An adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare mother-developed and delivered social stories and video modeling in teaching social skills to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Mothers’ opinions about the social validity of the study were also examined. Three mother–child dyads participated in the study. Results showed that mothers could develop social stories and video images with 100% accuracy and implement them with high treatment integrity. Results also showed that both interventions were effective in teaching social skills to children with ASD, and both mothers and children could maintain and generalize their acquired skills; video modeling was more efficient for two children and social stories were more efficient for one child. Finally, mothers’ opinions about the social validity of both interventions were positive. Future research is needed to support these findings.

A multiple probe design was used to assess the combined effects of videomodeling, graduated guidance and community-based instruction for teaching children with autism how to protect themselves from the lures of strangers. Parental opinions were also assessed in the study. Three children with autism (aged 6 to 11 years) participated in the study. Data indicated that videomodeling with graduated guidance and community-based instruction was effective for teaching children with autism how to protect themselves from the lures of strangers. Also it can be seen that participants maintained the acquired skill over time and applied it to novel settings. Furthermore, generalization was maintained over time. The parents of the participants reported positive opinions regarding the aims, procedures, and results of the study. Based on an evaluation of the findings, implications and future research needs are discussed.

The researchers in this study used a multiple baseline design across dyads to examine the effects of professional development with coaching to train general education teachers to use a simultaneous prompting procedure when teaching academic core content to students with autism and the effects of the procedure on the students’ outcomes. Three teacher–student dyads participated in the study. Results showed that (a) teachers acquired the ability to use the simultaneous prompting procedure with 100% accuracy, maintained the acquired teaching behaviors over time, and generalized them in teaching new academic content to their students; and (b) students acquired the targeted academic content, maintained it over time, and generalized it across different persons and settings. In addition, the students acquired instructive feedback stimuli added to instruction and maintained these over time as well. Last, both the opinions of the teachers and students about the social validity of the study were positive. Future research is needed to support these findings.