Determining how best to meet the needs of learners with Down syndrome requires an approach to intervention delivered at some level of intensity. How treatment intensity affects learner acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of skills can help optimize the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of interventions. There is a growing body of research…

The purpose of this study was to assess the extent of a generalized matching repertoire. Three children, ranging from two to four years of age, were selected from an early childhood developmental delay classroom. They were taught identical matching with six objects. After the children mastered those six objects, they were tested for a generalized…

For children with autism, acquiring and generalizing new skills can be particularly difficult and may be affected by child characteristics. Forty-one preschool children with autism were recruited from an existing early intervention program and then randomized to one of two treatments, a targeted intervention for symbolic play skills or one for…

A study of 15 preschool children with autism found that the majority were able to identify preferred peers and that participation in a social skills program, in addition to an early intervention program, led to increases in skills that could be observed in the generalization setting. (Author/CR)

This study examined the feasibility of teaching phonemic manipulation skills (auditory rhyming, blending, or segmenting) to preschool children with disabilities. Forty-seven children, 4-6 years old, enrolled in a special education preschool, were randomly assigned to receive training in one of three categories of phonemic manipulation tasks…

A step-by-step guide is presented for developing and implementing a social interaction intervention based on a study of an inclusive preschool program. Steps include developing a data collection system, selecting observation time, collecting baseline data, identifying target children, developing social interaction skills intervention, monitoring…

This document presents the final report of a 4-year project (ending in 1991) which conducted six studies of the impact of various peer-mediated interventions on the acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of social interaction skills of preschoolers with severe disabilities. The report covers project objectives, the project's theoretical…

Discrete trial training (DTT) is a well-established intervention for teaching skills to children with autism; however, few published guidelines are available for determining whether a child's rate of learning a particular skill is satisfactory and, if not, what to do. We assert that progress within 8-10 teaching sessions usually is evidence of…

This paper on facilitating skill development of infants and toddlers with disabilities within family-child routines focuses on: (1) developing a routine analysis by incorporating multiple Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) objectives into family-selected routines; (2) utilizing systematic family training procedures to integrate targeted skills…