Children with or at risk of disabilities, however, often demonstrate delays in play skills, which deleteriously affect their engagement in classroom activities including social interactions with peers (Barton, 2010). The effects can be cumulative because playful interactions with caregivers, peers, and teachers are a primary context for learning new skills (Barton, 2014; Dunst, Hamby, Trivette, Raab, & Bruder, 2000), including social skills that can be used across typical classroom activities, materials, and settings (Schneider & Goldstein, 2008). The relation between social skills acquired through play and school readiness highlights a critical need to address play and social competence as early as possible (Lee & Bierman, 2015; Stormont, Herman, Reinke, King, & Owens, 2015). Social competence in children predicts important outcomes such as academic achievement, job retention, and relationship success (Christakis & Fowler, 2011; Jones, Greenberg, & Crowley, 2015). Effective interventions for addressing child social competence exist (Hemmeter, Snyder, Fox, & Algina, 2016) and primarily involve adult systematic prompting (Joseph, Strain, Olszewski, & Goldstein, 2016). The best outcomes have been associated with interventions in which adults intentionally plan and facilitate social interactions between typically developing children and children with disabilities (Odom & Strain, 1986). In fact, this type of peer-mediated instruction-when intentional and systematic-has been effective for teaching the broad range of discrete skills needed to positively affect the frequency and quality of peer-related social interactions (Odom et al., 1999; Strain & Bovey, 2015).

In this systematic review, we examined the rigor and outcomes across 27 object play intervention studies using single-case research methodology. We focused on studies including children age 5 years or younger and examined several descriptive characteristics including materials, instructional packages, and settings. We also analyzed the facilitation and measurement of generalized play and several methodological features including quality, rigor, and visual analysis procedures. Overall, the identified studies demonstrated positive outcomes, although quality and rigor limited interpretations of the outcomes. Previous reviews also have noted strong outcomes and weak to moderate quality for single-case studies. Our results should be interpreted with caution given previous reviews of play intervention studies identified strong outcomes and quality from group-design studies. Additional replications testing robust interventions using single-case research with strong methodological rigor are warranted.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of performance-based feedback (PF) delivered via email on early childhood teachers’ sustained use of recommended practices within inclusive early childhood classrooms. A multiple baseline design across behaviors was replicated across three teachers to examine the relation between PF delivered via email and teachers’ use of target recommended practices across settings, over time, and during covert observations. Results indicated PF delivered via email was an effective method for increasing teachers’ use of target behaviors; however, generalization and maintenance varied across teachers.

Young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate fewer and less varied play behaviors than children with typical development. This article describes two studies designed to increase two aspects of play complexity—diverse play actions and sequential play actions—in a child with ASD. In Study 1, we use a multitreatment single-case design to compare the use of the system of least prompts with contingent reinforcement for diverse play or all play. In Study 2, we used a multiple probe design to examine the relation between the system of least prompts with contingent reinforcement and the child’s use of play sequences. Across both studies, the complexity of play increased when specific aspects—diversity or sequences—were prompted and reinforced; however, the maintenance of effects were variable.