Increasing Social Interactions and Reducing Off-Task Behaviors in Students with Autism through Small Group Instruction
Elena Tucci, Camilla del Balzo, Laura Antonelli, Vanessa Artoni
The objective of this study was to measure the effects of small group instruction through active student responding techniques (direct Instruction, choral responding and response cards) combined with an interdependent group contingency procedure, as an innovative component to promote the reduction of off-task behaviors and increase social peer interactions in a class of pre-school students with autism. The participants, two students aged between four and five years with a Speaker level of verbal development, were selected for the study since high frequency off-task behaviors were observed during small group activities. There were also behaviors required for playing with adults but no interaction with peers was observed except through the emission of disapprovals. An experimental multiple probe design across participants was used, in which measures were collected on the number of off-task behaviors emitted during small group instructional sessions and on the number of spontaneous interactions emitted in structured game settings by each participant as a result of small group instruction. The intervention was represented by the implementation of the small group instruction through active student responding techniques in order to favor the decrease of off-task behaviors emitted by the participants and to increase social peer interactions. The results indicate a decrease in the number of off-task behaviors emitted, as well as an increase in social peer interactions which, for this study, were defined as collateral behaviors produced by small group instruction through active student responding techniques.
Keywords
Autism, Social interactions, Instruction, Small group, Active student responding.