Emphasize Generalization
Children can be taught to exhibit discrete social skills in structured situations relatively efficiently, in many cases. The challenge is teaching students to use those skills in new situations, where all of the familiar original learning conditions have changed. Generalization is among the most essential components of learning (Stokes & Baer, 1977). If skills do not generalize to real-life conditions, the student has gained little. A large body of research has delineated specific strategies for facilitating generalization, some of which were described in Chapter 5 . Later in this chapter, we will present generalization strategies that are that are particularly well suited for social skills.
7-4bIntervention Approaches
Three general approaches to intervention delivery have been used successfully to improve social behavior in students with autism: teacher-mediated interventionsteacher-mediated interventionsSocialization interventions that are directed by the teacher. Include direct instruction of social skills, story-based interventions, and antecedent prompting. teacher-mediated interventionsSocialization interventions that are directed by the teacher. Include direct instruction of social skills, story-based interventions, and antecedent prompting., self-mediated interventionsself-mediated interventionsSocialization interventions in which the student with autism does something to facilitate the use of target skills, such as self-monitoring or video self-modeling. self-mediated interventionsSocialization interventions in which the student with autism does something to facilitate the use of target skills, such as self-monitoring or video self-modeling., and peer-mediated interventionspeer-mediated interventionsSocialization interventions that rely on socially competent peers to initiate and maintain social interactions with students with autism. peer-mediated interventionsSocialization interventions that rely on socially competent peers to initiate and maintain social interactions with students with autism.. Although each of these intervention delivery approaches has been shown to improve the social performance of students with autism, research supports the use of multicomponent interventions, in which two or more of these procedures within or across these categories are applied in combination (Camargo et al., 2014; Simpson et al., 1997; Whalon et al., 2015). For example, teacher-mediated direct instruction could occur in the classroom, and then peer-mediated intervention could be arranged during recess. In the following sections we describe specific interventions in each of the categories previously described.