Abstract
A peer-initiation training procedure was implemented across multiple peer trainers to investigate social interactions between severely withdrawn autistic children and their nonhandicapped peers. For one subject, substantial increases in spontaneous interactions with training and nontraining peers occurred after the peer-initiation procedure was applied across two training exemplars. Spontaneous social interactions continued even after the training procedure was removed. Although experimental control was established with the second subject during training, spontaneous interactions during nontraining periods were primarily with training peers. The results contribute to an emerging data base on the social interactions of autistic and severely withdrawn handicapped children and on peer- initiation training procedures.
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This research was supported in part by grants from the U.S. Department of Education. The authors thank Joe Wehby, Kelly Heckaman, Luanne Landrum, Debby Brown, and Sherry Owen for their help throughout the study, and Ken Denny who provided continuous encouragement. Floyd Dennis, Steve Warren, Otto Bassler, and the JADD reviewers provided many useful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. Finally Tessa Jo Shokri, Sylvia Scruggs, and Norma Morris provided extraordinary help with the manuscript and graphs.
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Brady, M.P., Shores, R.E., McEvoy, M.A. et al. Increasing social interactions of severely handicapped autistic children. J Autism Dev Disord 17, 375–390 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01487067
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01487067