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. 2017 Feb 15;11(1):19-33.
doi: 10.1007/s40617-017-0178-8. eCollection 2018 Mar.

Promoting Social Learning at Recess for Children with ASD and Related Social Challenges

Lori B Vincent  1 , Daniel Openden  2 , Joseph A Gentry  3 , Lori A Long  3 , Nicole L Matthews  2
Affiliations

Promoting Social Learning at Recess for Children with ASD and Related Social Challenges

Lori B Vincent et al. Behav Anal Pract. .

Abstract

The school playground provides an ideal opportunity for social inclusion; however, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often struggle to engage in appropriate social interactions in this unstructured environment. Thus, they may spend recess time alone. The FRIEND Playground Program is a structured, play-based intervention aimed at improving social interactions of children with ASD and other social challenges during recess. The current research study employed a multiple baseline across participant design to systematically evaluate whether this intervention yields increased social engagement and initiations with peers during recess. Seven participants with ASD or other social challenges received 20 min of direct intervention from trained playground facilitators during school recess each day. Results suggest that the FRIEND Playground Program produced meaningful increases in social engagement and social initiations from baseline among participants with ASD and other social challenges.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorders; Peer interaction skills; Recess; Social skills training.

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Conflict of interest statement

Compliance with Ethical StandardsAll 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 was obtained from all individual participants included in this program. Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was obtained to publish de-identified data from this program evaluation.Lori Vincent declares that she has no conflict of interest. Daniel Openden declares that he has no conflict of interest. Joseph Gentry declares that he has no conflict of interest. Lori Long declares that she has no conflict of interest. Nicole Matthews declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Figures

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Fig. 1
Time engaged with peers
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Social initiations to peers
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