Teaching Science Facts to Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders via Telehealth

• Published in: Journal of behavioral education Vol. 32; no. 3; pp. 605 - 615
• Main Authors: Kiyak, Uzeyir Emre, Toper, Ozlem
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-09-2023; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Access to Health Care; Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorders; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Child and School Psychology; COVID-19; Junior high school students; Learning; Learning and Instruction; Medicine; Middle School Students; Mothers; Observational Learning; Original Paper; Pandemics; Prompting; Psychology; Science Instruction; Sciences education; Skill Development; Special education; Students with disabilities; Teaching; Telecommunications; Telemedicine; Videoconferencing; Autism spectrum disorders; Observational learning; Telehealth; Science facts; Simultaneous prompting; Academic skills
• ISSN: 1053-0819; 1573-3513
• DOI: 10.1007/s10864-022-09497-y

The interruption in the education of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) during the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated telehealth services offered both to the individuals and their parents. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effects of the simultaneous prompting procedure and observational learning in teaching science facts to middle-school students with ASD by using multiple probe designs with probe trials via telehealth. The researchers also conducted follow-up and novel adult probe sessions to assess the effects of simultaneous prompting procedure and observational learning along with the opinions of students and their mothers in terms of social validity. Results indicated that students acquired the target science facts and observational learning skills, maintained them over time, and generalized them across different people. The implication of the findings and directions for future research was additionally discussed.