Can children with autism learn to protect themselves from the lures of strangers?

The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of graduated guidance with video modeling and community based instructional arrangements in teaching children with autism to protect themselves from the lures of strangers. In addition to this, parents? opinions regarding teaching their children to protect themselves from the lures of strangers were obtained in the study.Four children with autism (ages from 6 to 11) from private and public elementary schools participated in this study. Due to a systematic increase on the target behavior of one of the subjects during baseline sessions the study was completed with three children. A multiple probe across subjects design was utilized in the study.The findings of the study showed that graduated guidance with video modeling and community based instructional arrangement was effective in teaching children with autism to protect themselves from the lures of strangers. The instructional arrangement provided in the study was also effective on maintaining the acquired skills over time and generalizing the acquired skills to novel situations and persons.Furthermore, it was seen that parents? opinions regarding teaching their children to protect themselves from the lures of strangers were positive.