2021 Volume 59 Issue 3 Pages 191-202
The present study examined the effectiveness of interventions that corresponded to the types of social skill deficits shown by the participants, who were children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study used a multiple baseline design across settings. The settings were a special needs classroom and a regular classroom in an elementary school. The participants were 2 fourth-grade boys who had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. One of them had acquisition deficits; the other, performance deficits. The behavior measured was holding their head up, rather than looking down, when the teacher was speaking, and playing with items on the desk, such as pencils and erasers, when the teacher was explaining lessons. The interventions were, for both boys, social skills training (SST) in the special needs classroom and, for the participant who had performance defıcits, self-monitoring in the regular classroom. The results demonstrated that the social skills training in the special needs classroom resulted in improvement in the target behavior of the student with acquisition defıcits, whereas self-monitoring in the regular classroom resulted in improvement in the target behavior of the student with performance defıcits. It was suggested that interventions corresponding to the observed type of skill deficit may be effective for addressing social skills problems in children with autism spectrum disorder.
