A Parent-Implemented Playdate Intervention for Young Children With Autism and Their Peers

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present with social skills difficulties, which can create barriers for them to develop friendships with their peers. Playdates are a common way that young children practice play and friendship skills in home and community environments. Few studies have tr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of early intervention Vol. 42; no. 4; pp. 303 - 320
Main Authors Raulston, Tracy J., Hansen, Sarah G., Frantz, Rebecca, Machalicek, Wendy, Bhana, Naima
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.12.2020
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Applied Behavior Analysis
Autism
Autistic children
Behavior Patterns
Coaching (Performance)
Communication
Control Groups
Early intervention
Family Environment
Friendship
Games
Graduate students
Interpersonal Competence
Intervention
Learning
Learning Strategies
Narratives
Parent Attitudes
Parent Education
Parent Participation
Parents & parenting
Peer Relationship
Peers
Pervasive Developmental Disorders
Program Implementation
Rating Scales
Social interaction
Social skills
Teaching methods
Validity
Young Children
United States > US
playdate
parent-implemented
autism
social skills
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Summary:Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present with social skills difficulties, which can create barriers for them to develop friendships with their peers. Playdates are a common way that young children practice play and friendship skills in home and community environments. Few studies have trained parents to embed social skills instruction into playdates for children with ASD, and such studies have been comprised of children with mild to moderate needs. In the current study, we employed a concurrent single-case multiple probe across three parent–child–peer triads design to evaluate the effects of training and coaching in a parent-implemented playdate intervention on parental strategy use and cascading effects on child–peer social interactions during playdates. Parents also rated the social validity of the intervention. Results indicated that two of the three parents reached criterion on the strategies quickly, and the third triad required a procedural modification. Challenging behavior appeared to be a barrier to implementation. Implications and future directions are discussed.
ISSN:1053-8151
2154-3992
DOI:10.1177/1053815119880943