Teaching Children with Autism to Identify Known and Unknown Information across Self and Others.

This study evaluated procedures for teaching three children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder the perspective-taking skill of identifying known and unknown information by others based on what they were sensing across all five senses: see, taste, feel, hear, and smell. Using a multiple baseline across participants design, this study evaluated a training package consisting of rules, multiple exemplar training, error correction, and reinforcement. The treatment package successfully taught participants to identify known/unknown information based on what individuals sensed. Generalization across untrained stimuli and people was observed from baseline to posttraining for all participants.

Teaching Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Desire-Based Emotion Prediction and Cause.

This study aimed to expand current research in one area of perspective taking related to teaching children with autism spectrum disorder to predict others' emotions. The current study evaluated a behavioral teaching procedure on predicting and inferring the cause of emotions based on another's desires. The procedure included a training package including multiple-exemplar training, rules, modeling, prompting, and reinforcement across scenarios in which children with autism were asked to predict how others may feel given a met or unmet desire or nondesire. Three children with autism, who did not already demonstrate this skill at baseline, were included in the study and learned a repertoire of emotion prediction and cause that generalized to untrained novel scenarios. Generalization to situations in which it was necessary to apply information about another's desires during play activities was not observed until direct in-vivo training was implemented. Future directions and implications of this research are discussed.

Teaching Individuals with Autism Problem-Solving Skills for Resolving Social Conflicts.

Resolving social conflicts is a complex skill that involves consideration of the group when selecting conflict solutions. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have difficulty resolving social conflicts, yet this skill is important for successful social interaction, maintenance of relationships, and functional integration into society. This study used a nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participants design to assess the efficacy of a problem-solving training and generalization of problem solving to naturally occurring untrained social conflicts. Three male participants with ASD were taught to use a worksheet as a problem-solving tool using multiple exemplar training, error correction, rules, and reinforcement. The results showed that using the worksheet was successful in bringing about a solution to social conflicts occurring in the natural environment. In addition, the results showed that participants resolved untrained social conflicts in the absence of the worksheet during natural environment probe sessions.

Teaching children with autism to identify and respond appropriately to the preferences of others during play.

We observed three children with autism spectrum disorder during structured play dates in which play partners displayed interest or disinterest in the toys with which they were playing. We then taught subjects to identify play partners' preferences and to make appropriate toy offers using a multiple-exemplar training package consisting of rules, midplay preference questions, prompting, and praise with observed generalization across untrained partners.