ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a comic strip conversation intervention onacademic engagement behaviors of elementary school students with autism spectrum disorders. The subjectswere two upper elementary-aged male students with autism spectrum disorders Multiple probe designacross subjects was used to assess the academic engagement behaviors, and the procedures were composedof baseline, intervention, generalization, and maintenance phases. The comic strip conversion interventionwas implemented in the special education classroom for 3-5 times in a week. The special educationteacher provided one-to-one instruction to the subject. The data for generalization was collected in regularclassroom after intervention termination, and the data for maintenance was collected after two weeks ofintervention termination. The results were as follows. First, the comic strip conversation intervention hadpositive impact on the rate of academic engagement behaviors of the subjects with autism spectrumdisorders. Second, the effects of the intervention were generalized in regular classroom setting. Third, theeffects of the intervention were maintained after the completion of the intervention. These results implythat the comic strip conversation intervention is helpful to improve the academic engagement behaviors ofelementary school students with autism spectrum disorders.

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