Generalisation of Social Communication Skills by Autistic Children During Play‑Based Assessments Across Home, School and an Unfamiliar Research Setting

We investigated autistic children’s generalisation of social communication over time across three settings during a play-basedassessment with different adults and explore the potential moderating effects on generalisation of age, nonverbal IQ and levelof restricted and repetitive behaviours. The social communication abilities of 248 autistic children (2–11 years, 21% female,22% single parent, 60% white) from three UK sites were assessed from 1984 video interactions in three contexts with threedifferent interaction partners (parent/home, teaching assistant/school, researcher/clinic) at baseline, midpoint (+ 7m) andendpoint (+ 12m) within the Paediatric Autism Communication Trial-Generalised (PACT-G), a parent-mediated social communicationintervention. Children’s midpoint social communication at home generalised to school at midpoint and to clinic atendpoint. Generalisation was stronger from home to school and clinic than school to home and clinic. Generalisation was notmoderated by age, nonverbal IQ or restricted and repetitive behaviour. Broader child development did not explain the patternof results. The current study is the largest study to date to explore generalisation with autistic children and provides novelinsight into their generalisation of social communication skills. Further research is needed to gain a more comprehensiveunderstanding of facilitators of generalisation across settings and interaction partners in order to develop targeted strategiesfor interventions to enhance outcomes for young autistic children