Coaching a School Team to Implement the Visual Immersion System™ in a Classroom for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: a Mixed-Methods Proof-of-Concept Study

The Visual Immersion System™ (VIS) is a comprehensive approach aimed to meet the language and communication needs of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This proof-of-concept study evaluated the effectiveness and social validity of a coaching intervention on implementing the VIS™ with an interdisciplinary school team supporting seven children with ASD in a self-contained classroom of an elementary school. Using mixed methods with a pretest–posttest design, outcome measures were objective direct (i.e., goal attainment scaling), indirect quantitative (i.e., Communication Matrix, self-efficacy, and treatment acceptability), and indirect qualitative (i.e., focus groups). Goal attainment scaling results indicated significant improvement across participants and individually. Communication Matrix scores and self-efficacy scores improved as well and treatment acceptability was high. Focus groups corroborated outcomes, treatment acceptability, and self-efficacy data while revealing barriers to implementation. This mixed-methods proof-of-concept study provides preliminary evidence for the effectiveness and social validity of this coaching-based intervention on implementing the VIS™ in a classroom serving children with ASD.