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| Social Skills Groups, Instruction and Peer Tutoring |
| Tuesday, May 27, 2008 |
| 9:00 AM–10:20 AM |
| Astoria |
| Area: AUT |
| Chair: Nancy Wagner (ABA Academy) |
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| Social Skills Groups for Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorders. |
| Domain: Applied Research |
| NANCY WAGNER (ABA Academy) |
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| Abstract: Children with the diagnosis of an Autism Spectrum Disorder have difficulty spontaneously developing social skills in the natural environment. This deficit greatly affects their ability to develop relationships and learn from their peers, thus impacting the long term outcomes for social success. Curriculums targeting specific skills have proven to be effective in ameliorating these deficits with preschool children. The language delays associated with ASD create additional challenges for the clinician, but working with small groups of children and targeting specific skills through games and play can create a fun and effective learning environment. This presentation provides practical ideas for implementation of social skills groups for preschool children with significant language and social skills deficits. Specific games and ideas are covered as well as lessons learned from working with this population. Emphasis is placed on ensuring skills taught in a center based program generalize to the natural environment. Including siblings provides natural models and enhances generalization of these skills to the child’s social environments. Pretest, post-test, a multiple baseline and take home data sheet samples provide information necessary to target and analyze progress. |
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| A Model for Delivering Effective Social Skills Instruction in Schools. |
| Domain: Applied Research |
| KRISTA SMABY (Las Lomitas Elementary School District), Grace Medina Chow (Las Lomitas Elementary School District) |
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| Abstract: Qualitative impairments in social interaction are a defining characteristic of autism. Educators in public schools face the formidable task of delivering effective social skills instruction to their students with limited time and resources. This paper will discuss a delivery model that has been successfully implemented in a public school district. Data on the progress of the students towards their individual goals will be presented. Program design, curriculum development and data collection methods will also be addressed. |
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| The Role of Peer Tutoring on the Acquisition of Verbal Operants. |
| Domain: Applied Research |
| SUDHA RAMASWAMY (Mercy College) |
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| Abstract: I present an experiment with 2 children with developmental disabilities that identify how peer tutoring with typically developing peers can function as a procedure to teach children to emit verbal operants with peers in play settings using a multiple baseline design. The dependent variable consisted of the number of verbal operants emitted between peers in play settings (90-100% interobserver agreement).The results showed a change in level of the emission of verbal operants in comparing baseline to treatment sessions across both participants across all operants. Furthermore the results show a generalization of the emission of verbal operants to non-experimental peers. |
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