Document Type
Dissertation
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Psychology
Degree
PhD in Behavior Analysis
Dissertation Defense Date
2022
First Committee Member
Ahearn, William H.
Second Committee Member
MacDonald, Rebecca
Third Committee Member
Pinkston, Jonathan W.
Additional Committee Member(s)
Henley, Amy J.
Abstract
"Pretend play is a social skill that emerges early in typically developing children and has been shown to be an important contributor to the development of a participant’s social and language skills (MacDonald et al., 2005, 2009). Unlike typically developing children, children with autism often exhibit persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, in addition to engaging in restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. A multiple probe design across play scenarios within and across participants was used to evaluate in-vivo modeling, least-to-most prompting, and multiple exemplar training on the quality of pretend play skills with three toddlers diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. The toddler participants observed the experimenter model a play scenario, then had an opportunity to complete the scenario independently, and the experimenter used least-to-most prompting as needed. Each participant was taught nine play scenarios, three scenarios per play theme (e.g., firefighter, chef, and doctor play themes). Test probes were systematically conducted throughout to determine whether generalized play within and across play sets had occurred. Results of this study indicate an increase in scripted pretend play and generalized play following training."
Recommended Citation
Wilhelm, Laura E., "Teaching pretend play to toddlers with autism" (2022). Doctoral Dissertations - College of Arts and Sciences. 68.
https://digitalcommons.law.wne.edu/casdissertations/68
