Teaching Turn-Taking Skills to Children with Autism
Sheedy Milord
Co-Presenters: Individual Presentation
College: College of Education
Major: Applied Behavior Analysis
Faculty Research Mentor: Daphna El Roy
Abstract:
Turning-taking is an important aspect of the children's development, influencing various domains such as social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Turn-taking plays a crucial role in social skills development by teaching children the importance of sharing, waiting, and listening. Typically-developing children often exhibit turn-taking behaviors during social games, including making eye contact, imitating actions, responding to their names, and following directions during play activities (Harper et al., 2007). Many children with autism tend to engage in solitary play rather than interacting with peers. A literature review was conducted to identify effective interventions to teach turn-taking to children with autism. A survey was developed based on it. A total of 34 professionals participated. The anonymous survey was conducted using Google Forms. Each procedural question focused on participants' experience with using various evidence-based interventions for teaching turn-taking skills to children with autism, and rating the effectiveness of interventions they used. Most (93.8%) used a combination of modeling (demonstrating desired behaviors, social interactions, or communication skills) and reinforcement of individuals with autism. Almost all (93.3%) rated it to be either effective or very effective.