Social engagement by children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in unstructured school settings generally occurs at very low levels, if at all. Although many interventions improve peer socialization, generalization and maintenance of such gains when interventions are faded are typically low. The present study employed a multiple baseline design…

The literature suggests children with autism use communication primarily for requests and protests, and almost never for information-seeking. This study investigated whether teaching "Where" questions using intrinsic reinforcement procedures would produce the generalized use of the question, and whether concomitant improvements in…

This study assessed the efficacy of experimental analysis for determining a best intervention program for improving oral reading fluency for students with learning disabilities. Following a two-session baseline condition, four treatments to increase reading fluency (repeated reading, listening passage preview, repeated reading with easier…

A yearlong experimental study showed positive effects of a professional development project that involved 19 urban elementary schools, 180 teachers, and 3735 students from one of the lowest performing school districts in California. Algebraic reasoning as generalized arithmetic and the study of relations was used as the centerpiece for work with…

Two children (ages 7-8) with autism and eight typical peers participated in a study designed to replicate an earlier finding of successful social-skills intervention for children with autism using peer-implemented pivotal response training (PRT). The results of using multiple peer trainers on generalization of treatment effects were assessed.…

The effects of social interaction skill interventions on the social behavior of four preschool children with behavioral handicaps were evaluated. Findings indicated unique effects for social skills training and contingency management intervention. Results are discussed in relation to the role of reciprocal interaction and behavioral trapping for…

This study assessed effects of teaching sociodramatic play skills to three children (ages five to nine) with autism. Positive changes were observed in play, language, and social skills. These changes generalized across toys and settings, although little generalization to other play partners occurred. (Author/DB)

A study involving four male beginning readers with learning disabilities compared the effects on gains in fluency of two types of mastery criteria. One required students to reread a passage until they demonstrated 3 successive improvements; the other required rereading until 90 correct words per minute were reached. Both were successful;…

This study investigated effects of the application of Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT) with four preschool children with developmental disabilities during interactions with three primary conversational partners. The study involved a multiple baseline (probe) across two children which was replicated across two additional children. Within that…

Two three-year olds, one verbal and one nonverbal, with moderate to severe developmental delays were taught target communication objectives using milieu language teaching. The children generalized their target objectives spontaneously and in probe situations that also required them to display listener preparatory behaviors. (Author/DB)

This study examined the effects of training three individuals to teach parents of preschool children with disabilities to implement milieu language teaching and generalize these skills for home use. Four strategies for parent training were taught. All six children increased use of target language skills in training sessions and showed modest…

Incorporated motivational procedures to teach question-asking to three children (ages three and five). All children learned to use questions in relation to items they had previously been unable to label and demonstrated generalization of spontaneous question-asking to new items and to their home environments with their mothers, with concomitant…

Five children (27 to 47 months old) with mild to borderline levels of mental retardation were given a milieu language intervention program of 3 or 4 small group training sessions weekly. Results indicated the training had a clear facilitative effect on the acquisition and generalized use of common nouns and verbs by four of the subjects.…