Teaching Initiated Question Asking to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Through a Short-Term Parent-Mediated Program.

This study investigated whether a brief parent-mediated intervention would increase the frequency of question asking in children with ASD. Mothers participated in a 3-week training consisting of 2-h sessions twice weekly. Data were collected in the context of concurrent multiple baseline design. Results demonstrate all three children increased frequency of question asking with two children maintaining gains. All three children demonstrated generalization of question asking to novel items, family members, and/or settings. Affect improved for two of the three children. Overall, mothers were able to reach Fidelity of Implementation during most sessions and rated the intervention as highly acceptable. Results are discussed in regard to the feasibility of providing a short-term parent-implemented intervention to increase social initiations through question asking.

The Impact of Prior Activity History on the Influence of Restricted Repetitive Behaviors on Socialization for Children With High-Functioning Autism.

Research has demonstrated that incorporating restricted interests of an individual with autism into recess activities is effective at increasing socialization with typically developing peers. However, certain activity contexts may alter the reinforcing influence of the restricted repetitive behaviors (RRBs) depending on an individual's history in that activity. Using an alternating treatment design, this study examined whether an individual's history with an activity affected socialization. RRBs were embedded into activities with a reported positive history (i.e., prior history of positive experiences) and activities with a reported negative history (i.e., prior history of aversive experiences) for participants. Data indicated that socialization increased and remained above baseline levels when RRBs were introduced during activities with a positive history, whereas socialization was minimal when RRBs were introduced in activities with a negative history. Social significance and implications for designing activities that incorporate a child's RRBs are discussed.

Is Medication Information for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Monitored and Coordinated Across Professionals? Findings from a Teacher Survey.

Prescription medications are commonly used for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), however, there is little research regarding how the effect of medication is monitored across settings once prescribed. The present study addressed this issue for children with ASD in school by administering a questionnaire to teachers of students with ASD who were and were not being given medication. Specifically, the questionnaire assessed the teachers' knowledge about whether the child was being given medication, and whether behavior changes or side effects were being communicated in any way to the child's family and prescribing physician. The results showed that for children who were being given medication, fewer than half of the teachers reported knowing the child was being given medication. For those children who were not being given medication, only 53% of the teachers reported correct information for their students. Of the teachers who knew their students were being given medication, all reported that they were not conferring with the child's prescribing physician regarding behavioral observations or side effects. Whether teachers are blind to the medication types and dosage the students are being given or not, some type of communication to physicians about the children's behavior at school is important. Given the importance of monitoring medication for children with ASD, implications for system change, for professionals and for funding agencies are discussed.

Improving generalization of peer socialization gains in inclusive school settings using initiations training.

Social engagement by children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in unstructured school settings generally occurs at very low levels, if at all. Although many interventions improve peer socialization, generalization and maintenance of such gains when interventions are faded are typically low. The present study employed a multiple baseline design across participants to target generalization in the absence of interventionists in elementary school children with ASD at recess. Teaching initiations has been suggested as one method to increase generalization. The results of the present study showed that when initiations were targeted during intervention for social play, the participants demonstrated generalized peer social engagement, increases in unprompted peer-directed initiations, and more positive affect during peer interactions. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical and applied implications of incorporating initiations training into social interventions.

Issues and theoretical constructs regarding parent education for autism spectrum disorders.

Participation of parents of children with autism is commonplace in most comprehensive intervention programs, yet, there is limited research relating to the best practices in this area. This article provides an overview of parent education programs for young children with autism and details data-driven procedures which are associated with improved parent and child outcomes. In addition, we provide a troubleshooting guide based on the literature for professionals regarding a variety of complex issues which may arise during parent education.

Effectiveness of a novel community-based early intervention model for children with autistic spectrum disorder.

The Nova Scotia early intensive behavior intervention model -NS EIBI ( Bryson et al., 2007 ) for children with autistic spectrum disorders was designed to be feasible and sustainable in community settings. It combines parent training and naturalistic one-to-one behavior intervention employing Pivotal Response Treatment - PRT (R. Koegel & Koegel, 2006 ). We followed 45 children (33 males, mean baseline age  =  50 months) for 12months. Mean gains of 14.9 and 19.5 months were observed on expressive and receptive language measures, respectively, for children with an IQ of 50 or more at baseline versus 6.1 and 8.4 months for children with IQs less than 50. Behavior problems decreased significantly over the 1-year treatment for both groups, but autism symptoms decreased only for those with an IQ of 50 or more.

Brief report: using individualized orienting cues to facilitate first-word acquisition in non-responders with autism.

Though considerable progress has been made in developing techniques for improving the acquisition of expressive verbal communication in children with autism, research has documented that 10-25% still fail to develop speech. One possible technique that could be significant in facilitating responding for this nonverbal subgroup of children is the use of orienting cues. Using a multiple baseline design, this study examined whether individualized orienting cues could be identified, and whether their presentation would result in verbal expressive words. The results suggest that using individualized orienting cues can increase correct responding to verbal models as well as subsequent word use. Theoretical and applied implications of orienting cues as they relate to individualized programming for children with autism are discussed.

Improving social initiations in young children with autism using reinforcers with embedded social interactions.

Children with autism often exhibit low levels of social engagement, decreased levels of eye contact, and low social affect. However, both the literature and our direct clinical observations suggest that some components of intervention procedures may result in improvement in child-initiated social areas. Using an ABAB research design with three children with autism, this study systematically assessed whether embedding social interactions into reinforcers, delivered during language intervention, would lead to increased levels of child-initiated social behaviors. We compared this condition with a language intervention condition that did not embed social interactions into the reinforcers. Results indicated that embedding social interactions into the reinforcers resulted in increases in child-initiated social engagement during communication, improved nonverbal dyadic orienting, and improvements in general child affect. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed.