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Training Paraprofessionals to Improve Socialization in Students with ASD

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Abstract

An important line of research relates to whether school personnel, such as paraprofessionals, who are present during unstructured social periods, such as lunch-recess, could successfully implement interventions to improve socialization between students with ASD and their typical peers in a group setting. Therefore, within the context of a multiple baseline across participants design, we assessed whether training paraprofessionals to provide social interventions would enhance social development in students with ASD in a group setting. Results showed that paraprofessionals who were not providing any social opportunities during baseline were able to meet fidelity of implementation following a brief training. Consequently, the children with ASD increased their levels of engagement and rates of initiation with typically developing peers following intervention. Implications for training paraprofessionals to implement effective social interventions for students with ASD are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

Thank you to the paraprofessionals and families with children with ASD who participated, the schools that collaborated with us in this research project. Funding for this research was provided by Organization for Autism Reserach. In addition, funding for this research was also provided in part by an URCA grant from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and by NIH research grant DC010924 from NIDCD. The authors also wish to thank the undergraduate research assistants. Finally, Robert and Lynn Koegel are also partners in the firm, Koegel Autism Consultants, LLC.

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  1. Koegel Autism Center, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106-9490, USA

    Robert L. Koegel, Sunny Kim & Lynn Kern Koegel

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  1. Robert L. Koegel
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  2. Sunny Kim
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  3. Lynn Kern Koegel
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Correspondence to Robert L. Koegel.

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Koegel, R.L., Kim, S. & Koegel, L.K. Training Paraprofessionals to Improve Socialization in Students with ASD. J Autism Dev Disord 44, 2197–2208 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2094-x

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