The concept of "creativity" has been studied under the perspective of variability in behavior analysis. Creativity and variable responding contributes to problem solving in novel situations, learning new responses in different environments, and promote interactions that would otherwise be prohibited by repetitive behaviors and routines. During childhood, play contributes to the emergence of creativity and variability. Children develop many skills that are important to their lives while engaging in play behaviors. Some of those skills include self-advocacy, communication, and problem solving. Researchers have investigated different methods to promote variable play skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). There is limited research on prompting as an isolated variable in increasing variability in play responses. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of prompting on variable play skills. Results indicated that verbal instructions and modeling were effective in increasing variable play responses. Both participants displayed a sustained increase in novel item engagement when exposed to prompting.

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The purpose of this study was to teach four preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to wash their hands independently using a video modeling-based intervention package. A research questions was asked: Is there a functional relation between a video modeling-based intervention package and increases in level and trend for washing hands independently? A multiple probe across participants design was used to answer this question. Results indicated that the intervention package had functional relation with the increase in level and trend of the three participants’ performance in washing hands. The intervention package of video modeling and least-to-most prompting was found to be effective to teach the participants the skills taught.

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit high parental stress which may be caused by parent-child behaviors, child behaviors, and parent distress. Awareness and understanding of ASD is critical for parents and educators to connect students with support services and resources. The purpose of this bounded, descriptive case study was to identify perceived parental stressors and to determine the primary stressors of parents with low socioeconomic status who are raising a child with ASD in a rural area. The foundation of family systems theory framed this study. Ten parents raising a child with ASD were purposefully selected and volunteered to participate in this study. The quantitative data were collected using the Parental Stress Index-Short Form, a 36-item Likert scale with items related to parent-child dysfunctional relationships, parenting distress, and child behavior. Descriptive analysis determined which domain and items were most stressful and were the basis for developing 6 semistructured interview questions. Interview data were open-coded and analyzed thematically to identify the greatest stressors to parents. Based on these findings, it is recommended that school personnel coordinate an autism support group to include educators, parents of children with ASD, and professional service providers to share formal and informal supports within the school district and the community. These endeavors may contribute to positive social change by providing parents and educators access to resources and therapeutic and social supports, thus allowing students with ASD to receive appropriate and timely support and to reduce parental stress.

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