The purpose of this article is to describe what has been learned over the past 35+ years of research on the friendships of young children with disabilities. An extensive literature review was conducted to critically examine the purposes that guided the friendship studies, the methods used to measure friendships, and the major findings of these…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of peer intervention on the social interactions of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this model, a speech-language pathologist and three early childhood educators trained typically developing peers to engage children with ASD in play. Three preschool children with ASD and six…

Psychometric and utility studies on Social Emotional Assessment Measure (SEAM), an innovative tool for assessing and monitoring social-emotional and behavioral development in infants and toddlers with disabilities, were conducted. The Infant and Toddler SEAM intervals were the study focus, using mixed methods, including item response theory…

Deficits in social skills are a common problem for children with autism. One method of developing appropriate social skills in children with autism has been group instruction. To date, however, group instruction has produced mixed results. The purpose of this article is to describe a promising method of teaching social skills to children in small…

Social competence intervention studies published from 1970 to 2008 for preschoolers were reviewed for reports of social validity assessment. Analysis of 90 studies indicated that nearly 27% (n = 24) of studies reported at least one measure of social validity assessment for the goals (n = 7), procedures (n = 8), or effects (n = 19). The methods…

Growing evidence suggests the importance of practitioners implementing promotion, prevention, and intervention practices to foster children's social-emotional competence and address challenging behavior within schools. Limited research exists, however, on how to support teachers of school-age children to implement with fidelity comprehensive…

Social validation is the value judgment from society on the importance of a study. The social validity of behavior goals used in the social competence intervention literature was assessed using the Q-sort technique. The stimulus items were 80 different social competence behavior goals taken from 78 classroom-based social competence intervention…

The purpose of this article is to critically review the literature on parent-implemented interventions aimed at promoting and enhancing the social and communicative behavior of young children with autism spectrum disorders. Twelve parent-implemented intervention studies that were conducted, at least in part, in home environments and were published…

Although it is documented that parent interaction influences children's development, few studies have focused on methods for reliably assessing molar-level caregiver-child interactions that are used regularly in treatment evaluations in community-based settings, and none have targeted children with autism spectrum disorders. Thirty-five children…

State agencies have been exploring a variety of options for addressing the Office of Special Education Program's (OSEP) requirements for measuring outcomes for children in early intervention (Part C) or preschool (Section 619) programs. OSEP requires the measurement of children's performance in three outcome areas: (a) acquisition and use of…

The purposes of this article are (a) to describe a structured protocol for assessing request, reject, and repair behavior of young children with autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities and (b) to highlight the importance of assessing these communicative behaviors. These three communicative functions are basic building blocks…

This study examined teachers' and parents' expectations of preschool age students' behavior to determine how teacher and parent views of "importance" converge and diverge. Teachers (n = 35) and parents (n = 124) rated the extent to which social skills were critical for school success. Results suggest that while teachers and parents share similar…

This study examined the social and behavioral characteristics of children with specific language impairment (SLI) as compared with a group of children with typically developing language skills (TL). The participants were 45 children (17 girls and 28 boys) with SLI and 53 children (27 girls and 26 boys) with TL. Maternal ratings of participants'…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a buddy skills package on the social interactions between a preschooler with autism and her peers. Following baseline, the children participated in 8 sessions of training that focused on the strategies of Play, Stay, and Talk. An intervention consisting of teacher feedback, praise, and picture…

The correspondence between direct observation and informant ratings of preschool children with specific language impairment (SLI) was investigated. Preschoolers with and without SLI were observed during free play using the "Social Interactive Coding System" (SICS; Rice, Sell, & Hadley, 1990). In addition, teachers and parents completed the "Social…