Effects of an Activity Schedule Intervention Package on Cooperative Vocal Exchanges During Learning Centers

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have difficulty engaging in cooperative communication during classroom learning center activities with peers. This study examined the effects of using an activity schedule intervention package on the rate of contextually appropriate cooperative exchanges for children with ASD during classroom learning centers. In this study, children with ASD worked together in participant partnerships to complete learning center activities. A nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participant partnerships with embedded reversal components was used to examine the effects of the activity schedule intervention package. All participant partnerships demonstrated increased cooperative vocal exchanges and engaged in some untrained exchanges. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

• Activity schedules can be embedded into learning center activities to promote cooperative communication.

• All participant partnerships engaged in both trained and untrained exchanges.

• One participant partnership continued to engage in cooperative communication when we removed the activity schedules.

• We were able to fade many of the components of the activity schedules for two participant partnerships.