A Pilot Evaluation of a Treatment Package to Teach Social Conversation via Video-Chat.

Three seven-year-old boys with autism joined short video-chat lessons. The coach used modeling, practice, and feedback to teach back-and-forth chat skills. Each boy met the coach on a tablet twice a week for a few weeks.

All three boys learned to start, answer, and keep a short talk going. They used the skills with new adults on the screen and still had them two weeks later. When picture cues were taken away, the boys still talked, just with a little more variation.

Scattone (2008) tried video modeling plus Social Stories for one boy and saw mixed gains. Brodhead et al. (2019) swapped taped clips for live coaching and got clearer, lasting results for all three kids.

Mann et al. (2020) later moved the same coaching idea to college students. They added self-questions like "What does my partner want?" and still saw strong generalization. The child and adult studies line up: live practice beats watching alone.

Bailey et al. (2000) warned that social gains in young kids often fade. Brodhead et al. (2019) shows a fix: keep the coach on the screen, then test with new faces right away.

You can teach small talk without leaving the clinic. A tablet, a script, and five-minute role-plays are enough. Try two short sessions a week, then invite a new adult on-screen to test real generalization. If the child needs pictures at first, fade them once the flow feels natural.