Autistic children -- Means of communication

Teachers of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often struggle to find effective instructional methods to use with their students on a daily basis. The characteristic verbal, social, and behavioral limitations of children with ASD make finding effective teaching methods difficult. Though some intensive intervention methods, such as discrete trial teaching (DTT), have numerous studies demonstrating their effectiveness with students with ASD, the required one-on-one format makes it impractical to use in a classroom setting on a regular basis. Direct Instruction (DI) appears in the literature as a promising intervention for students with developmental disabilities. One benefit of DI is that, unlike DTT and similar interventions, it can be implemented in a group format. This group format provides a practical alternative for classroom teachers to use with their students with ASD. This study utilized a multiple probe across behaviors design to further investigate the use of DI to teach high school students with ASD how to answer “wh-” questions. The researcher used the Science Research Associates (SRA) Reading Mastery language program, which is a DI program designed to develop language skills. Three participants between the ages of 15 and 17 participated in 20-25 minute instructional sessions four times a week for eight weeks. Data were collected on each participant’s accuracy in answering “wh-” questions during baseline, acquisition (teaching), and maintenance conditions. The results indicate that DI was effective in helping participants acquire the language skills necessary to accurately respond to “what,” “where," and “who” questions. Implications for small group language instruction for students with ASD and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Autism is a disorder that affects children at an alarming rate. One out of every 88
children is diagnosed with autism in the United States. The disorder is characterized by
communication, social, and behavioral deficits. Children with autism often require
specialized teaching methods to learn basic skills that most children acquire without
specialized instruction. Relatively few studies have examined strategies for teaching
safety skills to individuals with autism. The current study utilized a multiple baseline
across participants’ design to evaluate whether a modeling and rehearsal strategy is
effective for teaching fire safety skills to children with autism between 4 and 5 years of
age. Results indicated that modeling and rehearsal were effective in teaching fire safety
skills, the skills generalized to novel settings, and maintained 5-weeks following the
completion of training. Implications for safety skill instruction and future research are
discussed.