In typical development, emergent literacy skills predict successful reading abilities. Code-related literacy skills may include letter knowledge, print concepts, early writing and early phonological awareness. Meaning-related literacy skills may include lexical and grammatical ability, story retelling and comprehension. Children with ASD (autism…

The present study examines the effect of visual scaffolding on promoting number sense skills (including number recognition, counting, ordinality, comparison, and calculation) of Egyptian autistic children mainstreamed in kindergartens. The participants were five autistic children, enrolled in the second level of kindergarten (ages 5-6).…

Emergent literacy skills are thought to develop through transactional relationships between child characteristics and environmental variables. Child characteristics suggested to contribute to literacy learning include speech and language development, cognitive processing profile, social-communication skills, joint engagement, and the absence of…

The literature contains a variety of assessment tools for measuring the skills of individuals with autism or other developmental delays, but most lack adequate empirical evidence supporting their reliability and validity. The current pilot study sought to examine the reliability of scores obtained from the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning…

Children with autistic disorder (AD) display atypical eye contact and struggle with the social imitation of eye contact. Impaired social imitation may be indicative of disruptions in motor learning processes. The application of specific motor learning principles, such as external feedback, may suggest which variables will result in positive change…

School-aged children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have delayed gestural development, in comparison with age-matched typically developing children. In this study, an intervention program taught children with low-functioning ASD gestural comprehension and production using video modelling (VM) by a computer-generated robot animation. Six to…

This systematic case study utilized a repeated acquisition design to investigate the impact of a caregiver-implemented RECALL (Reading to Engage Children with Autism in Language and Learning) on the correct, unprompted responses of a young child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). RECALL is an adapted shared reading intervention that includes a…

A child's diagnosis with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be an extremely stressful time for families. Researchers suggest that the period immediately following ASD diagnosis is a key time for professionals to guide families by providing appropriate information about support options. This article describes a family support program, developed by…

Children have been taught to demonstrate a safety response when they encounter a dangerous stimulus using behavioral skills training (BST). However, little research has evaluated the usefulness of BST to teach safety skills to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the current study, we evaluated BST to establish a generalized repertoire…

A severe deficit in handwriting is known as dysgraphia, a problem frequently associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Video self-modelling (VSM) has been proven effective for children with ASD in the strengthening of social skills, verbalizations, and daily living skills. Because VSM has demonstrated success in the acquisition of many types…

Psychometric properties and initial validity of the Brief Observation of Social Communication Change (BOSCC), a measure of treatment-response for social-communication behaviors, are described. The BOSCC coding scheme is applied to 177 video observations of 56 young children with ASD and minimal language abilities. The BOSCC has high to excellent…

This pilot study investigated the efficacy of Qigong Sensory Training, a parent-implemented tactile intervention, in improving sensory processing and self-regulation in children with or at-risk for autism who were enrolled in early intervention. A pretest-posttest, single-subject design was implemented with three families. After 5 months, atypical…

This study investigated the effectiveness of an aquatic playgroup on the playfulness of children, ages 2 to 3 with autism spectrum disorder. Using a repeated measures design, we followed 10 children and their caregivers who participated in a 6-week aquatic playgroup in southwest Florida. Four dyads completed the entire 12-week study period. The…

The current study assessed the use of standard conditional discrimination (i.e., listener) and textual/tact (i.e., speaker) training in the establishment of equivalence classes containing dictated names, tacts/textual responses, pictures and printed words. Four children (ages 5 to 7 years) diagnosed with autism were taught to select pictures and…

Social impairments may be the most striking deficit in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A common social impairment in individuals with ASD is difficulty interpreting and or predicting emotions of others. This difficulty can affect an individual's ability to develop and maintain positive relationships with others. Two boys and…