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Evaluating the Ability of the PBS Children’s Show Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood to Teach Skills to Two Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood is a children’s television show incorporating many elements of video modeling, an intervention that can teach skills to children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This study evaluated the impact of watching Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood episodes on the accurate performance of trying new foods and stopping play politely with two five-year-old children with ASD. Both children showed improved performance of skills only following exposure to episodes of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, suggesting that watching episodes can help children with ASD learn specific skills.

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

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Correspondence to Wesley H. Dotson.

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Funding

This study was not externally funded.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from the legal guardians of all individual participants included in the study.

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Utility of the Work for Clinicians

Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood episodes teach relevant skills for children with ASD using elements of video modeling.

• Watching episodes led to increased rates of accurate performance of trying new foods and stopping play politely in children with ASD

Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood is a potentially salient and easily accessed resource to supplement instruction for children with ASD

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Dotson, W.H., Rasmussen, E.E., Shafer, A. et al. Evaluating the Ability of the PBS Children’s Show Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood to Teach Skills to Two Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Behav Analysis Practice 10, 67–71 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-016-0134-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-016-0134-z

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