Teach Social Skills in Context
Socialization interventions are far more effective when provided in socially rich contexts in which peers and naturally occurring social stimuli and reinforcers are present (Chang & Locke, 2016; Whalon et al., 2015). It is difficult, if not impossible, to accurately imitate the SDs and contingencies of natural social interactions outside of those contexts. For example, it is probably not feasible to duplicate those social stimuli present in a play group of typically developing children (e.g., requests to play, comments about ongoing play activities, peer-to-peer instructions regarding a play activity) in a group solely composed of children with autism. Teaching children with autism to recognize and respond to those stimuli requires that they are repeatedly exposed to natural social stimuli and naturally occurring social reinforcers.