Social skills instruction (SSI) provides a promising avenue for teaching and promoting positive social interactions to students with high-incidence disabilities. Within SSI, a distinction can be made between social skills and social competence. Social skills are specific behaviors one must perform correctly within a specific social context or…

Seven empirical studies from this special issue and an overview chapter are reviewed to illustrate several points about studying the possible effects of treatment intensity manipulations on generalized skill or knowledge acquisition in students with disabilities. First, we make a case in favor of studying intensity as separate from complexity and…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an iPad® as a prompting device for teaching five daily living skills to three young adults with disabilities. Identified target tasks were (a) making spaghetti, (b) cleaning the dining room, (c) making macaroni and cheese, (d) cleaning the front porch, (e) cleaning the back porch, (f)…

The effectiveness of a self-management intervention on social interaction behaviors was evaluated for students with disabilities and social deficits. Four students enrolled in a general education kindergarten classroom were taught to self-monitor social initiations during nonstructured social time via a digital wrist counter. The number of social…

Research was reviewed on small-group instruction for learners with disabilities. The review was conducted for articles published between 1990 and 2010 on the application of small-group direct instruction to teach discrete skills using prompting procedures. A total of 47 articles with 197 participants and 687 replications of effects was located.…

Training and coaching with performance feedback has been effective for supporting teachers to use evidence-based instructional practices. However, coaching with performance feedback has primarily been used to support teachers to use discrete skills, and there has been little evidence of maintenance and generalization. The purpose of this study was…

Training and coaching with performance feedback has been effective for supporting teachers to use evidence-based instructional practices. However, coaching with performance feedback has primarily been used to support teachers to use discrete skills, and there has been little evidence of maintenance and generalization. The purpose of this study was…

Research has shown general case programming to be an effective method for teaching a wide range of skills to students with disabilities. The authors used a multiple probe nested in an ABA reversal design to test (a) the effectiveness of general case programming for teaching 4 students with mild to moderate disabilities to take and give telephone…

A multiple probe design was used to examine the relation between teachers' use of the system of least prompts, contingent imitation, and praise, and the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of pretend play by 4 children with disabilities. The teachers' use of the intervention package was functionally related to increases in the children's…

The research synthesis presented here reviewed the currently available evidence on the effectiveness of sibling-implemented interventions for their siblings with disabilities. The search for appropriate research literature spanned from 1975 to 2008 and resulted in a total of eight studies that met the inclusion criteria. All eight studies in this…

Four elementary age moderately disabled students were taught to use a picture-prompt prosthetic to make vending machine purchases. All students reached criterion on the vending machine use task, demonstrated partial generalization to untrained machines, and three Ss exhibited maintenance as much as six weeks beyond the termination of instruction.…

Five learning disabled, emotionally disturbed, and physically disabled adults were taught six basic macrame knots using an instructional manual, series of error correction procedures, and social reinforcement. They then independently used the instructional materials to make three complete macrame projects without direct instruction. Ss also…

This response to Chandler et al. (EC 604 147) suggests that generalization of social competence training be viewed from both functional and topographical perspectives which have scientific and practice biases, respectively. The paper proposes a generalization-discrimination continuum along which behaviors may be placed for optimum utility. (DB)

Observational learning is theoretically conceptualized as a skill that can be developed along a learning hierarchy from acquisition and fluency development to generalization of imitative behavior. This review characterizes these levels of observational learning and details differential teaching strategies that have been attempted at each level…

In two experiments, self-instruction training for educationally handicapped children consisted of general self-instruction components and explicit instruction in task components. For both experiments the training improved academic performance. It was concluded that successful academic performance occurs when self-instructional statements integrate…