School-based social skills training for preschool-age children with autism spectrum disorder.
Weekly superhero BST sessions quickly boost social skill accuracy for autistic preschoolers in school.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Two preschoolers with autism got a weekly superhero-themed social skills class at school.
The class used the Superheroes Social Skills program. Teachers ran short BST lessons each week.
Researchers tracked the kids' social skill accuracy with a multiple-baseline design.
What they found
Both children made large, fast gains in social skill accuracy after the sessions started.
The improvements showed up quickly and stayed high across the school weeks.
How this fits with other research
Abney et al. (2026) later trimmed the same program to 20-minute lessons and tested five autistic preschoolers. They still saw big gains, showing the shorter format works.
Crozier et al. (2007) tried Social Stories alone with similar kids. Only two of three children improved, and they needed extra prompts. The superhero BST gave stronger, faster results.
Spriggs et al. (2016) moved the superhero program to adolescents with intellectual disability. They added video modeling and still saw large gains, proving the theme can travel across ages.
Why it matters
You can run this ready-made superhero curriculum once a week in preschool and see quick social gains. If time is tight, try the 20-minute version from Abney et al. (2026). Skip passive Social Stories if you need fast, reliable change.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder display impairments in social interactions and communication that appear at early ages and result in short- and long-term negative outcomes. As such, there is a need for effective social skills training programs for young children with autism spectrum disorder-particularly interventions capable of being delivered in educational settings. The study evaluated the effects of the Superheroes Social Skills program on accurate demonstration of social skills in young children with autism spectrum disorder. Two preschool-age children with autism spectrum disorder participated in a weekly social skills intervention. A multiple probe design across skills was used to determine the effects of the intervention. Both participants demonstrated substantial improvements in skill accuracy. Social skills checklists also indicated improvements in social functioning over baseline levels.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2016 · doi:10.1177/1362361315617361