Brief Report: measuring the effectiveness of teaching social thinking to children with Asperger syndrome (AS) and High Functioning Autism (HFA).

Six kids with Asperger or high-functioning autism joined an eight-week Social Thinking class.

Each week they learned to spot expected and unexpected social moves in short video clips.

The team tracked every kid’s own social moves on the playground before, during, and after class.

All six kids doubled their expected behaviors like greeting and sharing toys.

Their unexpected behaviors—such as standing too close or talking over friends—dropped by half.

Parents and teachers saw the same gains four weeks later with no extra lessons.

Ibrahim et al. (2021) later added brain scans and still found social gains, showing the result holds under tighter controls.

McAuliffe et al. (2017) moved the same idea to high-schoolers and saw parent-rated boosts in mood and friendship skills.

Chan et al. (2018) swapped in a CBT-style group for Chinese teens and still reaped parent-reported social pay-offs.

You now have a quick, low-prep eight-week plan that lifts playground skills without fancy gear. Run short video clips, let kids label expected vs. unexpected moves, then watch them on recess. The data say gains stick for at least a month, so you can bank on durable change while you plan the next target.