Background: The job interview can be challenging for autistic adolescents considering the required social communication skills. Further, having decreased awareness of personal strengths may make it difficult to advocate for oneself to a future employer. The purpose of the current pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) is to examine the…

Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) typically have difficulties developing social skills and understanding the behavioral norms expected of them. As mainstreaming continues to expand, and many adolescents with ASD are integrated into regular schools, their education focuses on social and academic skills relevant for school life, but…

There are several considerations to address when conducting functional communication training for challenging behavior in a school setting, such as the need for schedule thinning and maintenance across staff and the need to establish a variety of appropriate classroom skills. There are several strategies for conducting schedule thinning following…

Conversational skills, which are essential for effective social interactions and typically pose difficulties for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), include abilities such as initiating topics, engaging in back-and-forth dialog, and responding to conversational cues. Chatbots have been used in mental health fields, and the development…

This study investigated whether a systematic instruction package was effective in child acquisition of question answering using an iPad-based speech generating device (SGD). The study was conducted with two children with autism using a multiple probe across behaviors design. Results demonstrated that the systematic instruction package consisting…

Effective support for autistic individuals is lacking in Brazil. Few centres offer services and those that do are limited in therapeutic options and geographical location. Paediatric Autism Communication Therapy is a low-intensity, evidence-based parent-mediated social-communication intervention that may be useful for this scenario. This…

As early identification of autism improves, there is a critical need for interventions to support the development of social communication skills in toddlers. Caregiver coaching and parental involvement is crucial for improving outcomes and providing children with adequate hours of planned active engagement. This pilot study assessed a 4-week…

Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience challenges securing employment, which may partially explain overall underemployment or unemployment in this population. One of the first steps to obtaining employment is participating in a job interview. However, social communication deficits may interfere with an individual with ASD's…

Using a single-case multiple baseline (MBL) across behaviors design, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the PEERS® for Young Adults manualized intervention on the acquisition of introductory conversational skills by five adults on the autism spectrum. Five participants attended the PEERS® group in a classroom at a rural…

The present study explored strategies teachers use to help people with ASD develop sociosexual skills for empathy expression. Previous research found the curriculum for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) does not always include strategies to teach the socio-sexual skills required for empathy expression. This qualitative descriptive study…

Play is critical in the development of cognitive and language skills in young children with autism; however, few studies have examined the impact of the intervention on the development of play skills. The current study aims to address the change in developmental skills, including play after participation in the JASPER intervention, and to examine…

The autism population in Southwest Florida does not have resources in the community to assist them with general living skills, social skills, job skills, and relationship skills. The research shows that autistic females have been ignored for years as they do not present autism the same as males. This means that instead of being independent and…

Autistic individuals have significant social-communication challenges that commonly persist into adulthood and impact academic, social, and vocational pursuits. More than two decades of research have established video behavior modeling as a successful, cost-effective, and time-efficient intervention tool for autistic children; however, less…

Background: Training parents to implement language and communication intervention strategies is an effective approach to promote language development for children with language delay. Aims: This study introduces an online parent training program conducted in Hubei province, China, which was designed to help parents of language-delayed children…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been shown to benefit from parent-implemented interventions (PIIs). This meta-analysis improved on prior reviews of PIIs by evaluating RCTs and multiple potential moderators, including indicators of research quality. Fifty-one effect sizes averaged moderately strong overall benefits of PIIs (g =…