Implementing Pivotal Response Treatment to Teach Question Asking to High School Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The purpose of this study was to test the use of Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) in the secondary school setting. There were two main goals: (a) to evaluate secondary education providers' ability to implement PRT with fidelity following a PRT training program; and (b) to evaluate the effects of school-implemented PRT on the social communication skills of adolescents and young adults with ASD, specifically, question-asking behavior. This concurrent multiple baseline design study across dyads investigated the use of PRT in the secondary school setting with adolescents with ASD. Specifically, it examined the impact of PRT on question-asking behavior. Education providers (n = 3) were trained to implement PRT with a secondary student with ASD. All education providers improved in their ability to use PRT strategies, though struggled with fidelity. Two students exhibited clear effects with noteworthy improvement in their use of targeted question initiations. For targeted question initiations, the weighted value for the Tau-U phase contrast between aggregated baseline and intervention phases was 0.80 and statistically significant (p < .0001). PRT is a promising approach to increasing question-asking behavior in secondary students with ASD when implemented by a trained education provider. Continued research should be a matter of priority in order to expand social skills instruction for adolescents with ASD with the hope of ultimately making a positive difference in adult outcomes.

Addressing career barriers for high risk adolescent girls: the PATHS curriculum intervention.

The study evaluated a gender-specific comprehensive career development curriculum designed to target career barriers faced by high risk adolescent girls - those with disabilities and at risk for school failure. The goal of the curriculum was to promote social cognitive career and self determination outcomes associated with adaptive career development and adjustment. A pre-post control group design was used to evaluate the curriculum. Findings suggest that participation in the curriculum resulted in significant and large gains in autonomy and in disability and gender-related knowledge. Meaningful gains were noted in perceptions of social support and relevance of school. Participants in a high fidelity sample made significant and large gains in vocational skills self-efficacy and disability and gender-related knowledge. Meaningful improvements were noted in self-advocacy, autonomy, and vocational outcome expectations. The findings suggest that the curriculum can improve important indicators of positive career development and adjustment in high risk adolescent girls.