Teaching Observational Learning to Children with Autism
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Psychology
Date
9-2015
Abstract
Observational learning (OL) is critical for the acquisition of social skills and may be an important skill for learning in traditional educational settings. Although OL occurs during early childhood in the typically developing population, research suggests that it may be limited in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The purpose of the present study was to develop an assessment to test for the presence of OL across a variety of tasks. If OL was deficient, we sought to teach it by training specific skills. Six participants who had been diagnosed with ASD demonstrated deficits in OL. After an initial assessment, a multiple-probe design across OL tasks showed that training produced acquisition of these skills across multiple exemplars. After training, 5 of the 6 participants engaged in OL across multiple tasks and task variations, demonstrating generalization. For 1 participant, generalization of performance did not occur across tasks but did occur within task variations.
Recommended Citation
MacDonald, Jacquelyn and Ahearn, William H., "Teaching Observational Learning to Children with Autism" (2015). Student Work - College of Arts and Sciences. 49.
https://digitalcommons.wne.edu/casstudent/49
Original Citation
MacDonald, J. & Ahearn, W.H. (2015). Teaching observational learning to children with autism. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 40, 263-275. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.257
