Evaluation of a Sibling-Mediated Imitation Intervention for Young Children With Autism

Abstract

Parents and peers have been successful at implementing interventions targeting social interactions in children with autism; however, few interventions have trained siblings as treatment providers. This study used a multiple-baseline design across six sibling dyads (four children with autism) to evaluate the efficacy of sibling-implemented reciprocal imitation training. All six typically developing siblings were able to learn and use contingent imitation, four of the six siblings were able to learn and use linguistic mapping, and all six siblings increased their use of at least one component of the imitation training procedure. Three of the four children with autism showed increases in overall imitation and all four showed evidence of increases in joint engagement. Parents and siblings reported high satisfaction with the intervention and ratings by naïve observers indicated significant changes from pre-to post-treatment. These results suggest that siblingimplemented reciprocal imitation training may be a promising intervention for young children with autism. Keywordschildren with autism; family-based interventions; siblings; imitation Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder that emerges early in childhood and has profound effects on social functioning and communication (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000). Because of the significant social difficulties of children with autism, a large number of interventions for these children have focused on the development of social skills (see McConnell, 2002, for review). Interventions that have focused on teaching social interaction skills in natural settings and have involved social interaction partners with whom the child with autism is most likely to interact, such as parents and peers, have shown the best evidence of generalization and maintenance of these skills (Rogers, 2000). Research indicates that parents (e.g., Drew et al., 2002) and peers (e.g., McGee et al., 1992;Pierce & Schreibman, 1995) can be successfully taught to implement intervention strategies, and these interventions lead to improvement in social communication skills for the children with autism. Much less research, however, has been devoted to training siblings as intervention providers.Involving siblings in social skill interventions for children with autism may be particularly successful as siblings spend a significant amount of time with each other in a variety of situations. Further, siblings' natural play patterns may provide more opportunities for social interactions and play initiations by the children with autism than those of parents (El-1 Corresponding author: Katherine M. Walton, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824. meyerk14@msu.edu, Phone: 517-432-8031, Fax: 517-432-2476. 2 Brooke R. Ingersoll, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824. ingers19@msu.edu, Phone: 517-432-8412, Fax: 517-432-2476 Autism Speaks Author ManuscriptAccepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal Autism Speaks ...

Effectiveness of Siblings-Delivered iPad Game Activities in Teaching Social Interaction Skills to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…Taking into account the game choices of the participants and using iPad game stories as games made this study different from other studies. Game sets were used as teaching materials in other studies (Ferraioli & Harris, 2011;Oppenheim-Leaf et al, 2012;Walton & Ingersoll, 2012). Moreover, feedback in this study regarding the performance displayed by the participants has been presented differently when compared to other studies.…”

“…In those studies, behaviors that make social interaction easy were put in the following order: suggesting play activities to the sibling, making eye contact, drawing attention to the play activity, initiating and expanding the conversation, providing clear instructions for the game, presenting clues for appropriate behaviors and enhancements, and sharing toys (OppenheimLeaf et al, 2012;Tsao & Odom, 2006;Walton & Ingersoll, 2012). Aside from these studies, the same behaviors also appear in a study by Ozaydın, Tekin-İftar, and Kaner (2008) in Turkey in which the peers of children with ASD helped them gain friendship skills.…”

“…However, siblings have been intervention agents in only a few studies (Walton & Ingersoll, 2012). One of the main findings of many studies examining the quality of life for families of children with ASD has revealed that the social bonds between children with ASD and their siblings are inadequate (Ferraioli, & Harris, 2011;Walton, & Ingersoll, 2012).…”

“…This intervention has positively contributed to the communication of typically developing children with siblings who have ASD (Oppenheim-Leaf et al, 2012). A further study was carried out by Walton and Ingersoll (2012) on six pairs of siblings. In their study, the effectiveness of the program implementation was assessed regarding the teaching of reciprocal imitation skills to typically developing children with siblings with ASD.…”

A Comparison of Momentary Time Sampling and Partial‐interval Recording for Assessment of Effects of Social Skills Training

“…To mitigate logistical challenges associated with continuous recording methods, both partial‐interval recording (PIR) and momentary time sampling (MTS) are commonly utilized in social skills training to monitor progress (e.g., Bellini, Akullian, & Hopf, ; Betz, Higbee, & Reagon, ; Hughes et al., ; Walton & Ingersoll, ), with PIR often favored in assessment of social engagement skills (Merrell, ). PIR involves recording a behavior as having occurred if the target behavior is observed at any point during an interval.…”