Aim/Purpose: This study explores the effectiveness of a virtual reality (VR) application designed to teach Theory of Mind (ToM) skills to children aged 5-6, addressing the gap in research on the use of VR for typically developing children. Background: ToM is a critical skill for social interaction and understanding others' perspectives. Despite…

"The Transporters" intervention contains 15 animated episodes that autistic children watch daily for a month and learn emotion recognition through stories depicting social interactions between vehicle characters with grafted human faces, expressing emotions. Its automated, home-based format is cost-effective. This study included four…

Early mathematics achievement sets the stage for a range of important academic and career outcomes. As efforts to improve elementary mathematics instruction have increased, efforts to better understand how students develop mathematics knowledge and why students respond to mathematics instruction have also emerged. Given known correlations between…

The main objective of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of peer training in pivotal response treatment (PRT) for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in their first year of school. Four 6-year-old boys with ASD and eight typically developing (TD) children (aged 4-6 years) participated in the study. A non-concurrent…

This study investigated the effect of the digital Down Syndrome LanguagePlus (DSL+) intervention on vocabulary outcomes through a school-delivered randomized controlled trial. A national sample of first graders with Down syndrome from 91 schools was allocated to an intervention group (n = 50), which received daily intervention for 15 weeks, or a…

This study compared simultaneous prompting with an error correction procedure for teaching three children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder expressive labels. Using a parallel treatment design nested within a multiple probe design, the researchers taught each participant how to expressively label pictures of sports teams or cartoon…

Difficulties with social conversation can be a direct result of the social skills deficit in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The popularity of hand-held devices and the development of commercial apps has expanded the scope of teaching social skills via this modality. This study extends an earlier pilot study in which a…

The current study examined the feasibility and initial efficacy of the Summer Treatment Program for Pre-kindergarteners (STP-PreK) with 37 preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and externalizing behavior problems (EBP). Parents and teachers reported on children's behavior, social/adaptive skills, and self-regulation. Children completed…

Childhood socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with persistent academic achievement gaps, which necessitates evidence-based, scalable interventions to improve children's outcomes. The present study reports results from a replication and extension of a family-based training program previously found to improve cognitive development in lower-SES…

Interventions to enhance cognitive and executive function performance are essential for the child's performance in current and future occupations. Occupational therapy practitioners are critical members of early intervention, education, and healthcare teams. Practitioners are distinctly qualified to address cognitive functioning within the context…

We used the elicited production task to explore the production of short and long passives in 15 Mandarin-speaking preschool children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD; aged 4;2-5;11) in comparison with 15 Typically Developing Aged-matched (TDA) children (aged 4;3-5;8) and 15 Typically Developing Younger (TDY) children (aged 3;2-4;3). This…

This study describes the development and evaluation of a behavioral parent training protocol via telecommunication for three parents of preschool children with autism, with limited access to behavioral expertise. A single-subject, multiple baseline experimental design across child behaviors, replicated across parents, was used to evaluate the…

Background: Children with autism spectrum disorder have impairments in social behaviours that require systematic intervention. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the cool versus not cool procedure implemented in a small group (dyad). Method: The cool versus not cool procedure consisted of the researcher demonstrating the targeted behaviour…

The aim of the present study was to investigate the associations between social-emotional and language development in a sample of 3-5-year-old children in community-based early childhood education and care (N = 90). Children's theory of mind understanding, affect recognition and language abilities were tested with neuropsychological measurements,…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to receive several related services during their early school years. In this study, we followed 70 preschoolers with ASD and used parent reports to document the intensity of these services over a 4-year period, in relation to children's outcomes in three domains. While behavioral difficulties…