Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder are at high risk of being bullied, but research on teaching children with autism self-protection skills for bullying situations is scant. We taught five children self-protection skills for two types of bullying (threats and unkind remarks) and consecutive bullying occurrences. We first evaluated…

A developmental milestone that both contributes to and facilitates a successful transition into adulthood is the ability to drive. Yet only one in three autistic adolescents successfully obtain a driver's license by age 21 compared to over three-fourths of non-autistic adolescents. Of those who receive their license, there is inconsistency in…

Today, the global prevalence of autism is high and continues to increase dramatically. Effective support and interventions are therefore warranted. Augmented reality (AR), one of the recent modalities of immersive technology, is gaining traction in autism interventions. However, there is currently a lack of reviews on the use of AR in children…

Background: This study presents a Robot-Inspired Computer-Assisted Adaptive Autism Therapy (RoboCA[supercript 3]T) focusing on improving joint attention and imitation skills of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). By harnessing the inherent affinity of children with ASD for robots and technology, RoboCA[superscript 3]T offers a…

Involving typically developing (TD) children in delivering interventions can be an effective strategy conducive to long-lasting and generalized behavior changes for their siblings with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this study, we recruited two sibling dyads and investigated the extent to which TD children could deliver the model-lead-test…

Rodriguez et al. (2022) discovered that teaching four component skills was sufficient to facilitate the emergence of intraverbal tacts across four applications with three participants. Our study replicated and evaluated an extension of this procedure that was directed at facilitating intraverbal tacts when a child learns the component skills but…

The purpose of this single-case experimental design (SCED) study is to investigate how adaptive prompts in virtual reality (VR)-based social skills training affect the social skills performance of autistic children. Adaptive prompts are driven by autistic children's emotional states. To integrate adaptive prompts in VR-based training, we conducted…

Children with Autism face several significant challenges, including deficits in both verbal and nonverbal communication, difficulties with concentration, limited interest in their surroundings, non-responsiveness, and struggles with adapting to new situations. It is imperative to consider and address these challenges when implementing…

Behavioral skills training (BST) is a performance- and competency-based training package composed of instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. Previous reviews have demonstrated that BST is an effective training package to teach interventionists to implement behavior analytic interventions (Kirkpatrick et al. in "Journal of Behavioral…

While social difficulties in autism are well-established, questions remain regarding whether these represent challenges in "acquiring" or "performing" such skills, reduced social strengths, or a unique distribution across these domains (i.e., social profile). This study empirically derived social profiles of 211 autistic and…

Research shows that caregivers of children with autism can be taught a variety of behavioral strategies, but there is little research on teaching caregivers to prioritize rapport building over skill acquisition during play. The current study evaluated the effects of a digital training package on the rapport-building skills of four caregivers of…

Social communication deficits are one of the defining features of autism spectrum disorder. In schools, social communication deficits are assumed to be due to a skill acquisition issue and remediated through social skills instruction; however, social skills instruction has been fairly criticized, particularly by those in the autistic community, as…

School-based service providers must understand how to best measure academic skill development given its key role in improving long-term outcomes for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Curriculum-based measurement (CBM), which has applications for foundational academic skill areas of reading, writing, and mathematics, may be one way…

This scoping review synthesises the current research into robotics technologies for promoting social-emotional learning in children with autism spectrum disorder. It examines the types of robotics technologies employed, their applications, and the gaps in the existing literature. Our scoping review adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for…

There is increasing evidence supporting the effectiveness of the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) for children on the autism spectrum. However, substantial variability in response to the ESDM has been reported across participants. We examined the plausible yet untested hypothesis that variations in the fidelity level of therapists delivering the…