Association for Behavior Analysis International

Children with autism spectrum disorders demonstrate severe social impairment. Common deficiencies include a lack of social initiations, response to social initiations, conversational speech, and play. These deficits demonstrate the need for continued research designed to identify maximally effective interventions for the full range of social skills deficits. This symposium presents four studies that extend the literature on social skills interventions. The first study used a portable device to deliver video modeling treatment that targeted persistence in offering play bids to peers by children with autism. A multiple baseline design across four children was used. The second study used video modeling to simultaneously teach the social skills of giving compliments and responding to compliments to both members of three play dyads. The third study used a multiple baseline design across participants and responses to assess whether one child with autism could teach his two siblings how to skateboard correctly. The final study used a multiple baseline design across three children with autism to assess the effects of an after-school group social skills intervention on appropriate speech, cooperative play, social initiations, and isolation behaviors. Findings will be discussed in relation to the most recent literature and implications for future research.

Children with autism lack the social skills necessary to make attempts at engaging with a play partner. We used a portable video modeling intervention (PVMI) to increase persistence in making play bids to a playmate. A multiple baseline design was used to assess treatment effects. Participants included four children with autism and four typically developing children who served as confederates. During baseline sessions, the child with autism was instructed to play outside with a friend. Three confederate peers were stationed in the outside play area and were available to play should the child with autism approach them. In the intervention phase, the child was shown video clips of adults approaching one, two, and three peers before the adults invitation to play was accepted. Results showed that the children demonstrated persistence in making play bids after the PVMI, and generalized and maintained increases across different peers and settings. Further, social validity data indicated that children were more sociable following intervention than during baseline. Findings from this study suggests the efficacy in using PVMI to increase play bids and subsequent play for children with autism.

Sibling-training models often involve a typically developing (TD) sibling acting as a therapist for a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To date, few studies have examined the potential benefits for sibling relationships, related to family play and social skill development, when the child with ASD takes on the role of teaching his siblings. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to evaluate the effects of reversing the sibling-training roles: Teaching a child with ASD how to teach his siblings a recreational skill. We used behavioral skills training (BST), within a multiple-probe baseline design across responses, to teach a child with ASD how to ride a skateboard. Next, the child followed an activity schedule, containing BST components, to teach his siblings (one TD and one with Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified) how to skateboard correctly. Researchers used a multiple-baseline design across participants and responses to demonstrate the effects of sibling training. Following training by the child with ASD, both siblings skateboarding skills improved and family social interaction also increased, with large effect sizes (d=2.87 and d=1.51, respectively). Discussion of these findings will focus on implications for future research in sibling-related treatments.