Children and even infants have clear intuitions about power early in development; they can infer who is dominant and subordinate from observing a single interaction. However, it is unclear what children infer about each individual's status from these interactions--do they think dominants and subordinates will maintain their status when interacting…

Adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have persistent difficulty developing and generalizing social communication and interaction skills. Emerging research has demonstrated that people with ASD have benefited from strategies that embed multiple-exemplar training (MET) to increase generalization of social skills.…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the quality of class talk during episodes corresponding to different levels of generalization. A total of 10 sessions in two classrooms in grade 7 were videotaped. A mixed approach was adopted to analyze the videotaped sessions. The findings show that triadic dialog was the dominant mode of interaction…

This study investigated whether seeing iconic gestures depicting verb referents promotes two types of generalization. We taught 3- to 4-year-olds novel locomotion verbs. Children who saw iconic manner gestures during training generalized more verbs to novel events ("first-order generalization") than children who saw interactive gestures…

Tacts facilitate social interaction, and a strong tact repertoire can lead to the development of other verbal operants. For children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the development of a tact repertoire can reduce stereotypical and repetitive language and increase social communication, as functional language may reduce the amount of…

This study examined the effects of using behavioral skills training (BST) to teach peer models to engage students with moderate to severe developmental disabilities in interactive play. Two separate multiple-baseline across participants designs were used to determine the effectiveness of BST on the peer models' implementation of the procedural…

Deficits in social skills are common in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and there is an urgent need for effective social skills interventions, especially for improving interactions with typically developing peers. This study examined the effects of a naturalistic behavioral social skills intervention in improving social initiations…

Much empirical research on textbook analysis has been undertaken. However, little evidence with regard to the adoption of SLA findings in the textbook analysis was reported, particularly for the Indonesian EFL textbooks. To fill this void, this study aimed at analyzing a textbook endorsed by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture,…

The present study utilized a multiple baseline across participants design and targeted a crucial component of social interaction, conversational skills, through implementation of the teaching interactions procedure with college students with intellectual disabilities within naturalistic settings. For each participant, the mean frequency of both…

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience challenges maintaining fluid, reciprocal conversations, resulting in prolonged, awkward pauses. Such pauses disrupt the pacing of an interaction and create: (1) less favorable social impressions; and (2) perceptions of limited social competence. To help these individuals succeed socially,…

This RCT study examined efficacy of a preschool peer social intervention (PPSI) in facilitating social engagement of preschoolers with high-functioning ASD (HFASD; N = 65). HFASD participants were randomly assigned by preschool to a 6-month intervention (play, interaction, or conversation) or a waitlisted-treatment-as-usual control group. Trained…

Stay-Play-Talk (SPT) is a peer-mediated intervention used to increase social interactions between preschoolers with developmental disabilities and typically developing (TD) peers. This intervention has been found to be successful in increasing play and reciprocal conversation amongst children with and without disabilities. The following describes…

The literature suggests that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) educated in inclusive settings generally do not interact with typically developing classmates during social activities. This study assessed whether an intervention package consisting of interest-based structured play activities involving adult instruction, modeling, and…

For families and educators, understanding and working with children who experience a combination of deafness and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be challenging. Yet both understanding and work are crucial. For children with ASD to succeed, parents and educators need to understand them and to be able to work together to implement successful…

Students with disabilities benefit from opportunities where skills learned through direct instruction can be practiced and experienced within nontraditional social contexts. Direct instruction methods are important in special education, however one of the challenges with it is that students with disabilities might not gain the understanding to…