Nonhandicapped Peers as Multiple Exemplars: A Generalization Tactic for Promoting Autistic Students' Social Skills

Two socially withdrawn autistic boys were subjects of this study. A teacher prompt and praise procedure was applied sequentially across dyads composed of a subject and a nonhandicapped peer. Direct observation assessed changes in subjects' social behavior during these structured play sessions and again during later free-play generalization sessions. Results indicated that, as the training procedure was applied across each of the first three nonhandicapped peers, both subjects increased their interactions with those peers. One subject spontaneously began to interact with the nonhandicapped peers not yet involved in training as well as with the nonhandicapped peers in the later free-play session. No reliable changes were obtained in subjects' interactions with their autistic classmates.