not occur; and (c) to analyze components of the peer-initiation intervention. After baseline, nonhandicapped preschool children (confederates) were taught to direct social initiations to the three handicapped preschool-aged students. Teachers prompted the confederates to engage the students in social interaction when necessary and rewarded the confederates with tokens. Confederates' initiations to the students resulted in increased frequencies of positive social interaction. There was no generalization to other classroom settings, and the intervention was subsequently implemented in a second and third classroom. Next, the confederates' token reinforcement system was withdrawn, with no apparent deleterious effects on the confederates' or students' social interactions. When teachers substantially reduced their prompts to the confederates, students' social interactions decreased. Finally, reinstatement of teacher prompts resulted in increases in the confederates' social initiations and, consequently, the positive social interactions of the students.     

EFFECTS OF HIGH-PROBABILITY REQUESTS ON THE SOCIAL INTERACTIONS OF YOUNG CHILDREN WITH SEVERE DISABILITIES

High-probability requests were used to increase social interactions in 3 young boys with severe disabilities who had been identified as severely socially withdrawn. A multiple baseline design across participants was used to evaluate the effects of high-probability request intervention on (a) social initiations, (b) social responses, (c) continued interactions, and (d) performance of high- and low-probability requests. The students were observed in a second setting to examine generalization effects across peers who did not participate in the training sequence and settings. The results demonstrated that the high-probability requests increased the students' responsiveness to low-probability requests to initiate social behavior. Increases were also found in (a) unprompted initiations and extended interactions to the training peers, (b) unprompted initiations and extended interactions to peers who were not involved in the training procedure, and (c) generalized unprompted initiations and interactions in a second nontraining setting. The students maintained increased levels of initiations and interactions after all prompts were removed from both the training and nontraining settings.     

Effects of Coaching and Peer Utilization Procedures on the Withdrawn Behavior of Preschoolers

The effects of a modified coaching and peer practice procedure on the social behavior of five withdrawn preschool children were investigated. Multiple criteria were employed in the selection of subjects (3 females, 2 males). Social initiations, peer responses, and sustained interaction were recorded sequentially during pre- and post- free paly sessions in the classroom and intervention setting on both the withdrawn children and a normative comparison group. A multiple baseline across subjects and behaviors design demonstrated that the intervention was effective in increasing subject's positive verbalizations to peer as well as inviting and joining behavior. These effects were maintained in the presence of new peers, Classroom observations revealed a significant decease in subjects' rejecting peer initiations and a trend toward increased sustained interaction. The withdrawn children did not differ from the comparison group on any classroom measure at posttreatment. Observation of the withdrawn children as a group with no additional peers revealed posttreatment increases in on-task behavior only. The results suggest that, with developmentally appropriate modifications, the coaching procedure can be used effectively with preschoolers. Also, highly structured social routines appear to be a useful generalization- promoting technique for this population. Finally, preschool peers may be capable of a more extensive involvement in social skills training programs than previously recognized.     

An experimental analysis of peer social initiations on the behavior of withdrawn preschool children: Some training and generalization effects

In this study, positive social initiations by an age-peer was evaluated as an intervention for isolate preschool children in training and generalization sessions. During baseline, the confederate made few social approaches to the target subjects. The confederate greatly increased his rate of positive social initations during the first intervention, decreased social approaches during a second baseline, and increased social approaches again in a second intervention phase. Increases in confederate initiations resulted in an immediate acceleration in the frequency of subjects' positive social behavior during training sessions. Additionally, for two of the three subjects, positive social behaviors were also observed to increase during generalization sessions. The results suggest that (a) peers may be trained successfully to set the occasion for positive social behaviors by withdrawn classmates, (b) increased social responding by withdrawn children in the presence of frequent peer social initiations may also generalize beyond the training setting, and (c) the magnitude of direct and generalization effects appears to be related to the entry-level repertoire of target children.     

Effects of peer social initiations on the behavior of withdrawn preschool children

Social approach to peers was evaluated as an intervention for isolate preschoolers. During baseline, confederate peers made few social approaches to the target subjects. Confederates greatly increased their rate of social approaches during the first intervention, decreased social approaches during a second baseline, and increased social approaches again in a second intervention phase. Increases in confederate social initiations immediately increased the frequency of subjects' positive social behavior. Additionally, five of six subjects showed an increase in their own positive social initiations during intervention periods. The results suggest that: (a) peers may be programmed to increase the positive social behaviors of their isolate classmates, and (b) remediating social deficits requires assessment and intervention specifically tailored to the individual child.     

Effects of training, prompting, and self-monitoring on staff behavior in a classroom for students with disabilities

This study extended the limited research on the utility of tactile prompts and examined the effects of a treatment package on implementation of a token economy by instructional assistants in a classroom for students with disabilities. During baseline, we measured how accurately the assistants implemented a classroom token economy based on the routine training they had received through the school system. Baseline was followed by brief in-service training, which resulted in no improvement of token-economy implementation for recently hired instructional assistants. A treatment package of prompting and self-monitoring with accuracy feedback was then introduced as a multiple baseline design across behaviors. The treatment package was successfully faded to a more manageable self-monitoring intervention. Results showed visually significant improvements for all participants during observation sessions.     

Social stories, written text cues, and video feedback: effects on social communication of children with autism.

This study investigated the effects of written text and pictorial cuing with supplemental video feedback on the social communication of 5 students with autism and social deficits. Two peers without disabilities participated as social partners with each child with autism to form five triads. Treatment was implemented twice per week and consisted of 10 min of systematic instruction using visual stimuli, 10 min of social interaction, and 10 min of self‐evaluation using video feedback. Results showed increases in targeted social communication skills when the treatment was implemented. Some generalized treatment effects were observed across untrained social behaviors, and 1 participant generalized improvements within the classroom. In addition, naive judges reported perceived improvements in the quality of reciprocal interactions. These findings support recommendations for using visually cued instruction to guide the social language development of young children with autism as they interact with peers without disabilities.     

ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT OF CLINICAL FEARS IN MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN

Three moderately mentally retarded females ranging from 8 to 10 years of age were treated for long-standing fears. These children had refused to talk with or be in the same general vicinity of adults other than their parents, a few close family members, and to a lesser degree, their teacher. To establish an accurate criterion for successful performance on dependent measures, participants were matched on age, sex, and level of mental retardation with children having “normal” amounts of fear. Dependent measures included approaching and talking to strange adults as well as child ratings of overall fear. Participant modeling was given by the mother who provided a sufficient amount of physical and verbal prompts to ensure that an acceptable greeting of adults specified by the mother were made. These prompts were gradually faded out as treatment progressed. Treatment, which was given in a multiple baseline format across subjects, proved effective and gains in the reduction of fears were maintained at the six month follow-up.     

Preliminary Evaluation of a Social Skills Training and Facilitated Play Early Intervention Programme for Extremely Shy Young Children in China

The goal of this study was to provide a preliminary evaluation of a social skills and facilitated play early intervention programme to promote social interaction, prosocial behaviours and socio‐communicative skills among young extremely shy children in China. Participants were a sample of n = 16 extremely shy young children attending kindergarten in Shanghai, China. Children were randomly assigned to either the Social Skills Facilitated Play or comparison condition. Baseline, post‐intervention and 2‐month follow‐up measures included observations of children's social behaviours in quartets of novel peers. Result indicated that as compared with shy controls, shy children who participated in the Social Skills Training Facilitated Play programme were observed to demonstrate significantly greater post‐intervention frequencies of peer interactions (e.g. group play and peer conversation) and prosocial behaviours (e.g. cooperation, sharing and making/accepting social initiations) during unstructured free play with novel peers, as well as better social‐communicative competence during a speech task. Almost all of these improvements were maintained 2 months post‐intervention. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of developing and refining early intervention programmes for extremely shy young children in China. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of reinforcement rate on the spontaneous social initiations of socially withdrawn preschoolers.

Social skills priming was used to increase the spontaneous social initiations of 2 socially withdrawn preschoolers, 1 of whom had been diagnosed with autism. During priming sessions, the teacher prompted and reinforced social behaviors (e.g., smiling, verbal initiations). We varied the rate of reinforcement during priming sessions and measured the effects of this manipulation on the rate of spontaneous social initiations during the subsequent classroom activity. Spontaneous initiations were more frequent after high rates of reinforcement than after low rates of reinforcement.     

A comparative analysis of the effects of social skill training and teacher-directed contingencies on social behavior of preschool children with disabilities

This study investigated the effects of an analog social skill training program and a teacher-directed contingency strategy on promoting social responding among four preschool children with mild disabilities and their peers. The social skill training program consisted of five lessons targeting the skill areas: Initiating, responding, and maintaining social interactions. The teacher directed contingency consisted of prompting target children when they were not socially involved with peers, and providing verbal praise when they were socially involved with peers. Subjects were divided into two training pairs and received both interventions in a reversal design. Presentation order was counterbalanced across the two training pairs. Results indicated that the teacher directed contingency was more effective in promoting higher levels of social responding in a free-play setting. Results also suggest that social skill training may not always be a necessary prerequisite to promote increased social interactions among children who display low rates of social interaction with peers, but possess necessary skills.     

IMPROVING SOCIAL SKILLS AND DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM THROUGH SELF-MANAGEMENT

The literature suggests that children with autism typically are unresponsive to verbal initiations from others in community settings, and that such unresponsiveness can lead to problematic social interactions and severely disruptive behavior. The present study assessed whether self-management could be used as a technique to produce extended improvements in responsiveness to verbal initiations from others in community, home, and school settings without the presence of a treatment provider. The results showed that children with autism who displayed severe deficits in social skills could learn to self-manage responsivity to others in multiple community settings, and that such improvements were associated with concomitant reductions in disruptive behavior without the need for special intervention. The results are discussed in terms of their significance for improved development of social skills in children with autism.     

Effects of listener feedback on the messages of kindergarten children in a referential communication task

A referential communication paradigm was employed with kindergarten children to determine the effects of systematically varied feedback following inadequate message production. Feedback conditions included three levels of verbal specificity presented either alone or in combination with visual feedback. Results indicated that kindergarten children formulated more adequate referential messages when provided with either highly specific verbal feedback or a chance to view the listener's incorrect choice of referent. The differential effectiveness of various types of feedback was discussed in terms of the role of comparison activities in the referential communication process, and implications for the communicative competency of kindergarten children were considered.