The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of training preschool-aged children to support the communication of their peers with autism spectrum disorder. Four typically developing peers participated in a 12-week training study that consisted of video models, social narratives, and practice opportunities. The peers were taught to implement the strategies "show, wait, and tell" with a classmate with autism during play. Peers were also provided with instruction to make them more aware of communication via augmentative modalities and to understand the Pragmatically Organized Dynamic Display (PODD) that the classmate with autism used to communicate. A second child with autism served as a control subject to measure generalization of the training to other children with autism. The study also included a group of four control peers who received no training in order to distinguish the effect of the training from normal communicative and social developmental that one might see over the time of the study. All play sessions were video recorded and coded utilizing a coding system that identified verbal and non verbal behaviors of the peers and the children with autism. 3 of the 4 trained peers demonstrated the ability or willingness or implement the targeted strategies with the target child with autism. A single trained peer generalized the use of the trained strategies when interacting with to the control subject . Peers performed best when provided with clinician cues to implement strategies. Both children with autism increased their communication and interaction with trained peers during play when compared with their interactions with the control peers. Furthermore, the children with autism interacted maximally during sessions in which the trained peers utilized the communication strategies These results provide preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of preschool peer training to support the communication of children with autism.

Children with autism, by diagnostic criteria, experience a lack of age appropriate play and social skills (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). This study evaluated three typically developing peer's ability to implement Pivotal Response Training strategies during recess with a child with autism in their third grade class. A concurrent multiple probe baseline across peers design was used to assess peers ability to implement Pivotal Response Training strategies with the target child and the effects of intervention on the play and communication behavior of the target child. Generalization measures were taken in an untrained environment. Measures of social validity in the form of peer interviews and teacher questionnaire were completed. Results displayed that peers were able to use Pivotal Response Training strategies during recess with a child with autism. During post-training/intervention and follow-up sessions the child with autism engaged in higher levels of communication to peers, and slightly lower levels of communication to self. The target child also experienced a decreasing trend in levels of solitary play, an increasing trend in levels of play with peer trainers and levels of parallel play remained near baseline levels. Peers were also able to generalize these skills to an untrained environment to an extent.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of video self-modeling and behavior skills training to teach social skills to children with Asperger’s and high functioning autism. The targeted social skills were social initiations and social responses. The video self-modeling alone condition was implemented first using a video feedforward approach. A behavior skills training (BST) procedure was implemented following the video self-modeling alone condition for each participant. BST consisted of instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. The frequency of each target behavior was scored from videotapes using 10-second frequency within interval recording. After the video self-modeling was introduced, a mean increase was demonstrated in the target behaviors for 3 of the 4 participants. However, following the video self-modeling plus behavior skills training procedures, the social skills increased further for each participant. Follow up measures showed that the social interactions for each participant remained higher than baseline, however slightly lower than levels during BST+VSM.

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Objetivos: Valorar los cambios en los hábitos alimentarios de un grupo de 150 adolescentes de 2º de ESO y un grupo de 69 alumnos formadores de FP después de un programa de educación nutricional en el centro educativo donde estudian. Estudio prospectivo de cohortes en el que se han valorado los cambios en el consumo de alimentos, hábitos familiares e higiénicos y conocimientos sobre la función de los alimentos. Grupo control de 108 adolescentes de un centro educativo semejante. Variables estudiadas: Consumo de alimentos, Hábitos durante la comida, solos o en familia, y conocimiento de las funciones de los alimentos. Resultados: Análisis descriptivo de frecuencias y un test chi-cuadrado. Mejora en los hábitos alimentarios tanto en los adolescentes, como en los alumnos formadores. Hábitos alimentarios e higiénicos más equilibrados en los que comen en familia. Mejora el conocimiento sobre la función de los alimentos. Objectives: to assess the changes in the eating habits of a 150-teenager group from 2nd ESO and a group of 69 students, who are vocational trainers after a Nutrition education program in their school. It is a prospective cohort study of peer work in which several issues have been assessed, such as changes in their lifestyle, family and hygiene habits and knowledge about the different properties of varied food items. Control group o 108 teenagers in a school with similar features. Studied variables: food consumption, habits during the meals- if the students eat alone or with their families and if they know how the different nutrients work.Results: Descriptive analysis of chi-square distribution test. An improvement in the eating habits was observed not only among the teenagers but also in the peer trainer students. There are more balanced food and hygienic habits among those who eat together with their families and the knowledge has also been enhanced