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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.

Joint attention is a pivotal social communication skill often absent or impaired in young children with autism spectrum disorder. Joint attention is the shared and alternating attention of two individuals on an object or event, and has implications for later communication and social communication skills. This study used a concurrent multiple‐baseline design across 3 caregiver–child dyads to train caregivers to teach response to joint attention behaviors to their 3–6 years old children with moderate to severe autism spectrum disorder. Caregivers were trained on strategies including prompting, time delay, and elements of naturalistic teaching and implemented the intervention in brief 10‐min sessions 2–3 times per week. Results indicate parent mastery of intervention and substantial increase in child response to joint attention behaviors both prompted and independent. Implications for practice and areas for future research are discussed.

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