Teaching social perception skills to adolescents with autism and intellectual disabilities using video-based group instruction.

Few interventions focus on teaching social skills to adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disabilities (ID) that are consistently used during interactions with peers ( Carter et al., 2014). The present study evaluated the effects of video-based group instruction (VGI) on the acquisition of social perception skills of five adolescents with ASD or ID in a public school setting. Social perception involves observing affective behaviors of others, discriminating relevant environmental stimuli, and differentially reinforcing the affective behavior of another person. Typically developing peers supported VGI implementation as social partners for participants. A multiple probe design across behaviors demonstrated the effectiveness of VGI for teaching social perception skills. Four of five participants acquired and maintained the targeted social perception skills, and we observed some transfer to a nontreatment setting. Results of this study suggest VGI may support the acquisition of social perception among adolescents with ASD or ID.

Intraverbal Training for Individuals with Autism: The Current Status of Multiple Control.

Teaching complex intraverbal responding to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be challenging and often requires careful programming. Divergent and convergent multiple control are particularly important elements to incorporate into intraverbal training programs, as well as procedures to ensure responding is under control of both discriminative and conditional vocal verbal stimuli. The current study systematically reviewed research articles on intraverbal training methods for individuals with ASD published and available from 2005 to 2016. The purpose of the review was to assess the extent to which divergent and convergent control was incorporated into training and to determine whether systematic instruction ensured correct verbal conditional discriminations. Thirty-six studies met inclusion criteria and were included in this reviewed. A total of 5 studies taught intraverbal responding under divergent control and 21 taught responding under convergent control. Two studies sufficiently described procedures to ensure accurate verbal conditional discriminations across trials. The results highlight the need for additional research on systematic teaching procedures for complex intraverbal repertoires.