Increasing recall of information of children diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome: Utilization of visual strategies

•Recalling information disclosed by same-age peers is important in developing friendships and for children, like children with Autism, who demonstrate social skills deficits.•Visual prompts produced higher levels of recalling peer's information than when the prompts were not present.•Participants were able to generate their own visual prompts and maintain similar levels of recall.•Participant-created visual prompts increased the independence of participants.

Social skills deficits are a hallmark diagnostic characteristic (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) of individuals diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (AS) or Autism. Interventions targeting social skills with this population have highlighted the effectiveness of visual strategies. This investigation examined the effectiveness of visual strategies in improving recall of personal information of others, a key friendship skill. In a social skills group, children played a game requiring them to recall information about each other. Visual prompts were found to be effective in helping children to recall information of other children. Children also demonstrated the ability to generate their own visual prompts to increase recall. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.