Efforts to implement high-quality communication instruction for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and complex communication needs (CCN) may be difficult for some educators with limited time and resources. In this article, we offer guidance on implementing several economic strategies that can be easily embedded into existing classroom…

Whether a child with autism spectrum disorder will exhibit observational learning may depend on their attention to and the stimulus modalities of the observed contingency. We used multiple-probe and repeated-acquisition designs to test observational learning across a diverse set of contingencies, which included hidden edible, hidden toy, hidden…

During small group instruction, two groups of children--each group comprised of one child with a disability and two without disabilities--were taught to read words using a progressive time delay procedure (PTD). Apart from the children with disabilities, two typically developing peers in each group were taught to comment on tokens given for…

Observational learning (OL) is critical for the acquisition of social skills and may be an important skill for learning in traditional educational settings. Although OL occurs during early childhood in the typically developing population, research suggests that it may be limited in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The…

The objective of this study was to teach digital gaming skills to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using a SMART board with a graduated guidance teaching method in a small-group instructional format, to determine the participants' levels of learning by observation, and to determine the views of their families on the conducted…

Many studies have shown that small-group direct instruction is effective and efficient for teaching students with and without disabilities, although relatively few studies have been conducted with heterogeneous groups of preschool participants. In addition, previous studies have primarily assessed whether observational learning occurred for…

The authors describe an intervention for 3 preschoolers with disabilities who had low peer-related social competence. The intervention taught academic skills tailored to the need of each target student in small groups (triads) with two typically developing peers, using a progressive time delay procedure. Prior to instruction and separate from the…

A skill essential for successful inclusion in general education settings is the ability to learn by observing others. Research, however, has documented children with autism display significant deficits in the fundamental skills necessary for observational learning. This article outlines the skills essential for observational learning from an…

Over the first years of life, infants gradually develop the ability to retrieve their memories across cue and contextual changes. Whereas maturational factors drive some of these developments in memory ability, experiences occurring within the learning event may also impact infants' ability to retrieve memories in new situations. In 2 experiments…

Special education teachers often search for effective strategies to teach a variety of skills to students with moderate to severe disabilities through small group instruction. The investigators examined the acquisition of academic skills as well as chained and discrete tasks presented as nontargeted information by a small group of students with…

Proposes a cognitive theory of imitation based on Piaget's interpretations in which imitation is considered one form of overall cognitive functioning instead of a special mechanism for response acquisition. Other theories of imitation, and relevant empirical literature are reviewed and reinterpreted from the cognitive perspective. (DP)

The effects of modeling and corrective feedback on the conservation of equalities and inequalities were studied. Both training methods were successful in teaching children to conserve. Trained children were also capable of generalizing their learning to new conservation tasks. (CS)

A multiple probe study across behaviors, replicated across students, assessed the effectiveness of simultaneous prompting (SP) in a small group teaching arrangement on teaching (a) to show the provinces, rivers, and border countries of Turkey on a map and (b) to expressively identify the names of the symbols which are usually used in math.…

Two experiments investigated the effects of physical contact imitative training and verbal contact imitative training on the degree to which first and second graders exhibited generalized imitative affectionate and aggressive behavior. The effects of punishment as well as extinction on imitative behavior were analyzed. (DP)

Preschool children divided into three age groups were trained in a stimulus-specific and response-specific seriation-of-length behavior in a typical observational learning paradigm. In three treatment conditions information given to subjects was varied; the fourth served as control. Assessment attempted to determine whether rule learning would be…