The effectiveness of simultaneous prompting in teaching social warning signs to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The aim of this study was to examine the levels of learning the targeted social warning signs for the participant students with autism spectrum disorder in the simultaneous prompting intervention presented in a small group setting. At the same time, through observational learning, the levels of acquisition of the targeted social cues and the levels of non-targeted knowledge acquisition were also determined. The study was conducted with three male participant students aged eight to nine years. The study was designed with a multiple probe model with a probe phase between participants. The findings of the study showed that the simultaneous prompting intervention in a small group setting was effective in teaching the skill of "pointing to the social warning sign whose name is spoken" to the participant students with autism spectrum disorder. It was also observed that the participant students maintained the acquired skills after one, three and five weeks and generalized them to different tools and environments. There was also an increase in the performance levels of the participants regarding their observational learning skills related to the target skills of other participant students, which were not taught to them. In addition, there was a certain increase in the level of participants' acquisition of the non-targeted information stimuli about the functions of social warning signs. The social validity findings obtained from the parents of the participant students showed that the parents' views on the acceptability of the study were positive. Keywords: Simultaneous prompting, Autism spectrum disorder, Small group instruction, Observational learning. Socıal warnıng sıgns