Teaching children with autism to use photographic activity schedules: maintenance and generalization of complex response chains.

We used a graduated guidance procedure to teach 4 boys with autism to follow photographic activity schedules to increase on-task and on-schedule behavior. The multiple baseline across participants design included baseline, teaching, maintenance, resequencing of photographs, and generalization to novel photographs phases. The results indicated that photographic activity schedules (albums depicting after-school activities) produced sustained engagement, and skills generalized to a new sequence of photographs and to new photographs. The acquisition of schedule-following skills enabled these children with severe developmental disabilities to display lengthy response chains, independently change activities, and change activities in different group home settings in the absence of immediate supervision and prompts from others

Assessing and improving child care: A personal appearance index for children with autism

An index of children's physical appearance and personal care was developed and used to assess youngsters with autism who lived (a) at home, (b) in an established group home, (c) in new group homes, and (d) in a large institution. Subsequently, a multiple baseline design across participants documented major changes in personal appearance and cleanliness when children moved from an institution to community-based, family-style group homes. Finally, data-based feedback generated by the appearance index was used as a training tool enabling group home staff to further improve child appearance. This research demonstrates how an evaluation instrument can be used to obtain comparative data, measure some effects of different residential placements, and provide ongoing feedback to caregivers to promote high standards of personal care among persons with severe developmental disabilities