Teaching Caregivers to Integrate Four Play-Based Instructional Strategies Without Decrements in Child Play and Preference

Young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often require systematic teaching to learn new skills, and caregivers can teach their children by embedding learning opportunities in a play-based context. However, researchers have not evaluated procedures to train caregivers to implement a combination of strategies designed to establish rapport and early language skills while maintaining play as a preferred context. We recruited two caregiver-child dyads composed of two mothers and their sons (3 and 4 years old). We used a multiple-probe design across strategies to demonstrate the efficacy of behavioral skills training on the mothers’ integration of parallel play, child-directed interaction, teaching requests (mands), and teaching labels (tacts). Both children acquired the target requests and labels as a function of their mothers’ teaching. By also assessing the children’s preference, we confirmed the teaching strategies did not decrease the children’s play or the value of playing with their mother. We obtained stimulus generalization and maintenance of the mothers’ implementation of the strategies from a clinic to their home. The outcomes serve as preliminary support for a caregiver-implemented intervention that composed of four embedded-teaching strategies while maintaining high levels of play and child preference for playing with their caregiver