Two methods of prompting were compared for their relative effectiveness in teaching a group of autistic students, age 12-20, to discriminate line drawings used in picture communication books. Students required fewer trials to criterion and made significantly fewer errors in the delayed-prompting technique compared to the fading-of-prompts design.…

When two nonhandicapped peers of an autistic five-year old were trained to initiate social interaction, social interaction increased and then dramatically decreased in a reversal phase, and no decrease in the autistic child's disruptive behaviors was observed. When the autistic child was trained to initiate interaction, social interaction…

Two mentally retarded boys with autism and one girl with Down syndrome were successfully taught to initiate and play a ball game with an adult. The program targeted both nonverbal responses (such as ball contact and cooperative play) and verbal responses for play initiation and compliment delivery. (Author/JDD)