teaching problem solving skills autism

Teaching Individuals with Autism Problem-Solving Skills for Resolving Social Conflicts

Research Article
Published: 30 August 2021
Volume 15 , pages 768–781, ( 2022 )

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Victoria D. Suarez 1 ,
Adel C. Najdowski ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2512-0397 2 ,
Jonathan Tarbox 3 ,
Emma Moon 2 , 4 ,
Megan St. Clair 4 &
Peter Farag 4

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Resolving social conflicts is a complex skill that involves consideration of the group when selecting conflict solutions. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have difficulty resolving social conflicts, yet this skill is important for successful social interaction, maintenance of relationships, and functional integration into society. This study used a nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participants design to assess the efficacy of a problem-solving training and generalization of problem solving to naturally occurring untrained social conflicts. Three male participants with ASD were taught to use a worksheet as a problem-solving tool using multiple exemplar training, error correction, rules, and reinforcement. The results showed that using the worksheet was successful in bringing about a solution to social conflicts occurring in the natural environment. In addition, the results showed that participants resolved untrained social conflicts in the absence of the worksheet during natural environment probe sessions.

An Exploration of the Performance and Generalization Outcomes of a Social Skills Intervention for Adults with Autism and Intellectual Disabilities

Social Skills Training for Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Building Social Skills: An Investigation of a LEGO-Centered Social Skills Intervention

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Problem solving is traditionally defined as the ability to identify the problem and then create solutions for the problem (Agran et al., 2002 ). From a behavioral perspective, a person is faced with a problem when they experience a state of deprivation or aversive stimulation (Skinner, 1953, p. 246), and reinforcement is contingent upon a response that is in the person’s repertoire, but cannot be evoked under current conditions (Palmer, 1991 , 2009 ). According to Skinner ( 1953 ), “problem-solving may be defined as any behavior which, through the manipulation of variables, makes the appearance of a solution more probable” (p. 247). Therefore, problem solving involves mediating or precurrent behaviors that function to manipulate or generate discriminative stimuli needed to evoke a resolution response (Palmer, 1991 ; Skinner, 1984 ). See Szabo ( 2020 ) for a conceptual analysis of problem solving.

Behavioral researchers have taught specific problem-solving strategies to individuals for learning specific skills (see Axe et al., 2019 for a review), such as categorizing items (Kisamore et al., 2011 ; Sautter et al., 2011 ), explaining how to complete tasks (Frampton & Shillingsburg, 2018 ), and completing vocational tasks (Lora et al., 2019 ). Such problem-solving strategies functioned to teach participants to engage in mediating or precurrent behaviors that brought about a resolution. For example, Sautter et al. ( 2011 ) taught participants to use rules as a precurrent behavior to evoke the resolution of sorting stimuli. Kisamore et al. ( 2011 ) taught participants a visual imagining strategy as a precurrent behavior to evoke the resolution of categorizing. Frampton and Shillingsburg ( 2018 ) taught participants to sort and sequence visual stimuli of each step of a multistep task as a precurrent behavior to evoke explaining how to complete the multistep task.

Another type of scenario that requires one to engage in problem solving is when dealing with social conflict. Resolving social conflicts likely involves similar precurrent behaviors addressed in previous behavioral literature, such as behavior chains, rules, self-questioning, sequencing, and potentially visual imagining (See Axe et al., 2019 , for a review). However, because social conflicts by definition involve interacting with other people, successfully resolving social conflicts also likely involves engaging in perspective taking, including tacting others’ perspectives, engaging in deictic relating behavior by switching perspectives (Luciano et al., 2020 ), and likely arranging for others involved in the conflict to also obtain reinforcement.

According to traditional psychology, problem solving begins to develop as early as the preschool years (e.g., Best et al., 2009 ; Garon et al., 2008 ). Yet, individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often display deficits in social skills (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013 ) and have been found to demonstrate difficulties resolving social conflicts (Bernard-Optiz et al., 2001 ).

Given that a defining feature of ASD is to present with deficits in social communication and interaction (APA, 2013 ) and that resolving social conflicts across a wide range of situations is essential for functional integration into society and the maintenance of relationships (Bonete et al., 2015 ), it appears necessary to identify effective methods for teaching individuals with ASD to engage in problem-solving skills that will aid social conflict resolution. However, behavioral research has not evaluated methods to teach problem-solving skills in this context specifically to individuals diagnosed with ASD.

Although the population of ASD has not been studied in previous behavioral research on using problem-solving strategies to deal with social conflicts, a study conducted by Park and Gaylord-Ross ( 1989 ) used behavioral procedures to teach individuals with intellectual disabilities precurrent behaviors including rules, self-questioning, and self-prompting to solve problems they encountered at work, including social initiations, mumbling, and conversation expansions and terminations. During training, the researchers provided participants with a picture of themselves in a social situation (e.g., passing by a familiar customer at their workplace) and asked them how they would behave in the presented situation. Participants were provided with seven rules or questions to ask themselves: (1) What is happening? (2) What are three behaviors I could emit? (3) What will be the outcome of each behavior? (4) Which is better? (5) Pick one (6) Emit the behavior and (7) How did I feel? Prompting, modeling, and praise were used to teach participants to use the seven rules/questions. Pictures of novel social situations (other than the target situation) were presented at the end of training sessions to assess generalization to untrained stimuli and only one of three participants demonstrated stimulus generalization. During follow-up, an audiocassette recorder was placed in the participants' shirt pockets to record their interactions during their work and evaluate generalization of responding to trained stimuli in the natural environment. The results of the study indicated that participants’ target behaviors improved during training, and follow-up performance in the natural environment improved compared to baseline.

In addition to the paucity of research on this topic within behavior analysis, there is limited research outside of the behavioral literature that has evaluated methods for teaching individuals with ASD to use problem-solving strategies for dealing with social conflicts. One notable exception is a study conducted by Bernard-Optiz et al. ( 2001 ), who used a web-based problem-solving program to teach typically developing children and children with ASD to select and develop appropriate solutions. In particular, social conflicts were presented to participants on a computer screen with choices of possible solutions and an option to insert an individualized solution. For example, participants were shown a scenario in which two children wanted a turn to go down a slide. An audio cue asking, “What would you do?” was presented, and icons offering problem-solving solutions, such as requesting to go first, were provided. A second audio cue asking, “Do you have any good ideas?” was subsequently presented, and the option to insert a unique solution was presented. Novel solutions identified by participants resulted in social praise, and the option to continue inputting novel solutions continued to appear until participants no longer produced additional responses. All participants demonstrated an increase in the number of appropriate novel solutions generated. The results of Bernard-Optiz et al. ( 2001 ) demonstrated that social praise and a web-based problem-solving program functioned to increase generativity of problem solutions. Moreover, the results demonstrated that participants with ASD were taught to generate novel solutions to social conflicts using prompts and reinforcement. However, as the authors point out, a limited selection of social conflict scenarios were presented during intervention. Perhaps the most substantial limitation to the study is the use of an analogue computer task, without assessing whether problem-solving skills improved during real-life social interactions. In addition, maintenance was not measured.

Although behavioral research has found that teaching precurrent behaviors led participants to solve problems (e.g., Frampton & Shillingsburg, 2018 ; Kisamore et al., 2011 ; Lora et al., 2019 ; Park & Gaylord-Ross, 1989; Sautter et al., 2011 ), no research of which we are aware has evaluated the effects of teaching precurrent behaviors for resolving social conflicts to individuals with ASD. Further, although nonbehavioral research demonstrates prompts and social praise may function to increase resolving social conflicts in children with ASD (Bernard-Optiz et al., 2001 ), it is unknown if prompts and reinforcement would be successful in teaching individuals with ASD to use precurrent behaviors to resolve social conflicts. In addition, although research by Park and Gaylord-Ross (1989) measured generalization to trained problems in the natural environment, there is a dearth of research measuring generalization to untrained social conflicts occurring in the natural environment. Furthermore, research that has evaluated generalization to untrained problems found positive results with only one of three participants (Park & Gaylord-Ross, 1989).

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of a problem-solving training package conducted in the natural environment on the use of problem-solving skills (i.e., precurrent behaviors) to resolve untrained social conflicts by individuals with ASD. The problem-solving training package consisted of a problem-solving worksheet, multiple exemplar training, error correction, rules, and reinforcement. Generalization of problem solving to untrained conflicts was programmed for by using multiple exemplar training and was assessed throughout the course of the study.

Participants and Setting

Three male individuals, with primary language being English, participated. Patrick was an 11-year-old Indigenous, Latinx, and white male with diagnoses of ASD, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and bipolar disorder. Oliver was a 22-year-old Israeli male with a diagnosis of ASD. Russell was a 10-year-old Indigenous, Latinx, and white male with diagnoses of ASD and ADHD.

All participants received applied behavior analytic (ABA) services from a community-based agency for 10–12 hr per week. They demonstrated a listener behavior repertoire by engaging in auditory–visual conditional discriminations and following multistep instructions, used vocal–verbal communication in full sentences, and read and wrote basic paragraphs (i.e., three to five sentences). In addition, they demonstrated well-developed language skills by engaging in echoics, mands, tacts, and intraverbals. All participants labeled emotions in others (e.g., answered “How does she feel?”), identified cause-and-effect (e.g., answered “Why?” and “What will happen if . . . ?” For example, “Why did the egg break?” [“Because you dropped it.”], or “What will happen if I drop this egg?” [“It will break.”]), identified emotional cause-and-effect (e.g., answered “Why is she sad?” or “What will happen if someone takes her toy?”), and followed rules (e.g., “If you’re wearing pink, then raise your hand.”). In addition, participants used pronouns in speech and demonstrated listener behavior according to pronouns. All participants had a history of learning via role play and engaged in up to four intraverbal exchanges with others. At the time of recruitment, Patrick’s overall score on the Basic Living Skills Assessment Protocol from the Assessment of Functional Living Skills (AFLS) was 469 and Russell’s overall score was 475. No standardized assessment scores are available for Oliver, because his most recent assessment conducted prior to participation in this study was conducted using a commercially available web-based platform that does not provide raw scores. Participants were included because they did not independently and appropriately resolve social conflicts, and deficiency in resolving social conflicts was affecting their maintenance of positive relationships with siblings or parents. Individuals who demonstrated significant challenging behavior severe enough to interfere with instruction (e.g., self-injurious behavior [SIB], moderate to severe aggression) were ineligible to participate.

Participants were recruited because they were determined to benefit from learning to resolve social conflicts by their supervising clinician. Moreover, participants were recruited by asking them (for Oliver) or their parents (for Patrick and Russell) if they would like to participate in a research study evaluating a lesson for teaching problem-solving skills to resolve social conflicts. Consent was obtained by providing a consent form outlining the study’s purpose, methods, and potential benefits/risks to Oliver and the parents of Patrick and Russell. In addition, assent forms were provided to Patrick and Russell.

Research sessions were conducted during regularly scheduled ABA-based teaching sessions in home-based and clinic-based settings for the duration of the study with the exception of Oliver who made a transition from home- and clinic-based sessions to solely telehealth sessions (due to the COVID-19 pandemic) beginning with session 21. Research sessions were conducted in various rooms throughout the session environment (e.g., bedroom, living room, lobby, conference room). Research sessions were 5–30 min in length and consisted of the presentation of one problem. One to two research sessions (conducted at least 30 min apart) were conducted 1–3 days per week.

Response Measurement and Data Collection

A problem-solving task analysis (TA; Table 1 ) was used to calculate the percentage of correct, independent problem-solving steps completed by each participant. Each step of the TA was scored as correct or incorrect based on the specified criteria (Table 1 ). A correct response included independently and accurately completing a step within the task analysis by either writing a response or vocally stating a response within 10 s of: (1) the problem occurring (step 1) and (2) the previous step being completed (steps 2–13). An incorrect response included responses irrelevant to the current step, prompted responses, and nonresponses (i.e., failure to respond within 10 s of the problem [step 1] or previous step occurring [steps 2–14]). During baseline and posttraining, if the participant was not progressing through the conflict (e.g., not doing anything to resolve the conflict) after 1 min of the problem occurring, the conflict was ended by the interventionist resolving the conflict (e.g., if the conflict was that brother left Legos on the table where the participant was going to eat, the interventionist resolved the conflict by removing the Legos) and all remaining steps of the TA were scored as incorrect.

Natural environment probes (explained below) were scored as all or nothing. If the participant successfully resolved the social conflict by engaging in a viable solution (i.e., any solution that would function to resolve the conflict and could be readily carried out) within 10 s of the conflict occurring, the natural environment probe was scored as 100% correct. On the other hand, if the participant failed to resolve the social conflict (i.e., proposed and/or engaged in an impracticable solution or was nonresponsive as defined earlier), the natural environment probe was scored as 0% correct.

Interobserver agreement (IOA) was collected by two independent observers who recorded data during 33% of baseline sessions for all participants. IOA data were collected during 50%, 62%, and 57% of training sessions for Patrick, Oliver, and Russell, respectively. Moreover, IOA data were collected during 67% of posttraining sessions for Patrick and Oliver and 50% for Russell. IOA data were collected during 75% of follow-up sessions for Patrick and 100% for Oliver and Russell. Finally, IOA data were collected during 50%, 40%, and 50% of natural environment probes for Patrick, Oliver, and Russell, respectively. Point-by-point agreement was used to identify observers’ agreement on whether each step was performed correctly versus incorrectly by dividing the number of steps for which there was agreement by the total number of steps and multiplying the resulting quotient by 100%.. Mean IOA was 100%, 98.8% (range; 90%–100%), and 98.7% (range: 90%–100%) for Patrick, Oliver, and Russell, respectively.

Experimental Design and Procedure

A nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participants design was used to assess the effects of the problem-solving training package.

General Procedures

At the beginning of each ABA-based teaching session, participants were provided with a variation of the following instruction: “Today during your session, a social problem with someone will happen at some point. Here is a worksheet [see Fig. 1 ] you can use to help solve the problem when it happens.” The worksheet was written using language that was previously observed to be used by the participants and that they were familiar with.

Problem-solving worksheet

Then, ABA-based teaching activities began, and at some point between teaching activities, up to 15 min after delivering the instruction, a social conflict was contrived or captured with people in the natural environment. For example, when the participant and his brother both wanted to go first at a game, data were collected on how the participant responded to the problem-solving steps outlined on the TA. If the participant engaged in any negative emotional responding, such as whining or crying during the presentation of the social conflict, a second conflict was not presented again that day.

Social conflicts to be used were determined by interviewing the participants and their parents and asking them what situations usually led to arguments with others. In addition, we observed naturally occurring social interactions between the participants and others and identified situations in which a social conflict arose and the participant failed to resolve the conflict. We then set up these scenarios to occur during the research session. For example, Russell stated he argued with his brother when his brother wanted to play a video game that he was already playing. So, we arranged for Russell’s brother to request playing a video game that Russell was actively playing during the research session. Other times, the scenarios were genuinely captured, so we ran the research session upon capturing the naturally occurring conflict. For example, we observed that Patrick walked into his room to find that his brother had left dirty dishes on his desk and was notably upset as evidenced by his tone of voice, prosody, heavy breathing, and crying. The social conflicts contrived or captured are provided in Table 2 .

During baseline, in addition to the general procedures, problems occurred with at least two different people (e.g., parent, sibling; see Table 3 ). We did not provide any prompting or feedback in order to assess the extent to which participants resolved social conflicts independently. If the participant was not progressing through the conflict after 1 min of the conflict occurring, the conflict was ended by the interventionist resolving the problem. It was planned that if any distressed behavior (e.g., crying, screaming, negative statements, SIB, aggression) was observed for a duration of at least 10 s, the conflict was to be ended by the interventionist resolving the problem; however, distressed behavior never occurred during baseline. Participants qualified to continue to the training phase if they scored 60% or less on the problem-solving TA. Two participants were excluded for not meeting this criterion.

Pretraining Phase

In this phase, the participant was taught how to use the problem-solving worksheet. In particular, the purpose of this phase was to evaluate whether simply providing the worksheet would result in improved problem-solving performance, that is, to ensure that the repertoires were not already present but just not under the stimulus control of the worksheet. The interventionist began by providing the participant with the following instruction: “This is a worksheet you can use to help you solve problems you have with other people. To use it, you will read each of the questions on it and answer them while the problem is happening to help you solve it.” Then, the interventionist walked the participant through each question on the worksheet by pointing to each step and instructing the participant on what they should do for each worksheet question. For example, the interventionist pointed to the first question on the worksheet and said, “In this box you will ask yourself, ‘What is the problem?’ and you will write down or say out loud the problem that is happening between you and another person. After this, the interventionist pointed to the second question on the worksheet and said, “In this box you will ask yourself, ‘What do I think happened?’ and you will write down what happened from your perspective.” After going through each question on the worksheet with the participant in a similar fashion, the interventionist presented the following instruction: “At some point today I am going to have a social problem with you; when it happens, you can use the worksheet to help you solve it.” The participant was handed the blank worksheet alongside a pen/pencil. Participants were also told that they could call out their responses aloud if they did not want to write on the worksheet. At some point later in the session (between 5–15 min after reviewing how to use the worksheet), a social conflict was contrived between the interventionist and the participant. If the participant asked for help, they were told to do their best. Similar to baseline, no prompting, feedback, praise, or reinforcement was delivered. In addition, if any distressed behavior was observed for a duration of at least 10 s, the problem was ended by the interventionist resolving the social conflict. If the participant was not progressing through solving the problem after 1 min of the conflict occurring, the conflict was likewise ended by the interventionist resolving it. Participants qualified to continue to the training phase if they scored 60% or less on the problem-solving TA in pretraining. No participants were excluded from continued participation during this phase.

Training Phase

In addition to the general procedures, during training, the participant was taught to engage in precurrent behavior (i.e., use the worksheet) to resolve social conflicts using multiple exemplar training, error correction, and reinforcement. At the beginning of each session, an informal preference assessment was conducted by asking participants what they would like to earn after resolving a conflict. Then, the participant was told that they would be able to access the predetermined reinforcer for more or less time depending on how many questions of the worksheet they completed correctly. The amount of time that was granted with the reinforcer was determined using a grading scale in which higher percentages of independent correct responding on the worksheet resulted in more time with the reinforcer (see Fig. 2 ). For example, if the participant scored 20% correct on the problem-solving worksheet, they received 2 min of access to their reinforcer (e.g., video game, free time), and if they scored 90% correct they received 13 min of access. A social conflict was then contrived and each independently performed step of the TA was praised. Access to the predetermined reinforcer was granted for a prespecified amount of time depending on the participant’s percentage of correct responding.

Reinforcement grading scale

Incorrect responses resulted in re-presentation of the step followed by an immediate prompt using a least-to-most prompting hierarchy. The first prompt used was a gestural prompt, which consisted of the interventionist pointing to (in-person sessions) or highlighting with a cursor (telehealth sessions) the current step of the worksheet. If the gestural prompt did not result in a correct response, the step was re-presented with an immediate directive prompt. The directive prompt consisted of the interventionist saying, “Ask yourself [ step-related question ]” (e.g. “Ask yourself, ‘What is the problem?’”; “Ask yourself, ‘What do I think happened?’”) while pointing to the current step on the worksheet. If the directive prompt did not result in a correct response, the step was re-presented with an immediate leading-question prompt. Leading-question prompts were individualized for each conflict and each step of the TA. For example, “What is going on right now?” was used as a leading question for the first step of the worksheet (i.e., identifying the problem). If the leading question prompt did not result in a correct response, a choice prompt was presented. Choice prompts were also individualized for each conflict and each step of the TA using the following script: “Is the problem [ correct/irrelevant possibility ], or is the problem [ correct/irrelevant possibility ]?” (e.g., “Is the problem that we both want to go first [the problem], or is the problem that you need a place to sit?” [irrelevant to the problem]). A coin flip was used to randomize the order of correct/irrelevant choices provided. Finally, the most intrusive prompt provided was a full vocal model of the correct answer (e.g., “The problem is that we both want to go first.”). It was planned that if the participants came up with three nonviable solutions, the aforementioned prompting hierarchy would be used to prompt them to think of at least one solution that would work to solve the problem; however, all participants proposed at least one viable solution during training, so this was not needed. The criterion for ending the training phase was for the participant to respond with at least 80% accuracy for three consecutive sessions with the interventionist. After this, the posttraining phase was introduced.

Posttraining Phase

At the beginning of each posttraining session, a variation of the following instruction was presented, “Even if you can solve the problem by yourself without the worksheet, I need you to use the worksheet so that I know what you are thinking.” If participants began to resolve the conflict without using the worksheet, the instruction was re-presented. Other than the presence of that instruction, this phase was identical to baseline conditions, in that no feedback or reinforcement was provided at any point. Exemplars from baseline were re-presented during this phase (Table 3 ) to evaluate whether participants resolved social conflicts that they were unsuccessful in resolving prior to receiving the problem-solving training package.

Natural Environment Probes

Natural environment probes were used to evaluate problem solving in the absence of the worksheet. The first natural environment probe was conducted during baseline to evaluate participants’ problem-solving skills in the absence of the worksheet. During training, natural environment probes were contrived after participants scored at or above 80% correct on the problem-solving worksheet, with the exception of Oliver, who had a natural environment probe captured after the sixth training session. During posttraining, natural environment probes were graphed whenever captured. For example, if a naturally occurring social conflict arose at any time, it was captured as a natural environment probe. In addition, three consecutive natural environments probes were presented after completing posttraining sessions for all participants.

Follow-up natural environment probes were conducted at 2 (Patrick, Russell, and Oliver), 4 (Patrick and Russell), 6 (Patrick and Russell), and 10 (Patrick only) weeks posttraining to evaluate maintenance.

Social Validity

A social validity questionnaire (Table 4 ) was administered to each participant upon the completion of training. Participants were instructed to complete the questionnaire to the best of their ability and no additional feedback on their responses was provided. The questionnaire consisted of six questions (two each for goals, procedures, and outcomes; see Table 4 ) scored on a 5-point Likert scale: (1) strongly disagree, (2) disagree, (3) neutral, (4) agree, and (5) strongly agree. There were also two open-ended questions that asked participants to identify what they liked the most and least about the problem-solving training package.

Figure 3 contains the results for Patrick (top panel), Oliver (middle panel), and Russell (bottom panel); these are described below, respectively. Patrick responded during baseline with 0%–8% accuracy in the presence of the worksheet and did not resolve the social conflict presented during the natural environment probe. During pretraining, Patrick performed with 0% accuracy in the presence of the worksheet. During training in the presence of novel problems, there was an immediate increase in correct responding, and he met the mastery criterion on the sixth training session. After training, during a natural environment probe (no worksheet), Patrick successfully resolved a contrived social conflict. During posttraining when untrained social conflict exemplars from baseline were repeated, Patrick consistently scored 100% using the problem-solving worksheet and also successfully resolved social conflicts during the natural environment probes (no worksheet). Maintenance was measured 2, 4, 6, and 10 weeks following training, and Patrick successfully resolved novel, naturally occurring social conflicts in the absence of a worksheet.

Percentage of correct problem-solving steps emitted by participants

Oliver responded with 0%–21% accuracy during baseline in the presence of the worksheet and did not resolve the social conflict presented during the natural environment probe. During pretraining, Oliver scored 7% correct in the presence of the worksheet. During training in the presence of novel problems, there was an immediate increase in correct responding, and he met the mastery criterion on the ninth training sessions. During session 15, we captured a naturally occurring social conflict, and Oliver successfully resolved it in the absence of the worksheet. During posttraining when untrained social conflict exemplars from baseline were repeated, Oliver scored 92%–100% correct and successfully resolved a social conflict during session 20 during a captured natural environment probe. After session 21, a 2-month period elapsed wherein Oliver did not receive services as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon returning to sessions using telehealth technology, Oliver scored 62% correct on the problem-solving worksheet under posttraining conditions. Because Oliver’s performance notably decreased, a novel exemplar probe under baseline conditions was conducted to determine if Oliver should receive a booster training session, and he scored 77% correct. The novel exemplar probe consisted of the presentation of a social conflict that had not been contrived at any other time in the study. Given that Oliver scored below 80% on the novel exemplar probe, Oliver was provided with booster training until he re-met the mastery criterion of 80%–100% correct across three consecutive sessions. The booster training conditions were identical to the training conditions. Then, another novel exemplar probe under baseline conditions was presented, and Oliver scored 100% correct. After this, a natural environment probe was captured in which Oliver successfully resolved a conflict in the absence of the problem-solving worksheet. Oliver scored 100% correct in the following session when he was presented with an untrained exemplar from baseline under posttraining conditions. Then, three natural environment probes were conducted and Oliver successfully resolved social conflicts in the absence of the worksheet. Maintenance was measured 2 weeks following posttraining in which Oliver successfully resolved a novel, naturally occurring social conflict in the absence of a worksheet.

Russell responded with 0%–8% accuracy during baseline in the presence of the worksheet and did not resolve the social conflict presented during the natural environment probe. During pretraining, Russell scored 8% correct in the presence of the worksheet. During training in the presence of novel problems, there was an immediate increase in correct responding, and he met the mastery criterion on the seventh training session. Moreover, Russell successfully resolved a contrived social conflict in the absence of the worksheet. During posttraining when untrained social conflict exemplars from baseline were repeated, Russell scored 70%–100% correct using the problem-solving worksheet and successfully resolved social conflicts in the absence of the worksheet. Maintenance was measured 2, 4, and 6 weeks following posttraining, and Russell successfully resolved novel, naturally occurring social conflicts in the absence of the worksheet.

Patrick and Russell scored the problem-solving training package as being highly acceptable with mean scores of 5 and 4.82, respectively. Oliver’s mean social validity score was 3.83. He scored “strongly agree” for one question and “agree” for three questions. The questions he scored as neutral included: (1) “I believe that I am better at solving social problems after participating in the social problem-solving lesson”; and (2) “I think that completing the social problem-solving lesson helped me solve social problems I have with my family/friends.” Patrick identified what he liked most about the training package was that it was helpful to him, and Oliver identified what he liked most was feeling like he was right. The only reported dislike about the training package was that it was tedious (Oliver).

The data from the current study suggest that multiple exemplar training, combined with a worksheet, was effective in teaching three individuals with ASD to resolve novel social conflicts occurring in the natural environment. In addition, generalization across untrained conflicts and people was observed from baseline to posttraining for all participants. These results are consistent with behavioral research conducted by Frampton and Shillingsburg ( 2018 ), Kisamore et al. ( 2011 ), Lora et al. ( 2019 ), Park and Gaylord-Ross (1989), and Sautter et al. ( 2011 ) in demonstrating that problem-solving strategies can be taught using behavioral strategies.

A noteworthy finding was that pretraining was insufficient to occasion the use of the worksheet during social conflicts. This finding is consistent with the behavioral skills training (BST) literature, which has shown instructions alone are generally ineffective compared to behavioral packages, such as BST (e.g., Feldman et al., 1989 ; Hudson, 1982 ; Ward-Horner & Sturmey, 2012 ). This finding is also consistent with previous problem-solving research that found modeling and prompting resulted in superior responding as compared to other strategies, such as teaching rules (Kisamore et al., 2011 ).

The results of this study are also consistent with previous research conducted by Bernard-Optiz et al. ( 2001 ) in demonstrating an increase in the use of novel solutions by individuals with ASD. In particular, the results showed that precurrent behaviors were successful in bringing a variety of solutions (not just one type of solution) under the control of the conflict context. For example, types of solutions used by participants included many different repertoires, some of which have not been addressed in previous research such as apologizing, providing information, advocating for individual needs/wants, compromising, and removing oneself from the situation, along with others that have been targeted in previous research, such as requesting information (e.g., Shillingsburg et al., 2011 ), requesting tangibles (e.g., Bourret et al., 2004 ), and requesting help/removal (e.g., Rodriguez et al., 2017 ; see Table 5 ). A potential limitation of this study is that we did not preplan the types of solutions we would teach, so exposure to types of solutions was not controlled for or counterbalanced. Therefore, it is possible that variation in the types of solutions used affected the results. However, consistent results were obtained across the three participants, so there is no direct evidence that inconsistency affected the results. In addition, training a variety of strategies, all of which have the same function, to solve the problem, may be considered a form of multiple exemplar training in itself, and therefore may have contributed to the favorable generalization that was observed. Still, uncontrolled variables are often frowned upon in research, so future researchers may want to consider controlling the number of each type of solution taught to participants.

This study expanded upon past research by capturing and contriving social conflicts within each participants’ natural environment. By conducting training with naturally occurring stimuli and “training loosely” (Stokes & Baer, 1977 ), generalization was promoted to ensure that participants acquired a repertoire for resolving social conflicts, rather than generating solutions only for specifically targeted conflicts. A compelling finding was that participants successfully resolved social conflicts in the absence of the worksheet during natural environment probes. Thus, the current study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that problem-solving strategies (i.e., worksheet use) can result in participants with ASD demonstrating successful generalization to untrained social conflicts occurring in the natural environment in the absence of a worksheet. The worksheet may be conceptualized as a prompt, that may have facilitated acquisition at first and was then no longer necessary to occasion the problem-solving chain of behaviors. Future research could consider teaching social conflict resolution in the absence of a worksheet, possibly by teaching each step of the problem-solving worksheet. Future research could also evaluate whether teaching a shorter problem-solving chain would be efficacious. For example, the last two steps of the worksheet could be omitted.

Continued successful problem-solving during natural environment probes also has implications for the possibility that some of the mediating behaviors previously cued by the worksheet were completed by participants on a covert level when the worksheet was no longer present. However, it is not possible to identify with any certainty whether participants were engaging in covert behavior. Given that participants were unsuccessful with resolving social conflicts during baseline, but were successful with resolving naturally occurring social conflicts after being trained to follow the problem-solving steps, and continued to resolve social conflicts effectively during posttraining, it seems possible that participants completed some of the steps on a covert level. In addition, after completing training, anecdotal observations found that participants engaged in overt behavior that suggested the possibility that they were engaging in covert completion of the steps, such as overtly saying, “You might think I am just not wanting to share the computer, but really I have been doing schoolwork all morning and just started my turn” (Step 3: What does the other person think happened?). It is also possible that participants engaged in visual imagining of the worksheet during natural environment probes. Skinner ( 1969 ) described precurrent behaviors of visual imagining in mathematical problem-solving and Kisamore et al. ( 2011 ) attempted to directly train visual imagining problem-solving behavior, so it is possible that the participants in this study engaged in covert imagining behavior. As with any covert behavior, it is not possible for researchers to directly measure it, but future research could attempt to train participants to observe and record their own covert verbal behavior, in order to provide an approximate measurement of the generalization of problem-solving repertoires to the covert level. For example, researchers might ask the participant, “How did you figure out how to solve that problem?,” to which a participant might respond with something like, “I imagined the worksheet in my head until I thought of the solution.” To the extent that participants are not directly trained to give specific verbal reports of this kind, such verbal reports might provide interesting supplementary data on the possibility of covert problem solving behavior.

It is interesting that all participants were observed to attempt to solve problems without using the worksheet in posttraining, although they were presented with the worksheet. In these instances, participants were reminded to use the worksheet. This indicated that participants had acquired problem-solving skills and no longer needed the worksheet; however, it was necessary to have participants use the worksheet in order to compare their posttraining performance to their baseline performance (because we could not measure their covert behavior to identify if they were implementing the problem-solving steps). Future research should evaluate methods to measure problem-solving skills in ways that allow participants to demonstrate their newly acquired skills without being limited by the apparatus/materials of the experiment. A possible solution could be to consider problem resolution as the primary dependent variable and evaluate pre- and posttraining data for conflict resolution following training in a problem-solving strategy.

We also found that emotional responding occasionally occurred upon presentation of social conflicts and possibly interfered with participants’ performance with resolving social conflicts. For example, Patrick was occasionally observed crying in response to a social conflict, which was followed by engaging in additional emotional self-regulation behaviors (e.g., take deep breaths, drink some water) and then successfully resolving the conflict. However, given that participants were successful in resolving social conflicts albeit experiencing emotional responding, the likelihood that emotional responses hindered learning problem-solving skills is low. Data were not collected on emotional responding; however, the team anecdotally observed that emotional responding decreased as participants learned to use the problem-solving worksheet. Future research should consider measuring emotional responding when teaching individuals to resolve social conflicts and may also investigate the role of emotion-regulation repertoires on problem-solving skills of individuals with ASD.

One potential limitation of the study is that we did not assess whether the trained problem-solving repertoires specifically came under the stimulus control of problems. Put another way, although the training procedure trained participants to identify problems and to discriminate which social situations were problems, we did not formally collect data on whether such discrimination was occurring. Although formal data were not collected on unnecessary or inappropriate application of problem-solving skills, the research team anecdotally reported that they never observed this to occur.

Another limitation of the study is that procedural fidelity data were not collected, so the degree to which procedures were implemented with fidelity is unknown. In addition, social validity information was not collected from family members. Given that social conflicts often occurred between the participants and their family members, future research could assess the family members’ impressions of the intervention by collecting social validity information from family members with whom conflicts typically occurred

Probably the most notable limitation of the study was that all solutions effectively resolved the current social conflict, because we primed the people who had social conflicts with the participants to make sure the participants’ solutions were successful. This was done by vocally instructing individuals present within the session that if a social conflict arose between them and the participant, they should allow whatever solution is presented by the participant to resolve the social conflict. In other words, whatever solution the participant proposed received functional reinforcement by the conflict being resolved. This was done to ensure the problem-solving sequence resulted in reinforcement; however, the schedule of reinforcement for problem solving in the natural environment is certainly not fixed. Future research should make a transition to a variable schedule of reinforcement when teaching problem-solving skills. In addition, when a strategy to resolve a conflict fails, one must engage in a subsequent behavior chain of problem solving. Therefore, future research should investigate the additional problem-solving steps required when an initial solution is unsuccessful.

Overall, the current study was successful in teaching three individuals with ASD to resolve social conflicts occurring in their every-day lives using a problem-solving worksheet, multiple exemplar training, error correction, rules, and reinforcement. In addition, the results of this study indicate that acquired skills for problem resolution successfully generalized to untrained social conflicts and maintained after training. The most notable aspect of the study was that the findings of this study indicate that overt precurrent behaviors, such as completing a worksheet, were not needed by participants to successfully resolve social conflicts after receiving training in engaging in such precurrent behaviors. As noted by Frampton and Shillingsburg ( 2018 ), it is important to identify efficacious methods for teaching complex skills, such as resolving social conflicts, that often occur at the covert level. Finally, it should be noted that according to traditional psychology, problem solving is associated with executive function (EF; Zelazo et al., 1997 ). In our clinical practice, skills associated with EF have become a requested repertoire to be targeted during behavioral intervention. For example, individualized educational planning (IEP) team members and parents have requested goals related to EF skills. The findings of this study demonstrate that behavioral procedures can be used to address a skill that is traditionally categorized as being an EF skill.

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Acknowledgments

Victoria D. Suarez is Latina, Adel C. Najdowski is bi-racial: Latina and White, Jonathan Tarbox is White, Emma I. Moon is White, Megan St. Clair is White, and Peter Farag is Egyptian. We thank Jasmyn Pacheco, Lauri Simchoni, and Bryan Acuña for their assistance with this project.

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Suarez, V.D., Najdowski, A.C., Tarbox, J. et al. Teaching Individuals with Autism Problem-Solving Skills for Resolving Social Conflicts. Behav Analysis Practice 15 , 768–781 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-021-00643-y

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Teaching Individuals with Autism Problem-Solving Skills for Resolving Social Conflicts

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Teaching Autistic Children Critical Thinking Skills

By Donnesa McPherson, AAS

October 21, 2022

What is so important about teaching autistic children critical thinking skills? These skills are important to everyday decisions and obstacles an individual may face, there are many neurotypical and neurodivergent individuals that have a hard time with these skills.

This article is going to outline abstract and conceptual thinking skills development, practice, and use in the school setting and at home. I plan on including ways that both parents and teachers will best be able to encourage and build these skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

It may take some creativity and thinking outside the box when interacting and teaching these skills. It is important to remember and take note of the differences and potential difficulties that your child may have when taking these ideas into consideration.

As always, these are merely the tip of the iceberg and may not work for everybody. That is why the ability of parents and educators to think outside the box and use their own critical thinking skills when figuring out what will work best for the child.

Neurodivergence, autism, and critical thinking skills

It has been thought that neurodivergent children, particularly autistic children, have a harder time with an abstract idea. In the article, Associations Between Conceptual Reasoning, Problem Solving, and Adaptive Ability in High-functioning Autism, they state that this thought is not entirely correct and cannot cover the spectrum that autism covers.

For instance, the article states that there are children that have learned some conceptual reasoning skills, along with abstract thinking in a therapy or school setting and do well. Then when they go about their everyday lives they tend to forget or have a hard time applying these skills to everyday occurrences.

There are also autistic children who have no need to further their problem solving and conceptual skills. As I stated, with the spectrum that autism falls under, it can be challenging to address all the differing areas of development in these areas.

Ways to promote and enhance abstract and conceptual thinking skills

In this section I will mainly focus on ways of developing these skills in the classroom environment. Also, what alterations and support can be put in place to help the individuals develop these skills.

Problem solving and critical thinking development in the classroom

The presentation, Understanding Autism Professional Development Curriculum: Strategies for Classroom Success and Effective Use of Teacher Supports, starts with explaining what autism is and moves into what affects the autistic students and ways to help and support these students.

What can affect the student with autism?

Unpredictability this can be daunting and even a little scary for a student that may rely on knowing what they should expect next when school events, like an unexpected pep rally in the loud gym, can be met with extreme difficulty and be more of a stressful event than something fun
Transitions knowing what is coming up next and have the time to prepare for these transitions can be key with some students keeping transitions and how they are handled in mind can help decrease difficult behaviors before they begin by making it easier for the student to transition smoothly
Environmental changes these changes can be anything from seating changes to adding a new plant to the classroom and can stimulate certain sensory sensitive individuals or be an unwelcome surprise they were not ready for
Sensory overload if a student is exhibiting unusual or difficult behaviors, it can occur from all the sounds in the hallway to the buzzing from the lights and can affect the individual that may have a sensitive sensory response
Sensory seeking these students need some type of sensory stimulating activity, or could be the individuals that need to move around during discussion because that is how their brain best functions
Navigation it can be confusing, especially if the student has any of the various communication difficulties and may lack the social skills needed to ask when navigating from classroom to classroom or learning center to learning center and can be further irritated by loud and unexpected sounds of voices and chairs scraping the floor
Expectations not knowing what is expected of them, if the student is still developing social skills they may not do what is asked because they are unsure of what the expectations were before the activity and/or task and are unaware of how to ask appropriately
Decision making if given too many possibilities for decisions, the student may become confused and irritated because they don’t know what to do and there are too many choices that have been presented to them

Ways to help and support these students

Provide structure and consistency organizational skills are so important when it comes to this step because it can require a posted classroom schedule and one that the students also have in their notebooks that they can refer to, if needed try to stay clear of visual clutter, as that can cause more confusion
Make information and supplies readily accessible label where items, homework, lessons, etc. go for the day don’t forget to verbally explain and show the students where they can find these areas and labels, if they haven’t been introduced
Predictability this is where having a schedule and following it helps and is a nice starting point also having different tools and visual supports that are easily accessible to the student makes it easier for them to use and understand
Consider potential distractions try to remember that open windows, fluorescent lighting, strong smells, and loud noises can be extremely distracting and are a few of the things that can affect a sensory sensitive student keeping these distractions down or altering them in a friendlier way can help the individual with paying attention to the task at hand
Provide plenty of visual supports visual supports are your friend and ones that are interactive, more so for younger students but can benefit older students who like the sensory stimulation when the student physically removes a piece to the complete side or has a visual schedule in front of them and knows to expect gym class after recess

What are five ways that teachers can support critical thinking in the classroom?

Whether the student is in a general education classroom or special education program, there are five ways that teachers and teaching aids can help support students:

Expose and prepare this a way that the teacher or aid could show and talk about the assignment before the assignment is taught and helps expose the student to the material and prepare them for what is going to be expected of them and what the assignment will entail
Provide and plan for necessary adaptations for the student if the student already has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) there could be modifications and adaptations already outlined
Visual supports these could be token charts that allow the student to interact and add tokens when they have accomplished something all the way to an interactive visual board that the student carries around, to a visual schedule that changes as the tasks change throughout the say letting the students know what to expect next
Reinforcement the reinforcement discussed here is a way of rewarding the child for following school rules, finishing assignments, interacting with other students, or whatever they are working on for the moment
Offer a safe space this is an area where the student can decompress and can either be a place where they go by themselves when they become overwhelmed

Free your mind

As a parent, it can be difficult changing around your thought patterns and expectations when it comes to different aspects of your child and what is being expected of them. It is an important thing to remember, though, that as your child is learning all kinds of things like new ways to interact in a more socially acceptable way to keep all your interactions as light and fun as possible.

As a parent you can look at things in a creative way. This can be fun and add a sense of adventure to how you and your child continue to learn and respond, especially when it comes to critical thinking, abstract skills, conceptual skills, and problem solving skills.

For instance, if you know your child doesn’t like doing their school work at the table, you can ask them where they would like to do their school work, be careful and avoid verbal overload by talking too long. It is best to keep to shorter sentences and questions and offer two to three potential answers.

If they say they would prefer to practice spelling on the couch, just make sure to minimize distractions and voila they have a new place to do work and where able to practice some abstract concepts to where homework can be done.

In her article, 3 Simple Habits to Improve Your Critical Thinking, Helen Lee Bouygues states three ways of improving critical thinking, and they are things parents can do at home to practice with their children!

What are the three things that parents can do at home to help these skills?

Ask questions this can seem super simple, but the act of asking and answering repetitive verbal questions can help build problem solving skills because the child has to use their thinking skills and reason with the question to come up with potential answers
Be logical if your child is very logical, this exercise could help them expand beyond their logic, although they would start with logic, and expand as you both come up with more questions and concepts to talk about
See things differently you and your child have had a discussion about homework and they have figured out that they can do spelling practice on the couch, maybe come up with what other subjects may be done on the couch? Or where else could be a good place to practice spelling words and find out that they love spelling while swinging on their sensory swing.

Key takeaways

There are many ways that teachers and parents can both support and help develop critical thinking and other skills that will help the student in their future. Some of these ideas include ways that the classroom can help or hinder development and education.

Also, challenging parents to think outside the box when helping develop thinking skills and those needed for problem and organizational solving on a daily basis. Although there are children that may be able to express these skills during some times and forget about them during daily tasks, practice can help further the skill set.

As with anything else in life, practice can make perfect. Or, it can at least help by making steps toward the ultimate goals of using these skills as a student and beyond.

Bouygues, H. (2019). 3 Simple Habits to Improve Your Critical Thinking. https://hbr.org/2019/05/3-simple-habits-to-improve-your-critical-thinking

Goldstein, G., Mazefsky, C., Minshew, N., Walker, J., Williams, D. (2018). Associations Between Conceptual Reasoning, Problem Solving, and Adaptive Ability in High-functioning Autism. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6067678/

The Center on Secondary Education for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders & Organization for Autism Research. Understanding Autism Professional Development Curriculum: Strategies for Classroom Success and Effective Use of Teacher Supports. https://csesa.fpg.unc.edu/sites/csesa.fpg.unc.edu/files/imce/other/Presentation%202%20(Strategies%20for%20Classroom%20Success%20and%20Effective%20Use%20of%20Teacher%20Supports)(2).pdf

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Teaching Autistic Students to Solve Math Word Problems

August 29, 2022

By: Jenny Root, Ph.D., BCBA

Categories: How To , Education

In the past three months, how many times have you had no choice but to use cash to make a purchase? Or tell time using an analog clock?

Although you have undoubtedly made purchases, it is likely you used a card or smart device, especially if the purchases were made online. To check the time, you probably glanced at a digital clock on a screen or even just asked Alexa, Google Home, or another artificial intelligence device.

While the functions of many activities of daily living, such as making purchases and telling time, have remained the same over time, how we accomplish these tasks has changed dramatically as technology has evolved.

Math instruction for autistic students has historically had a limited focus on “functional” skills in order to prepare them for independence in their adult lives. Yet in addition to mastering a series of discrete skills, autistic young adults need to be able to problem solve . This includes:

Being aware of when there is a problem.
Identifying a reasonable strategy.
Monitoring their progress accurately.
Adapting as necessary.

Word problem solving is one way to teach students how, when, and why to apply math skills in real-world situations they will encounter in a future we may not be able to envision yet.

These research-supported strategies can help teachers and parents teach autistic students to solve word problems using modified schema-based instruction (MSBI). MSBI is an evidence-based practice for teaching word problem solving.

Create a meaningful task.

Word problems need to depict a realistic and meaningful problem. This will help students better understand the “why” behind word problem solving and support generalization to everyday situations. You can begin planning by identifying high-interest, real-world contexts when the targeted math skills could be used, such as familiar community locations, family routines, or preferred activities. The quantities represented in the problem should be realistic for the situation. Use technology to build background knowledge for generalization by showing short videos or pictures, such as videos of people making purchases using a credit card or comparing rideshare costs between two apps.

Consider accessibility.

Both the materials and word problems themselves need to be accessible to students. The reading level, quantities represented, structure, and visual supports can all be adjusted to address barriers students may face. If independently reading the problem is a barrier, students can use technology to access text-to-speech or ask a skilled reader—a parent, peer, or teacher—to read it aloud to them. Quantities in the problem can be reduced to match a student’s numeracy skills (e.g., quantities under 10) or they can be provided with a calculator for efficiency.

Research has shown that autistic students can successfully fade this equation template once they become fluent in problem solving.

Focus on problem types, not keywords or operations.

Teaching word problem solving using MSBI may differ from your prior approaches to math instruction. Many teachers and parents teach operations sequentially, meaning once addition is mastered, they move on to subtraction, then multiplication, then division. But this developmental mindset can put unnecessary ceilings on student opportunity by having a “not ready for” mindset. Waiting for students to be “ready for” problem solving by overly focusing on their skill deficits will hold them back from meaningful, age-appropriate instruction.

MSBI also does not teach students to focus on keywords to identify operations, such as “more” meaning add and “left” meaning subtract. While this trick may initially work for some simple problems, it doesn’t help students conceptually understand the problem. Real-world problems won’t have keywords.

Instead of teaching by operation or focusing on keywords, research has shown when autistic students learn to identify and represent the problem by the schema (pattern of problem structure), they are able to independently solve, discriminate between, and generalize problems. There are two categories of schemas, or problem structures. Additive problems use addition and subtraction operations and include group/total, compare/difference, and change schemas. Multiplicative problems use multiplication and division and include equal group, multiplicative comparison, rate, and proportion. Here is a great resource that explains each schema .

Choose a problem-solving routine.

The three key components of schema instruction are teaching:

The key features of each schema.
A solution strategy for each schema.
Important language and vocabulary related to the schema.

MSBI provides additional support as needed for working memory, language, reading level, and numeracy skills so that students are engaged, motivated, and able to “show what they know” while problem solving.

Problem-solving routines draw students’ attention to the decisions they need to make and actions they need to engage in to arrive at a solution. General attack strategies can be effective. These are two examples:

UPS Check

Understand
Check work
Discover the problem type.
Identify information in the problem to represent in the diagram.
Solve the problem.
Check the answer.

Students usually write these at the top of their paper or reference them on a poster or whiteboard in the classroom. Autistic students and those with more extensive support needs will likely need a more detailed and personalized routine that breaks down the mathematical decisions into more discrete behaviors.

When developing routines to meet student needs, analyze the decisions that need to be made and behaviors involved in solving problems. Routines should always begin with reading the problem or requesting that a problem be read aloud. At least when students are initially learning the routine, they should have individual copies to follow, either printed directly on worksheets or as a separate visual support. Judiciously pair visual supports with text to give support but not so much that they are just relying on matching instead of demonstrating mathematical understanding. The general curriculum access lab at Florida State University has example problem-solving routines from research with students with autism and other developmental disabilities on their website.

Support independence.

You must explicitly teach students to follow a problem-solving routine. Use think-alouds with clear and concise language while actively engaging students in the problem-solving process. Opportunities for guided practice are important for identifying points of strength and areas of misconception. A system of least prompts (starting with the prompt that provides the least amount of assistance) can be used when students are not independently correct:

A generic verbal prompt: Read/point to step of the problem-solving routine.
Direct verbal prompt: explain how to complete the step.
A model-retest: Model completing step and ask student to repeat.

Self-monitoring and goal-setting can help facilitate independence in problem solving. Giving a space for students to check off steps as they are completed enables self-monitoring task completion to start as soon as they begin to solve the problem. The focus can shift to self-monitoring independence by having students check off steps completed “by myself” or “with help” as in the example below or self-monitoring duration by timing themselves.

Word problem solving is an important skill for all students, as it puts math concepts and procedures into a real-world context. In addition, self-determinatio n skills such as choice-making, self-monitoring, and goal-setting can be feasibly embedded to enhance effectiveness and efficiency. To prepare autistic students for independence in their futures, they need instruction focused on skills of the future, not the past.

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Social Problem Solving: Best Practices for Youth with ASD

By: Michael Selbst, PhD, BCBA-D Steven B. Gordon, PhD, ABPP Behavior Therapy Associates
July 1st, 2014
assessment , problem solving , social information processing , social skills
8458 0

Joey, age 9, has been diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and due to his high functioning has been mainstreamed into a fourth grade classroom with a shadow. His […]

Joey, age 9, has been diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and due to his high functioning has been mainstreamed into a fourth grade classroom with a shadow. His challenging behaviors typically center on his peer interactions in spite of adequate academic performance. When in a group situation he becomes very argumentative when his ideas are not used, becomes very bossy on the playground, and has run out of the classroom when things do not go his way. Megan, age 14, has also been diagnosed with ASD. She isolates herself from her peers and rarely initiates or responds to greetings. Conversations are almost nonexistent unless they are focused on her favorite topics of anime or fashion.

Children with ASD described as above typically have significant social skills impairments and often require direct instruction in order to address these deficits. They often have difficulty in many of the following areas: sharing, handling frustration, controlling their temper, ending arguments calmly, responding to teasing, making/keeping friends, complying with requests. Strong social skills contribute to the initiation and maintenance of positive relationships with others and as a result contribute to peer acceptance. Social skills impairments, on the other hand, contribute to peer rejection. The ability to get along with peers, therefore, is as important to self-esteem as the ability to meet with academic success in the classroom. This article will review the domain of social skills, the assessment of social skills, the importance of social problem-solving and a social skills curriculum which incorporates evidence-based practices to address this very important area.

Social information processing (SIP) is a widely-studied framework for understanding why some children have difficulty getting along with peers. A particularly well-known SIP model developed by Crick and Dodge (1994) describes six stages of information processing that children cycle through when evaluating a particular social situation: encoding (attending to and encoding the relevant cues), interpreting (making a judgment about what is going on), clarifying goals (deciding what their goal is in the particular situation), generating responses (identifying different behavioral strategies for attaining the decided upon goal), deciding on the response (evaluating the likelihood that each potential strategy will help reach their goal and choosing which strategy to implement), and performing the response (doing the chosen response). It is assumed that the steps outlined above operate in real time and frequently outside of conscious awareness. Numerous studies have shown that unpopular children have deficits at multiple stages of the SIP model. For example, they frequently attend to fewer social cues before deciding on peers’ intent, are more likely to assume that peers have acted towards them with hostile intent, are less likely to adopt pro-social goals, are more likely to access aggressive strategies for handling potential conflicts, evaluate aggressive responses more favorably, and are less skillful at enacting assertive and prosocial strategies.

Deficits in social skills are one of the defining characteristics of children with ASD. These impairments manifest in making and keeping friends, communicating feelings appropriately, demonstrating self-control, controlling emotions, solving social problems, managing anger, and generalizing learned social skills across settings. Elliott and Gresham (1991) indicated that social skills are primarily acquired through learning (observation, modeling, rehearsal, & feedback); comprise specific, discrete verbal and nonverbal behaviors; entail both effective and appropriate initiations and responses; maximize social reinforcement; are influenced by characteristics of environment; and that deficits/excesses in social performance can be specified and targeted for intervention. Social skills can be conceptualized as a narrow, discrete response (i.e., initiating a greeting) or as a broader set of skills associated with social problem solving. The former approach results in the generation of an endless list of discrete skills that are assessed for their presence/absence and are then targeted for instruction. Although this approach has an intuitive appeal and is easily understood, the child can easily become dependent on the teacher/parent in order to learn each skill.

An alternative approach focuses on teaching a problem solving model that the child is able to apply independently. Rather than focusing on teaching a specific behavioral skill, the focus is on teaching a social problem solving model that the learner would be able to use as a “tool box.” The well-used saying “give a person a fish and she eats for a day but teach her to fish and she eats for a lifetime” is particularly relevant. The social problem solving approach offers the promise of helping the child with ASD to become a better problem solver, thereby promoting greater independence in social situations and throughout life.

After many years of conducting social skills training using the specific skill approach, the authors have developed a model of social problem solving that uses the easily learned acronym of POWER. The steps of POWER-Solving® include:

P ut problem into words

O bserve feelings

W ork out your goal

E xplore solutions

R eview plan

Each of the five steps of POWER-Solving® has been previously identified as reliably distinguishing between children with emotional/behavioral disorders and psychologically well-adjusted individuals. The ability to “Put problem into words” is critical in order to start the problem solving process. Children with ASD often have difficulties finding the words to identify a problem. Thus, the first step in this approach involves direct training in the use of the rubric “I was… and then…” Upon entering the classroom and finding a peer in his seat Joey immediately pushed the peer in an attempt to get him out of his seat. Through the use of POWER-Solving® Joey was taught to articulate “I was walking into the classroom and then I saw that Billy was in my seat.”

The second step of “Observe feelings” was addressed by helping Joey develop a feelings vocabulary (e.g., angry, frustrated, scared, sad) as well as measuring the intensity of these emotions using a scale from one to ten, with a one being “very weak” and a ten being “very strong.” Photographs and drawings were used extensively to capitalize on his strong visual skills.

The third step of POWER-Solving®, “Work out your goal?” involves identifying the goal and the motivation to reach the chosen goal. This critical step sets the stage for what follows. The goal must be specific and measurable, consistent with Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) principles. Joey was able to identify that his goal consisted of two parts. First, he wanted to get Billy out of his seat and second, he wanted him to still be his friend. He reported that his desire to reach this goal was a nine on the ten-point scale.

The fourth step of POWER-Solving® involves “Explore solutions.” Socially skilled individuals are able to generate a range of effective solutions but those with impairments are more limited and often apply the same rigid solution over and over again in spite of repeated ineffectiveness. Joey was taught to “brainstorm,” which involves generating as many solutions as possible that might reach the stated goal, provided the solution is safe, fair, and effective. Joey was able to identify that approaching Billy and saying “Excuse me but I need to sit in my seat now” would help him to accomplish his goal(s). Behavioral rehearsal, combined with coaching and feedback, helped Joey to become fluent in applying this solution.

The final step of POWER-Solving®, “Review plan,” involved Joey reviewing his plan to use this skill the next time the situation presented and to reward himself by saying “I am proud of myself for figuring this out.”

POWER-Solving® has been applied successfully in multiple settings such as the classroom, a summer treatment program, clinical settings and home environments. The curriculum is systematic and relies heavily on visual cues and supports. Children are taught how to problem-solve first using their “toolbox” (i.e., the five steps of POWER-Solving®). The children are presented with specific unit lessons on each of the five steps of POWER-Solving®. All children have an opportunity to practice each step of POWER-Solving®. After learning each step of POWER, the children have acquired a “toolbox” which they can begin to apply to social situations.

When teaching social skills, it is important to coach the children through behavioral rehearsal activities to promote skill acquisition, performance, generalization and fluency. Additionally, daily activities reinforce these skills, some of which include designing their own feelings thermometer, developing novel products via group collaboration, and developing a skit to teach a specific skill.

To increase students’ performance of the desired skills, use of a token economy may be helpful, whereby points are earned during the day for displaying appropriate behavior, demonstrating a predetermined individualized social behavioral objective and for using the POWER-Solving® steps. At the end of every day, points could be exchanged for a reward. In addition to the direct instructional format, incidental teaching should be used in anticipation of a challenging situation as well as a consequence for failure to use the steps when confronted with a specific problem. An experienced social skills coach, generalization strategies, and a systematic plan to teach and reinforce skills are critical for success.

Please feel free to contact us at Behavior Therapy Associates for more information about best practices for social skills training, as well as information regarding the POWER-Solving curriculum. We can be reached at 732-873-1212, via email [email protected] or on website at www.BehaviorTherapyAssociates.com .

Crick, N.R., & Dodge, K.A. (1994). A review and reformulation of social information-processing mechanisms in children’s social adjustment. Psychological Bulletin , 115, 74–101.

Elliott, S.T. & Gresham, F. M. (1991). Social skills intervention guide: Practical strategies for social skills training . Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.

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v.15(3); 2022 Sep

Teaching Individuals with Autism Problem-Solving Skills for Resolving Social Conflicts

Victoria d. suarez.

1 Endicott College, Beverly, MA USA

Adel C. Najdowski

2 Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA USA

Jonathan Tarbox

3 University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA USA

4 Halo Behavioral Health, Valley Village, California USA

Megan St. Clair

Peter farag.

Participants and Setting

Response Measurement and Data Collection

A problem-solving task analysis (TA; Table Table1) 1 ) was used to calculate the percentage of correct, independent problem-solving steps completed by each participant. Each step of the TA was scored as correct or incorrect based on the specified criteria (Table (Table1). 1 ). A correct response included independently and accurately completing a step within the task analysis by either writing a response or vocally stating a response within 10 s of: (1) the problem occurring (step 1) and (2) the previous step being completed (steps 2–13). An incorrect response included responses irrelevant to the current step, prompted responses, and nonresponses (i.e., failure to respond within 10 s of the problem [step 1] or previous step occurring [steps 2–14]). During baseline and posttraining, if the participant was not progressing through the conflict (e.g., not doing anything to resolve the conflict) after 1 min of the problem occurring, the conflict was ended by the interventionist resolving the conflict (e.g., if the conflict was that brother left Legos on the table where the participant was going to eat, the interventionist resolved the conflict by removing the Legos) and all remaining steps of the TA were scored as incorrect.

Problem-solving task analysis

Note: Task analysis (TA) steps and correct response criteria for each TA step.

Experimental Design and Procedure

A nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participants design was used to assess the effects of the problem-solving training package.

General Procedures

At the beginning of each ABA-based teaching session, participants were provided with a variation of the following instruction: “Today during your session, a social problem with someone will happen at some point. Here is a worksheet [see Fig. Fig.1] 1 ] you can use to help solve the problem when it happens.” The worksheet was written using language that was previously observed to be used by the participants and that they were familiar with.

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is 40617_2021_643_Fig1_HTML.jpg

Problem-solving worksheet

List of social conflicts presented

Note: Sample of contrived or captured social conflicts encountered by Patrick, Oliver, and Russell.

During baseline, in addition to the general procedures, problems occurred with at least two different people (e.g., parent, sibling; see Table Table3). 3 ). We did not provide any prompting or feedback in order to assess the extent to which participants resolved social conflicts independently. If the participant was not progressing through the conflict after 1 min of the conflict occurring, the conflict was ended by the interventionist resolving the problem. It was planned that if any distressed behavior (e.g., crying, screaming, negative statements, SIB, aggression) was observed for a duration of at least 10 s, the conflict was to be ended by the interventionist resolving the problem; however, distressed behavior never occurred during baseline. Participants qualified to continue to the training phase if they scored 60% or less on the problem-solving TA. Two participants were excluded for not meeting this criterion.

People and problems presented each phase

Note: People and social conflicts used across baseline, training, and posttraining conditions and during natural environment probes. Social conflicts and people used to assess generalization are included alongside people and social conflicts in posttraining.

Pretraining Phase

Training Phase

In addition to the general procedures, during training, the participant was taught to engage in precurrent behavior (i.e., use the worksheet) to resolve social conflicts using multiple exemplar training, error correction, and reinforcement. At the beginning of each session, an informal preference assessment was conducted by asking participants what they would like to earn after resolving a conflict. Then, the participant was told that they would be able to access the predetermined reinforcer for more or less time depending on how many questions of the worksheet they completed correctly. The amount of time that was granted with the reinforcer was determined using a grading scale in which higher percentages of independent correct responding on the worksheet resulted in more time with the reinforcer (see Fig. Fig.2). 2 ). For example, if the participant scored 20% correct on the problem-solving worksheet, they received 2 min of access to their reinforcer (e.g., video game, free time), and if they scored 90% correct they received 13 min of access. A social conflict was then contrived and each independently performed step of the TA was praised. Access to the predetermined reinforcer was granted for a prespecified amount of time depending on the participant’s percentage of correct responding.

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is 40617_2021_643_Fig2_HTML.jpg

Reinforcement grading scale

Posttraining Phase

At the beginning of each posttraining session, a variation of the following instruction was presented, “Even if you can solve the problem by yourself without the worksheet, I need you to use the worksheet so that I know what you are thinking.” If participants began to resolve the conflict without using the worksheet, the instruction was re-presented. Other than the presence of that instruction, this phase was identical to baseline conditions, in that no feedback or reinforcement was provided at any point. Exemplars from baseline were re-presented during this phase (Table (Table3) 3 ) to evaluate whether participants resolved social conflicts that they were unsuccessful in resolving prior to receiving the problem-solving training package.

Natural Environment Probes

Social Validity

A social validity questionnaire (Table (Table4) 4 ) was administered to each participant upon the completion of training. Participants were instructed to complete the questionnaire to the best of their ability and no additional feedback on their responses was provided. The questionnaire consisted of six questions (two each for goals, procedures, and outcomes; see Table Table4) 4 ) scored on a 5-point Likert scale: (1) strongly disagree, (2) disagree, (3) neutral, (4) agree, and (5) strongly agree. There were also two open-ended questions that asked participants to identify what they liked the most and least about the problem-solving training package.

Social validity questionnaire items

Figure Figure3 3 contains the results for Patrick (top panel), Oliver (middle panel), and Russell (bottom panel); these are described below, respectively. Patrick responded during baseline with 0%–8% accuracy in the presence of the worksheet and did not resolve the social conflict presented during the natural environment probe. During pretraining, Patrick performed with 0% accuracy in the presence of the worksheet. During training in the presence of novel problems, there was an immediate increase in correct responding, and he met the mastery criterion on the sixth training session. After training, during a natural environment probe (no worksheet), Patrick successfully resolved a contrived social conflict. During posttraining when untrained social conflict exemplars from baseline were repeated, Patrick consistently scored 100% using the problem-solving worksheet and also successfully resolved social conflicts during the natural environment probes (no worksheet). Maintenance was measured 2, 4, 6, and 10 weeks following training, and Patrick successfully resolved novel, naturally occurring social conflicts in the absence of a worksheet.

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is 40617_2021_643_Fig3_HTML.jpg

Percentage of correct problem-solving steps emitted by participants

The results of this study are also consistent with previous research conducted by Bernard-Optiz et al. ( 2001 ) in demonstrating an increase in the use of novel solutions by individuals with ASD. In particular, the results showed that precurrent behaviors were successful in bringing a variety of solutions (not just one type of solution) under the control of the conflict context. For example, types of solutions used by participants included many different repertoires, some of which have not been addressed in previous research such as apologizing, providing information, advocating for individual needs/wants, compromising, and removing oneself from the situation, along with others that have been targeted in previous research, such as requesting information (e.g., Shillingsburg et al., 2011 ), requesting tangibles (e.g., Bourret et al., 2004 ), and requesting help/removal (e.g., Rodriguez et al., 2017 ; see Table Table5). 5 ). A potential limitation of this study is that we did not preplan the types of solutions we would teach, so exposure to types of solutions was not controlled for or counterbalanced. Therefore, it is possible that variation in the types of solutions used affected the results. However, consistent results were obtained across the three participants, so there is no direct evidence that inconsistency affected the results. In addition, training a variety of strategies, all of which have the same function, to solve the problem, may be considered a form of multiple exemplar training in itself, and therefore may have contributed to the favorable generalization that was observed. Still, uncontrolled variables are often frowned upon in research, so future researchers may want to consider controlling the number of each type of solution taught to participants.

Solutions used by participants

Note: Number and percentage of types of solutions used across social conflicts by Patrick, Oliver, and Russell

Acknowledgments

Declarations

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed consent was obtained by all human participants using a consent form approved by Endicott College’s IRB.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Teaching Simple Problem Solving

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Executive Function skills are important because they help children to be able to identify a goal, work towards it, trouble-shoot difficulties, be flexible and arrive at their goal. Shannon Penrod, host of Autism Live shares how we can start with young children and teach them simple problem solving, which will serve them well on their way to more complex problem solving.

Autism Live is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD), headquartered in Tarzana, California, and with offices throughout the United States and around the globe. For more information on therapy for autism and other related disorders, visit the CARD website at http://centerforautism.com

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Teach social problem solving

For student year, helps students to.

solve social problems
become independent

Helps teachers to

support students
model strategies

Social problem solving is a skill that develops during the early years of school. It is the process and strategies used to analyse, understand, and respond to everyday problems, decision making, and conflicts.

Social problem solving is often fostered intuitively through interactions with others. Some students, including those on the autism spectrum, may benefit from systematic instruction in helpful strategies for social problem solving.

Social problems can be as simple as turn-taking, and as complex as bullying.

Instruction helps students to understand:

what a social problem is
how to recognise a social problem
the process to follow when a social problem occurs, and
the strategies they could use to solve a social problem.

How the practice works

Watch this video to learn more about this practice.

Duration: 03:49

Australian Professional Standards for Teachers related to this practice

1.6 - strategies to support the full participation of students with disability

4.1 - support student participation

4.2 - manage classroom activities

4.3 - manage challenging behaviour

For further information, see Australian Professional Standards for Teachers AITSL page

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Preparing to teach

Be proactive.

Identify barriers to learning and social demands and put these strategies in place to reduce the likelihood of problems occurring in the first place.
Use observations to develop a clear and comprehensive understanding of the problem(s) that the student is experiencing.
understand possible triggers
be alert to any potentially challenging situations throughout the day.
Identify the specific strategy to teach students how to find a solution. There are several strategies available in the Resources section below.
as a whole class
in small groups
individually
a mix of above.

Use supports

Identify and develop the visual supports required to explicitly and systematically teach a social problem solving process and keep these handy. These can be social stories, routine charts, or emotion cards for self-regulation.
Identify appropriate storybooks and visual supports that you can incorporate in your explicit teaching to enhance student understanding.
role-play/rehearsal
puppet play (check the students aren’t frightened of puppets)
social stories
visual prompts.

How will you:

embed problem solving scenarios
model the problem solving process
positively encourage, support, and reinforce students to use the process to solve real-life social problems
share the social problem solving process with families.

Communicate

Communicating with families will encourage generalisation of the associated strategy at home. You can also communicate the types of language used so families can use similar language at home if they like.

The turtle technique

When you have a clear and understanding of the problem the student is experiencing, you can then identify and use a specific intervention process to teach the student how to find a solution. One such process is the turtle technique. This which involves teaching students the steps of how to control feelings and calm down (i.e., think like a turtle).

You will find further templates in the resource section of this practice.

It works better if:

the social problem solving strategy has a small number of set steps
teachers model these steps
students are encouraged to use to the strategy to solve their social problems whenever they occur
language is used consistently and modelled throughout the day and at home
visual supports are used to enhance student understanding of the strategy.

It doesn’t work if:

the student is expected to solve a social problem when distressed or overloaded
the student hasn’t understood the problem solving strategy (so it will need re-teaching)
the problem solving strategy has too many steps.

In the classroom

Step 1: teach social problem solving.

Explicitly and systematically teach a social problem solving strategy using visual supports. These are available in the resources section.

You notice student A becomes frustrated when they others don't want to play the same game. You can introduce the concept of turn-taking, and establish strategies for students to determine whose turn it is, promoting fairness and equality. Student A can then independently use these strategies when this comes up again.

Step 2: Practice relaxation

Ensure that class practises relaxation skills.

Step 3: Embed and respond

Be alert to any situations throughout the day that may result in social difficulties.

Model using the strategy to solve social problems.

Support student use of the strategy in relation to their encountered social problems:

remain calm – personally model the skills involved
reduce ‘talk’ and use visual cues
deal with social difficulties in a consistent manner.

Acknowledge and positively reinforce all attempts by student to use problem-solving skills.

Step 4: Review

Wait until the student is calm and receptive before providing feedback.

Step 5: Reflect

Reflect on whether the student was able to solve the social problem independently, or whether the strategy needs to be adjusted.

Record student outcomes in order to track progress.

Note program outcomes.

Practice toolkit

Practice implementation planner template.

We know that it is not always easy to keep track of what is working and what is not. So, we have created this template for you to record and reflect on what you are doing to help you create a more inclusive classroom. The implementation planner contains:

Guidance around goal setting
Reflection section (What worked, didn’t work and what to change and next steps.)
Prompting questions

Implementation planner template

Implementation planner with examples

Set your professional learning goal for:, benefits of goal setting.

Goal setting guidelines
Importance of goal setting

How to set goals

Teach social problem solving - practice brief.

Turtle Technique – 4 step problem solving process

Suri spider social story - by ncpmi, example visual support - how to choose, example visual support: playing 'round the world, example visual support: playing handball, related practices.

Teacher on laptop talking to student. Student is mirroring the teachers gestures.

Model positive interactions

Teaching practice, for student years.

build social-awareness
interact with others

This practice is from the core research project

Learning Cycle

Set your practice implementation goal

Special Educator Academy

Free resources, how social problem solving and social skills deficits in autism impact behavior.

THE INTERSECTION OF SOCIAL SKILLS AND CHALLENGING BEHAVIOR FOR STUDENTS IWTH AUTISM. EPISODE 69

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Social Problem Solving and its Impact on Behavior: Episode 69 Autism Classroom Resources Podcast

In this episode, I am exploring how social skills deficits, and specifically difficulties with social problem solving, impact the behavior of students with autism, particularly those who are working in general education classrooms. One of the areas that I see many students struggle with in schools is how to handle those situations that occur in recess, at lunch, in group assignments or other unstructured times when something unexpected happens. Those are the times that our students with ASD may respond in a way that makes sense to them, but may not always make sense to those around them.

Social competence, which is how I often refer to the larger approach to social skills, is a very huge deal. It encompasses a lot of different skills and abilities. Some of these are specific, definable skills. For instance, when to say hello to someone. But others involve more esoteric, less easily observed skills.

Episode 69 Highlights

In this episode, I’m talking about how deficits in social problem solving puts our students at risk for negative behavior.

I will also talk about why we need to look at social skills and social problem solving as part of our functional behavior assessment .

And why we need to incorporate social problem solving instruction into our students’ curriculum to prevent challenging behavioral issues.

Finally, I’ve got a free tool that to download in the post for this episode that can help to remind them of some social problem solving strategies.

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Come join the Academy and check out the Social Skills course. Grab a free 7-day free trial with the button below.

This week, I am exploring how social skills deficits, and specifically difficulties with social problem solving, impact the behavior of students with autism, particularly those who are working in general education classrooms. One of the areas that I see many students struggle with in schools is how to handle those situations that occur in recess, at lunch, in group assignments or other unstructured times when something unexpected happens. Those are the times that our students with ASD may respond in a way that makes sense to them, but may not always make sense to those around them.

The Student In the Gym

For instance, a student who found himself in a gym locker room unsupervised. Other kids were teasing him and giving him a hard time. He was feeling threatened and wanted them to stop. But he didn’t know how to remove himself from the situation or ask them to stop. He didn’t have the skill or know the right thing to do. So, he said something threatening that he had heard in a movie when someone was feeling uncomfortable. He told them he would come back and beat them up. They left him alone (so it worked), but they also told the principal and he was suspended. Knowing him, he had no intention to act upon that threat. But the other students and administrators wouldn’t know that.

It was poor social problem solving on his part. He didn’t know how to ask them to leave him alone or remove himself from the situation in a more appropriate way. He didn’t have social skills at his finger tips for handling that situation.

But he also couldn’t figure out why they were teasing him and how to address it. He didn’t have the ability interpret what they might be thinking. He simply didn’t have good social problem solving for the situation. And his behavior got him into trouble.

In this episode, I’m talking about how deficits in social problem solving puts our students at risk for negative behavior.

And why we need to incorporate social problem solving instruction into our students’ curriculum to prevent challenging behavioral issues.

Finally, I’ve got a free tool that to download in the post for this episode that can help to remind them of some social problem solving strategies. You can find that at autismclassroomresources.com/episode69.

So let’s get started.

The Impact of Social Problem Solving on Behavior

Students on the spectrum often have difficulty interpreting others’ behavior, predicting what others might be thinking, and determining that right action to take based on particular situations. They often struggle with reading the nonverbal cues of body language and tone of voice. And all of that together means that they can have difficulty knowing how to respond in social situations.

Like the student in the gym, that means that the way they respond to situations may not be the best options. These are students whose challenging behaviors are often more esoteric than just aggression. It might be categorized as a “meltdown.” Or it might be a group of behaviors that get conveyed as being rude, uncommunicative, shutting down, refusing to participate in activities, etc.

Sometimes these behaviors look just rude or antisocial rather than being a result of not being able to “read the room” or understand the social context. But they also sometimes lead to some big social misunderstanding that can get these students into bigger trouble.

The Importance of Social Problem Solving in Behavior Assessment and Support

Given the impact that social problem solving deficits can have on these students’ behavior, it’s critical that we address them in our assessments and interventions. That leads to two avenues.

In the FBA, we need to include a focus on their social skills and problem solving. We probably don’t need a formal assessment tool. But in our interviews and observations, we should be looking for how the student manages in social situations.

Then, in our interventions, we should be including strategies for addressing social problem solving. These are critical replacement skills given that some of the challenging behaviors may be the result of poor social problem solving and deficits in social skills. And we need to make sure that this training is intensive and not just happening as needed. If students are demonstrating challenging behavior, they need explicit interventions.

Teaching Social Problem Solving to Prevent Challenging Behavior

If the student’s behavior does not rise to the level of needing an FBA (yet), then we should be thinking about how we can prevent that from happening. Many of our students on general education standards don’t get social skills instruction because it isn’t part of their academic curriculum. But they will struggle in the long run without it. So we need to make it a priority. So here are 2 strategies that are fairly easy to implement in the classroom that can help.

Social Narratives, Role Playing, Reinforcement

Social narratives are one strategy that we can use to teach our students how to solve social problems. Narratives are like Social Stories™️ and are designed to describe social situations. The most important component of social narratives for these students are that they should highlight others’ perspectives of the social situation. They should also present options to the student about how to handle the situation and how those actions might be interpreted by others.

Social narratives are also used in combination with other interventions. They aren’t a quick fix that works on their own. I have had some students who respond really well to them. Others who didn’t respond at all. Typically, they have worked as a great way to introduce information to the students. But they aren’t necessarily the behavior change agent for instruction. That is going to take practice.

For practice we need to do role playing, practice, and feedback. We can use video modeling. Students can practice with others or with adults. And we need to reinforce them. So there is a lot of explicit instruction that needs to happen as well as part of a social skills curriculum. Tools such as Michelle Garcia Winner’s Social Thinking and Scott Bellini’s Building Social Relationships are both good resources for these.

Option Cards

And that brings me to a second tool that I wanted to highlight in this episode. Option cards are simply visual supports that remind students of what their options are. You know that student who always calls out whenever he needs help? He doesn’t know to wait his turn. Or he doesn’t know to ask a friend. And instead he’s always calling out in class and interrupting.

Option cards are a way of reminding him what he could do instead. So in the case of the interrupting student, you might have an option card that says, If I don’t know what to do, I could raise my hand and ask for help, or I could ask a friend. You can tape it to his desk or put it in his pocket or notebook as a reminder.

You can also use them to help prevent more significant challenging behaviors. So some students I’ve worked with have an option card that says, “If I get upset, I can ask for a break or get a fidget.” I’ve had option cards for students during PE that said, “If I lose the game, I could congratulate the other team or go get a drink of water.” The second option may not be the most socially appropriate, but it’s better than screaming at the other team and denying that they won.

And I have a free option card that you can download in the resource library. You can sign up and grab it at autismclassroomresources.com/episode69.

Other Tools

Obviously there are tons of other tools that we can use to address social problem solving, like contingency maps , some of the self-regulation tools I talked about in episode 67 and social skills instructional strategies. But the key is that we need to be addressing these issues for these students. Often times we forget that they need this as explicit instruction. And it’s not included in the general education academic curriculum. We need to advocate for the needs for these students to learn these skills to avoid behavior but also to promote success within and after school.

So head over to the website page for this episode at autismclassroomresources.com/episode69 to grab your free option cards and contingency maps. And if you are interested in learning more about how to teach social competency, we have a whole course on teaching the specific skills for all different populations, including autism, in the Special Educator Academy. So, come join us for a 7-day free trial of the Academy at specialeducatoracademy.com

And I would love to hear about how you teach social problem solving to your students. So if you are an educator, hop over to the free Facebook group at specialeducatorsconnection.com and share.

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Educational game enhances problem-solving skills in programming

MUSCAT: In hopes of enhancing the education environment and bringing something new to make teaching interesting, a research study titled “Teaching Problem Solving Skills using an Educational Game in a Computer Programming Course” by principal investigator Dr Roy Mathew, Assistant Professor and Software Engineering Program Coordinator at Al Buraimi University College, utilizes a game to improve problem-solving skills among students in a programming course.

According to Dr Roy Mathew, problem solving skills are considered an important component in learning to program in an introductory programming (IP) course for novices. The research project therefore aimed to introduce a PROSOLVE game to enhance problem solving skills of novice programmers in the introductory programming course.

Dr Roy elaborated that the game is based on pseudo-code technique. The game covers most of the teaching topics of the IP course. Consequently, students practice the problem-solving skills throughout the course. A survey was employed to collect students’ feedback and semi-structured interviews were organized to collect instructors’ opinion about the game.

For the main findings, Dr Roy stated that the game helped most of the students in understanding the programming concepts, structures and problem-solving strategies. Moreover, the game supports students’ cognitive engagement, gains, and affective engagement in the IP course. Most of the students supported the idea that games should also be introduced in advanced courses of programming.

Dr Roy emphasized that instructors appreciated the game and considered it as an additional supporting teaching tool in the IP course. Students practice the problem-solving strategy for the whole semester because the game covers most of the teaching topics of the IP course. This process helps students to pay equal attention on the programming knowledge (syntax and semantics) and the problem-solving strategies. The instructors also considered the game as good alternative of traditional pen and paper learning approach in attracting students’ interest in the programming domain.

The PROSOLVE game brings fun and competition elements which attract more attention of students in the learning process. The game is web-based which helps students with finishing exercises at their own convenience and time. Students can collect points and win medals and cups for their correct solutions against the given problem statements. This process also urges students to practice more questions and acquires deep learning of the programming domain.

This research project was published in the journal Informatics in Education.

The research team consisted of Dr Roy Mathew, Assistant Professor and Software Engineering Program Coordinator at Al Buraimi University College, Dr. Sohail Iqbal Malik, Assistant Professor and Head of Information Technology Department at Al Buraimi University College, and Dr. Ragad Moufaq Tawafak, Assistant Professor and Computer Science Program Coordinator at Al Buraimi University College.

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IMAGES

Problem Solving Monitor
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71+ Free Social Problem-Solving Scenarios
Problem Solving Monitor
5 step problem solving method
fun activities to teach problem solving

VIDEO

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Problem Solving Autism & living situations
Problem solving idea

COMMENTS

Teaching Individuals with Autism Problem-Solving Skills for Resolving
Problem solving is traditionally defined as the ability to identify the problem and then create solutions for the problem (Agran et al., 2002).From a behavioral perspective, a person is faced with a problem when they experience a state of deprivation or aversive stimulation (Skinner, 1953, p. 246), and reinforcement is contingent upon a response that is in the person's repertoire, but cannot ...
Embedded Change and Teaching Problem Solving
Embedded Change and Teaching Problem Solving. If you want your students to grow up to be functionally independent adults it is essential and critical to make life harder on them now. We don't want to coddle them. We don't want them to rely on us. We want them to do it for themselves. I tell teachers and paraprofessionals all the time ...
The Problem Solver: A Behavioral Intervention for Teaching Problem
The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic clinical behavioral program named the Problem Solver (PS) specifically designed to teach problem-solving to high-functioning students with ASD. The authors detail the three stages of the PS program (i.e., determining a set of problems and solutions for each student, skill acquisition and ...
Problem Solving Activities for Kids with Autism
Teaching students with autism to solve different kinds of problems can be a great way to help them develop life skills as well as cognition. This lesson offers some problem-solving activities you ...
PDF Fix the Problem Game
The Fix the Problem Game is designed to get children with ASD to examine their own social and emotional challenges by engaging them in the process of analyzing someone else's problems first. There are 40 child characters with 40 first-person scenarios, each describing social or emotional dilemmas experienced by many children on the spectrum.
Nurturing Problem-solving Skills in Autistic Children
Our "Problem-Solving Worksheet" helps parents and children describe the problem, brainstorm solutions, evaluate solutions and make a plan of action. We also describe these strategies to help teach this important skill: - Break down complex tasks into smaller steps. - Use a structured problem-solving framework.
Teaching Problem Solving Skills to Elementary Age Students
This study was designed to assess the. (SDLMI) (Wehmeyer, Palmer, Agran, Mithaug, efficacy of a problem-solving intervention for & Martin, 2000). Palmer et al. (2004) found that students with autism to gain skills in problem. students improved in their problem-solving solving, goal setting, self-evaluation, and goal.
(PDF) Teaching Individuals with Autism Problem-Solving Skills for
Teaching Individuals with Autism Problem-Solving Skills for Resolving Social Conflicts . × ... if they would like to participate in a research study evaluating a lesson for teaching problem-solving skills to resolve social conflicts. Consent was obtained by providing a consent form outlining the study's purpose, methods, and potential ...
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Using a problem-solving intervention and the Self Determined Learning Model of Instruction, three elementary age students with autism were taught to set personal goals related to their academic ...
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This article is going to outline abstract and conceptual thinking skills development, practice, and use in the school setting and at home. I plan on including ways that both parents and teachers will best be able to encourage and build these skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It may take some creativity and thinking outside ...
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Like Autism Live on Facebook at http://facebook.com/autismliveDr. Adel Najdowski, Director of Skills, shares tips on teaching Problem Solving to children on ...
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Dr. Norrine Russell is the founder of Russell Coaching for Students, which uses an innovative method of coaching for complex students. In this episode, Dr. Russell dives into the complicated skill of problem-solving. She shares why problem-solving is such an important yet difficult skill for students to learn.
The Problem Solver: A Behavioral Intervention for Teaching Problem
This study adapted and piloted a group-based cognitive-behavioral intervention program, Problem Solving Skills: 101 (PSS: 101), to teach effective problem solving ability in college students with ASD.
Episode 4: Teaching Problem Solving Skills
Episode 4: Teaching Problem Solving Skills. Categories: Mini Training Series. Author; Recent Posts; ... Using The Autism Helper Curriculum for Homeschool - August 8, 2022; Literacy Subject Overview in The Autism Helper Curriculum - August 2, 2022; 0 Comments. Submit a Comment Cancel reply. Your email address will not be published. Required ...
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Adapting as necessary. Word problem solving is one way to teach students how, when, and why to apply math skills in real-world situations they will encounter in a future we may not be able to envision yet. These research-supported strategies can help teachers and parents teach autistic students to solve word problems using modified schema-based ...
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Please feel free to contact us at Behavior Therapy Associates for more information about best practices for social skills training, as well as information regarding the POWER-Solving curriculum. We can be reached at 732-873-1212, via email [email protected] or on website at www.BehaviorTherapyAssociates.com.
ERIC
Word problem solving is the premise for students to generalize their problem solving skills to real world problems. This includes students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID). Modified Schema-based Instruction (MSBI) is one strategy that research has shown is effective for teaching students with ASD/ID to acquire and generalize problem solving skills.
Teaching Individuals with Autism Problem-Solving Skills for Resolving
Problem solving is traditionally defined as the ability to identify the problem and then create solutions for the problem (Agran et al., 2002).From a behavioral perspective, a person is faced with a problem when they experience a state of deprivation or aversive stimulation (Skinner, 1953, p. 246), and reinforcement is contingent upon a response that is in the person's repertoire, but cannot ...
Teaching Simple Problem Solving
Shannon Penrod, host of Autism Live shares how we can start with young children and teach them simple problem solving, which will serve them well on their way to more complex problem solving. Autism Live is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD), headquartered in Tarzana, California, and with offices throughout the ...
Teach social problem solving
Social problem solving is a skill that develops during the early years of school. It is the process and strategies used to analyse, understand, and respond to everyday problems, decision making, and conflicts. Social problem solving is often fostered intuitively through interactions with others. Some students, including those on the autism ...
How Social Problem Solving and Social Skills Deficits in Autism Impact
Given the impact that social problem solving deficits can have on these students' behavior, it's critical that we address them in our assessments and interventions. That leads to two avenues. In the FBA, we need to include a focus on their social skills and problem solving. We probably don't need a formal assessment tool.
Episode 210: Teaching Social Problem Solving Skills with Dr. Vic
Problem-solving is an essential skill that may sometimes require more focused direct instruction. Dr. Victoria Castillo shares her recent study on using problem-solving strategies for social problems. She explains why this skill is so important and what strategies can be used to build these skills.
18 Social Skills Activities for Kids with Autism and Sensory Issues
The good news is that it IS possible to teach social skills to kids with autism, and we have 25 tips and social skills activities to help. Teaching Social Skills for Autism: 7 Tips for Parents. Be a good role model. One of the foundations of teaching social skills for autism is to model what appropriate socialization looks like for your child ...
Educational game enhances problem-solving skills in programming
The research project therefore aimed to introduce a PROSOLVE game to enhance problem solving skills of novice programmers in the introductory programming course. Dr Roy elaborated that the game is based on pseudo-code technique. The game covers most of the teaching topics of the IP course. Consequently, students practice the problem-solving ...

Teaching Individuals with Autism Problem-Solving Skills for Resolving Social Conflicts

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Teaching Individuals with Autism Problem-Solving Skills for Resolving Social Conflicts

Adel C. Najdowski

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Participants and Setting

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Pretraining Phase

Training Phase

Posttraining Phase

Natural Environment Probes

Social Validity

Acknowledgments

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Teaching Simple Problem Solving

Teach social problem solving

Helps teachers to

How the practice works

Australian Professional Standards for Teachers related to this practice

Join the inclusionED community

Preparing to teach

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