Social skills interventions designed to increase pro-social interactions for individuals with autism spectrum disorders are critical, but the relative effectiveness of these interventions is not well understood. More than 250 single-case design studies in 113 articles were reviewed and described in terms of participants, settings, arrangements, implementers, social partners, target behaviors, and treatment components. Differential success rates are reported, given the variation in study and participant characteristics (e.g., implementers, treatment components, participant age). Environmental arrangement, social skills training, and prompting were highly successful, and peer training, priming, and video-based interventions were less successful. More evidence is needed, particularly research including older individuals and utilizing indigenous implementers and typical social partners.

Limited data are available regarding how response prompting procedures should be used in early childhood settings. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficiency of progressive time delay instruction presented via two trial arrangements: massed and embedded. During massed trial sessions, a short instructional session was conducted, followed by game play. During embedded trial sessions, trials were conducted during game play. Across 12 participants with and without disabilities, efficiency and preference data were mixed. Preference data suggested most participants preferred the instruction type that resulted in most efficient learning. Social validity data suggest inservice and preservice practitioners may be equally likely to use the procedures, but some respondents indicated they might be less willing to use embedded trial arrangements due to increased effort in materials preparation. Implications include the possibility that faster learners may learn better in embedded contexts and that children may prefer instructional contexts that are most efficient for them. Keywords instruction, massed, embedded, time delay, adapted alternating treatments design Research Question 1: Does instruction using massed trial arrangements versus trials embedded in game play result in differential efficiency of acquisition? Research Question 2: Do children prefer either arrangement? Research Question 3: What is the relationship between acquisition and preference? Research Question 4: Do practitioners report differential likelihood of use for instruction using massed trial arrangements versus trials embedded into game play?

Provision of small “sensory” fidget toys during group activities is a low-effort intervention that may be used during group activities to encourage attendance and engagement by children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the noncontingent provision of fidget toys during a group activity. Research activities occurred at a summer camp designed to improve social skills for young children with ASD. The impact of fidgets was compared with a baseline condition and contingent provision of tokens using a single case alternating treatments design. Results suggest contra-therapeutic effects or decreased engagement over time for the fidget condition. Practitioners should consider using evidence-based alternatives to improve engagement or should engage in careful data-based decision-making when fidgets are used with the intent to improve engagement in group activities.

No research has used latency-based functional analysis (FA) outcomes as baseline data from which to evaluate the effectiveness of subsequent function-based treatments. This approach to analysis calls for the continued collection of latency-based measures for all targeted variables throughout all phases of treatment. We tracked client progress during treatment using latency-based, rate-based, and percentage-ofopportunity measures of relevant behavior and compared graphical representations of each. Visual inspection of all data indicates that changes in variability level and trend of latencybased measures correspond well with said changes in more traditional measures. et al. 1984/1992) outcomes as baseline data from which to evaluate the effectiveness of subsequent treatments (e.g., Baker et al. 2006;Lloyd et al. 2014). Practitioners with limited time could benefit from replicating this approach to analysis because of its potential to increase the efficiency of service delivery (i.e., they do not need to conduct additional baseline sessions after an FA has been completed). For similar reasons, this approach has the potential to decrease caregiver objection to essential pretreatment activities. Specifically, it allows practitioners to spend less time determining the degree to which problem behavior occurs given the presence of countertherapeutic contingencies, relevant establishing operations (EO; Laraway et al. 2003), and discriminative stimuli (S D ), potentially reducing the need to justify this difficult-tounderstand yet important practice. KeywordsAnother way that practitioners might decrease caregiver objection to important pretreatment activities is by selecting a variation of traditional FA methodology that requires fewer instances of problem behavior to establish functional relationships. For instance, latency-based FAs occasion a small fraction of the problem behavior commonly seen during traditional FAs but produce results whose interpretations closely align with those of traditional FAs (Thomason-Sassi et al. 2011).Latency-based FA data allows practitioners to say with confidence that, in the absence of treatment, specific EOs and S D s will evoke problem behavior within (for instance) 40 s of their initial presentation. Thus, if practitioners continue to track latency to first response per unit of time during treatment, then they can determine how exposure to said treatment alters these latencies across time.Generating latency-based measures of progress during treatment requires only slight changes to baseline session protocol. Whereas therapists end sessions contingent upon the first occurrence of problem behavior during latency-based FAs, therapists continue to conduct sessions for a prespecified period of time (e.g., the maximum session duration of the latency-based FA) during treatment and only end data Implications for Practitioners • Decrease probability of high rates of problem behavior during assessment • Potentially decrease caregiver objection to pretreatment activities • Increase e...

Coaching has been shown to improve the use of evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs), but relatively few studies have been conducted to assess the effectiveness of coaching for adults belonging to minority groups and paraprofessionals in public elementary school settings. In this study, a multiple probe design across participants was used to assess the effectiveness of coaching and the provision of feedback on the use of prompting procedures and associated practices for three adults supporting three young students with autism in a self-contained elementary school setting. Results showed improved use of target practices and increased student engagement. More research is needed regarding the training and coaching of teaching teams and the use of evidence-based coaching and feedback practices to assist paraprofessionals in implementing EBIPs with small groups of students and in a variety of educational settings.