Nesrhtens…..

As social deficits are one of the main impairments with children with autism spectrum disorders, there has been put a large effort in developing effective interventions in this area. And the later years the focus has been on the early social development, as they appear to be crucial for the normal development of children.

Another focus has been on embedding the intervention into more typical environments and one central element of this has bee the incorporation of natural rewards. This has shown to strengthen the response-reinforcer relationship and are especially helpful in encouraging social communication (e.g. Koegel and Koegel, 2006).

In a recent study by Koegel, Vernon and Koegel published in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders the effect of embedding social interactions into reinforcers on social initiations in children with autism was investigated. The data from this study support the notion that embedded social interaction in reinforcers increases several important early social behaviors.

Related posts:

1. Condition for social stimuli as reinforcers for children with autism
2. Mechanism For Social Development Found To Be Absent In Autistic Children
3. Question-Asking and Collateral Language Acquisition in Children with Autism.