Further research is needed to develop more effective play skill interventions that assess the functional use of play and are implemented in the natural environment.

Play is a critical component of preschool children's development. For children with autism, restricted play skills eliminate common tools needed to build independent performance and peer relationships. The purpose of this study was to investigate a strategy to improve the independent performance of preschoolers with autism during playtime in an inclusive setting. A multiple-baseline design across subjects was employed to determine the effectiveness of correspondence training and activity schedules on the on-task and play correspondence behavior of 4 preschoolers with autism. Partial-interval recording was used to measure on-task behavior and experimenter prompts, whereas a frequency count was used for on-schedule behavior. Procedural integrity and social validity were also measured. Results of the study indicated that all 4 participants' on-task and play correspondence behavior increased, while experimenter prompts gradually decreased.

We investigated the effects of an intervention using high-probability request sequences with embedded peer modeling to increase social interactions of children with autism in a classroom. The effects of the intervention on compliant responding to social requests and social behaviors were monitored using a single-subject multiple baseline design across children. Additionally, social validity regarding the intervention goals, procedures, and outcomes was measured by relevant consumers. The results of this study indicate that all three children's compliant responding to low-probability requests and social behaviors increased with the intervention and were maintained. Furthermore, the target children's social behaviors generalized to untrained peers and nontraining settings. The social validity results indicated a high level of consumer acceptability and usability among relevant consumers.

Matrix training is a generative approach to instruction in which words are arranged in a matrix so that some multiword phrases are taught and others emerge without direct teaching. We taught 4 preschoolers with autism to follow instructions to perform action-picture combinations (e.g., circle the pepper, underline the deer). Each matrix contained 6 actions on 1 axis and 6 pictures on the other axis. We used most-to-least prompting to train the instructions along the diagonal of each matrix and probed the untrained combinations. For 2 participants, untrained responding emerged after the minimum amount of training. The other 2 participants required further training before untrained combinations emerged. At the end of the study, 3 of the 4 participants performed the trained actions with previously known pictures, letters, and numbers. This study demonstrated that matrix training is an efficient approach to teaching language and literacy skills to children with autism.

This study investigated effects of a self-evaluation procedure on preschool children's use of social interaction strategies among their classmates with autism. Three triads of children (comprised of 1 trained normally developing peer, 1 untrained peer, and 1 child with autism) participated. A multiple baseline design across subjects was used to demonstrate that peers who were taught facilitative strategies increased their use of strategies only after the self-evaluation intervention was introduced. Improvements in social behavior of children with autism was associated with peers' increased strategy use. Untrained peers demonstrated little change in their social behavior. Treatment effects were replicated when trained peers were asked to use self-evaluation with other children with autism during other play times. Self-evaluation procedures enhanced the use of social interaction strategies on the part of normally developing peers during social skills interventions.