For autistic students and cognitively impaired children, which strategy is described?

• A. Using social stories to teach perspective taking
• B. Providing punishment to discourage avoidant behavior
• C. Modeling to teach eye contact, vocal tone, and pronunciation
• D. Only group work without modeling

Answer: (C)

The strategy described is showing an example of the desired social-communication behaviors and having the learner imitate it. Modeling works well for autistic and cognitively impaired students because watching a clear demonstration of eye contact, appropriate vocal tone, and pronunciation gives a concrete pattern to imitate. It reduces ambiguity—students see exactly what to do and how it should sound in real interactions—and it can be reinforced and then gradually faded as the learner begins to perform the behaviors independently. Modeling can involve teachers, peers, or video examples and is often paired with prompting and positive reinforcement to help learners acquire and generalize these skills across settings.

Why the other ideas fit less well here: punishment is not a teaching method for developing social skills and can increase anxiety or avoidance; relying on group work without any demonstration misses the explicit guidance these learners benefit from; and social stories target understanding of perspectives rather than providing the direct, observable demonstrations of eye contact and vocal nuances that modeling offers.