Assessing Sufficient Social Exemplars for Students with Autism

Three children with autism from a self-contained elementary special education class participated in daily W-min free-play sessions with 15 nondisabled 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade peers from the same school in three social interaction groups. After a baseline period, one of the peers was trained to appropriately interact with the student with autism. During the first phase of the intervention, this trained peer and the student with autism joined four other nontrained peers for play activities. Subsequently, each peer in the group received training sequentially so that the treatment phases reflected one trained, two trained, three trained, four trained, and five trained peers interacting with the student with autism in that same group of six. For each of the three groups, generalized interactions with nontrained peers were observed after the introduction of the third trained peer. Qualitative as well as quantitative changes in social interaction were documented.