The Effectiveness of a Technology-Supported Behavioral Intervention Package for Teaching Earthquake Safety Skills to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Multiple-Probe Single-Case Evaluation

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at heightened risk during earthquakes, yet behavioral interventions targeting disaster preparedness in this population remain scarce. This study evaluated the effects of a multicomponent, technology-supported behavioral intervention package on the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of earthquake safety skills—declarative knowledge of pre- and post-earthquake actions and a five-step drop–cover–hold chain under stimulus control—in children with ASD. Three male children with ASD (aged 8–12 years) took part in a probe-condition multiple-probe across-participants single-case experimental design. The package combined video modeling, slide-based concept presentation, conditional discrimination training, and in vivo rehearsal with least-to-most prompting and reinforcement schedule thinning. All three participants reached the maximum score after three to four instructional sessions and met the mastery criterion (three consecutive maximum scores) within six to seven daily probes. Performance was maintained at 2-, 4-, and 8-week follow-up probes, with one score of 4 at 4 weeks, and generalized to a novel setting, materials, and implementer. Visual analysis indicated three within-study replications of effect, one per participant, produced by the staggered introduction of the intervention across the three tiers of the design, and Tau-U effect sizes were 0.80 to 0.87 (large to very large). Within the limits of a three-participant design meeting What Works Clearinghouse standards with reservations, these findings indicate that structured behavioral instruction can establish earthquake safety responding in children with ASD; replication is required before wider instructional use.