Autism spectrum disorders are characterized in terms of behavioral deficits in areas of social behavior and language development. A failure to attend to the faces of others is the single best discriminator between 1-year-old children later diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and those with typical development. Attending to the face of…

Two children (ages 13 and 16) with autism were taught to differentiate appropriate from inappropriate social behaviors. Children's treated behaviors improved rapidly, and there were generalized changes in untreated social behaviors. Results suggest the possibility of identifying pivotal response classes of social behavior that may improve peer…

A social behavior training package was implemented with 9 children (ages 12-13) with deafness and language disabilities. The package included child training as well as supervision, feedback, and goal-setting by teachers and residential staff members. Target behaviors increased and were generalized across settings, activities, and subjects during…

A review of nine studies on the efficacy of metacognitive interpersonal problem-solving training with students who have learning and behavior problems found demonstrated cognitive gains but less success in demonstrating that such gains were subsequently applied to actual behavior or generalized to other social behavior. (DB)

In vivo instruction consisting of a constant time-delay procedure used in combination with multiple exemplars of strangers, lures, supervisors, and sites was used to teach three adults with severe mental handicaps a generalized response to the lures of strangers. Participants acquired the response during training, but transfer to probe trials was…

These reflections on EC 604 101 (a study of teaching adults with severe disabilities a generalized response to the lure of strangers) provide background information on the research methodology used, outline limitations of the study, discuss ethical issues in safety research, and examine ways to make teaching a generalized response more effective.…

A modified multiple-probe design was used to teach seven students (ages six to eight) with moderate or severe mental retardation appropriate strategies for responding to inappropriate invitations from strangers. Six of the students displayed improvement in self-protective skills, which generalized to a nontraining situation and across abductors.…

Reviews past and present conceptualizations and summarized narrative and meta-analytic reviews of social skills training (SST) outcome studies. Overall, modest effect sizes are reported in the meta-analytic literature, suggesting that SST is a relatively weak intervention strategy. Recommendations for rebuilding SST are provided. (Author/CR)

The effects of social skill training on social behavior was assessed, using a structured learning model with 3 children with behavioral disorders, ages 7-14. Results showed an increase in frequency for most skill areas, an inverse relationship across negative behaviors, maintenance over time, and moderate levels of generalization to nontreatment…

Three mentally retarded students (ages 9-12) who exhibited challenging behaviors to escape from academic demands and to receive social attention were taught alternative assistance-seeking and attention-getting phrases. Data indicated that the intervention reduced challenging behavior. The results transferred across settings, and were maintained 18…

This study of two primary-grade students with learning disabilities and behavior problems found that an instructional package incorporating videotaped self-assessment, self-modeling, discrimination training, and behavioral rehearsal helped the children acquire cooperative classroom behaviors and generalize and maintain those behaviors. (Author/JDD)

This paper reviews the research and attempts to identify instructional techniques and settings to promote generalization of appropriate work-related social behavior in individuals with mental retardation. First, it provides a definition of transition and discusses the importance of training for generalization, discrimination, and maintenance.…