The efficacy of incidental teaching in teaching social skills to children with autism spectrum disorder: The Georgia sample

In this study, the effectiveness of incidental teaching in teaching social skills (thanking, asking for permission and asking for help) during academic, art, and leisure activities to three children diagnosed with autism living in Georgia, was examined. The research also determined the effect of incidental teaching on generalizing and maintaining children's social skills. The participants of the study were three boys aged 10-12, who were diagnosed with autism and attending the State School in Batumi, a city in Georgia. In the study, a multible probe design with probe phase across participants, which is one of the single-case designs that aims to examine the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable in at least one participant and to replicate this process in two different subjects and allows to evaluate maintenance. This research, which examines the effectiveness of incidental teaching in teaching social skills to children with autism, consisted of baseline, full probe, intervention, maintenanace, and generalization sessions. The data obtained in the study were analyzed by graphical analysis technique. The findings of the study showed that incidental teaching was effective in teaching the social skills to children with autism and maintaining the skills they learned. Keywords: Incidental teaching, Autism, Applied behavior analysis, Social skills