Educators apply new teaching strategies despite initial attributions of autistic students’ controllability of their behaviors

Figures & data

Table 1. Participant demographics.

Demographics	Mean	SD
Chronological age (months)	50.26	6.38
ADOS comparison score	6.97	1.30
MSEL developmental quotient	0.71	0.22

Table 2. JASPER strategies for joint engagement (Chang et al. 2016).

Strategies	Description	Small group adaptation
Basic strategies	Appropriately matching child’s pacing and affect during tplay; Appropriately applying behavioral strategies when the child is unengaged or dysregulated	Vary strategy to engage all children in the group (e.g. person engagement)
Setting up the environment	Setting up the environment to facilitate joint engagement including environmental arrangement, selecting developmentally appropriate toys and placing them within reach and view of the child, and facing the child at eye level	Selecting a toy set that is developmentally appropriate for all children; arranging the environment so children can be face to face with each other (e.g. sitting across from each other or in a triangle)
Following child’s lead	Following the child’s interest during the interaction by imitating and modeling at appropriate times	Imitate and model for all children in the group by presenting the object in their attentional focus
Establishing play routines	Establishing a clear play routine/sequence of steps that is developmentally appropriate	Ensure each child has an active role in the play routines (e.g. actively taking turns)
Expanding play routines	Adding timely and developmentally appropriate steps to existing play routines or following a child’s appropriate expansion	Pacing expansions appropriately for all children in the group who may be playing at different levels and rates
Joint attention and requesting skills	Modeling and creating opportunities for requesting and joint attention, and responding to the child’s joint attention and requesting bids	Supporting initiations and response to peer-peer requests and joint attention
Language strategies	Talking at the child’s level, leaving space to communicate, responding to the child’s communication, and expanding communication	Recognizing and responding to bids from all children and supporting children’s initiations and responses to their peers

Table 3. Behavioral descriptions of autism related behavior.

Behavioral domains	Behavioral scenarios
Social interaction	Some children have difficulty interacting socially with others. They may have trouble appropriately initiating interactions and/or maintaining interactions. They may have difficulty with back and forth conversations. Some children may not initiate social interactions with others at all. They may also have difficulty developing and maintaining relationships with peers, showing an apparent lack of interest in people or difficulty sharing imaginative play.
Non-verbal communication	Some children have difficulty using body language to communicate with others. This can include difficulty maintaining eye contact. They may also struggle understanding and using facial expressions and other gestures to communicate with others.
Repetitive interests/behaviors	Some children display repetitive behaviors. These can include repetitive speech, motor movements (i.e. hand-flapping), or repetitive use of objects. Children may also become fixed on certain routines or patterns, and are resistant to change. They may display ritualistic behaviors, insist on specific routines or food, ask repetitive questions, or tantrum in response to small changes in routine. They may also become unusually fixated on specific interests, such as objects (i.e. fans, doors, certain toys, etc.) or topics (i.e. trains or dinosaurs).
Sensory seeking Behaviors	Some children have unusual reactions to sensory input from their environment. This can include high tolerance for pain, becoming upset in response to certain sounds or textures, excessively smelling/touching objects, and fascination with lights or spinning objects.

Table 4. Correlation matrix of study variables.

	1	2	3
1. Developmental quotient	–
2. ADOS comparison scores	−0.33*	–
3. Controllability rating	.59*	−0.27*	–

*p < .05.

Chang, Y. C., Shire, S. Y., Shih, W., Gelfand, C. and Kasari, C. 2016. Preschool deployment of evidence-based social communication intervention: JASPER in the classroom. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46, 2211–2223.

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