A COMPARISON OF PEER‐INITIATION AND TEACHER‐ANTECEDENT INTERVENTIONS FOR PROMOTING RECIPROCAL SOCIAL INTERACTION OF AUTISTIC PRESCHOOLERS

We compared two procedures for improving the social interactions of three autistic children. In a peer‐initiation condition, confederates were taught to initiate interaction with the autistic children. In a teacher‐antecedent condition, teachers prompted the autistic children to initiate with confederates, who had been taught to reciprocate. Using an alternating treatment design, differential effects were found. The peer‐initiation procedure reliably increased the social responses of the autistic children, whereas the teacher‐antecedent condition increased the initiations and responses of the autistic children. In addition, longer chains of social interaction occurred during the teacher‐antecedent condition.