In
the classroom observed in this study, incidental teaching, an evidence-based
method , was the primary intervention method. But perhaps it was not
implemented with as much intensity as it should have been. Programs should
ensure teachers receive systematic, checklist-based feedback to increase their
rate of incidental teaching, and future studies should compare a variety of
meaningful outcomes between intensive, one-on-one intervention sessions and well-implemented
incidental teaching in inclusive environments, with 2-year-olds with autism. Because
of the age of these children, it might be more effective to teach them by
dispersing trials through the day than massing them in drill sessions.
Furthermore, the children might have more fun—a value minimized in the
desperate discourse about educating very young children with autism.
Sometimes, it's hard to tell whether a little kid with autism is having fun, but if he or she is engaged (busy, absorbed, meaningfully participating in what's going on around him or her) it's a pretty good sign. Let's not rob toddlers of what should be a fun time in their lives, just because we're too unimaginative to figure out how to teach them through play.