Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 5-2015 An Evaluation of Group Activity Schedules to Train Children with Autism to Play Hide-and-Seek with their Typically Developing Peers Jessica S. Akers Utah State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd Part of the Special Education and Teaching Commons Recommended Citation Akers, Jessica S., "An Evaluation of Group Activity Schedules to Train Children with Autism to Play Hide- and-Seek with their Typically Developing Peers" (2015). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 4581. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/4581 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AN EVALUATION OF GROUP ACTIVITY SCHEDULES TO TRAIN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM TO PLAY HIDE-AND-SEEK WITH THEIR TYPICALLY DEVELOPING PEERS by Jessica S. Akers A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Disability Disciplines Approved: __________________________ __________________________ Thomas S. Higbee Robert Morgan Major Professor Committee Member __________________________ __________________________ Timothy A. Slocum Tyra Sellers Committee Member Committee Member __________________________ __________________________ Nicole Pyle Mark R. McLellan Committee Member Vice President for Research and Dean of the school of Graduate Studies UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Logan, Utah 2015 ii Copyright ≤ Jessica Akers 2015 All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT An Evaluation of Group Activity Schedules to Train Children with Autism to Play Hide-and-Seek with Typically Developing Peers by Jessica S. Akers, Doctor of Philosophy Utah State University, 2015 Major Professor: Dr. Thomas S. Higbee Department: Special Education and Rehabilitation Children with autism spectrum disorders often have deficits in the area of social skills. Because of this deficit many children with autism avoid engaging in play activities with typically developing peers. The purpose of this study was to identify the utility of a photographic activity schedule, with embedded scripts, to teach three children with autism to play a complex social game with typically developing peers. In this study we used activity schedules to train children with autism to play hide-and-seek in a group with typically developing peers. All participants were prompted using physical guidance to follow the activity schedules to play hide-and-seek. Two activity schedules were present during teaching sessions, one was the seeker schedule and the other was the hider schedule. Each group member played the role of the seeker once and then the game ended. All of the participants were able to follow the activity schedules to play hide-and- seek. We then systematically faded the activity schedules to the least intrusive version iv necessary. We were able to fade all of the scripts and several components of the activity schedules. For two of the three participants with autism we were able to fade the schedule from two binders to a visual cue displaying the order of the seekers. For the third participant we were able to fade one binder and the majority of the components in the second binder. The participants were able to continue to play hide-and-seek with the faded versions of the schedules in a novel environment and 2-weeks after treatment concluded. (110 pages) v PUBLIC ABSTRACT An Evaluation of Group Activity Schedules to Train Children with Autism to Play Hide-and-Seek with Typically Developing Peers Jessica S. Akers Children with autism spectrum disorder have difficulties with social and play skills. The purpose of this study was to determine if three young children with autism could learn to play a complex social game, hide-and-seek, with three typically developing peers. Participants were taught to play hide-and-seek using photographic activity schedules. Photographic activity schedules are a type of visual schedule that teach children with autism to engage in chains of behavior. Two schedules were present during teaching sessions, a seeker schedule and a hider schedule. Each group member played the role of the seeker once during the game. The three participants, and typically developing peers, were able to play hide-and-seek when the schedules were present. We then introduced a systematic fading procedure to identify if the children would continue to play the game without the schedules. The three participants required some form of the schedule to play the game, however the majority of components were faded. They were still able to play hide-and-seek, with the faded version of the schedule, in a novel environment and 2-weeks after the treatment sessions ended. Our results indicated that young children with autism can play complex games with minimal prompts. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first and foremost like to thank my advisor, Dr. Thomas Higbee, for supporting and guiding me through the completion of this project. I greatly appreciate the time and energy he invested not only in this project but also in my professional development over the past four years. I also would like to thank each of my committee members, Timothy Slocum, Robert Morgan, Tyra Sellers, and Nicole Pyle, for being an integral part of this project. I am extremely grateful to Janet Wahlquist for supporting this project and allowing us to conduct sessions in the DDE Center. Additionally, I thank Lauren Pace for graciously allowing access to her students and classroom. Thank you to Nina and Azure without whom this project would not have been possible. Specifically, thank you for your ideas, editing the paper, and keeping me sane though out this process. Thank you Kassidy, Lyndsay, Lorraine, Bethany and Kylee for collecting data and running sessions. I would like to thank my parents for always pushing me to work hard and be the best version of myself. I am so grateful to all three of you for the financial and moral support you have provided me over the years. Thank you to my Aunt Alyce for inspiring me to pursue a graduate degree. And lastly thank you Grandpa Tom for preaching the importance of education, clearly I took the lesson to heart. Jessica Akers vii CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... iii PUBLIC ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................ vi LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ ix LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... x CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 1 Systematic Prompting Procedures ................................................................... 3 Video Modeling ............................................................................................... 5 Photographic Activity Schedules ..................................................................... 7 II. LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................................. 12 Individual Activity Schedules ........................................................................ 12 Peer Activity Schedules ................................................................................. 25 Fading ............................................................................................................ 30 Group Activity Schedules .............................................................................. 31 III. METHOD ...................................................................................................... 34 Participants ..................................................................................................... 34 Setting ............................................................................................................ 36 Materials ........................................................................................................ 37 Response Definition and Measurement ......................................................... 38 Research Design............................................................................................. 41 Treatment Fidelity and Interobserver Agreement .......................................... 41 Procedures ...................................................................................................... 42 IV. RESULTS ...................................................................................................... 51 Preteaching ..................................................................................................... 51 Hide-and-Seek Behaviors .............................................................................. 52 Peer Participants............................................................................................. 57 viii Unstructured Play Probes ............................................................................... 62 Script Fading .................................................................................................