Association for Behavior Analysis International

When asked why applied behavior analysis (ABA) is the most effective treatment for autism, Don Baer replied, "ABA is the discipline that has most consistently considered the problem of what behavior changes, made in what order and by what techniques, will confer the maximal benefit to the child." ABA's most scientifically documented outcomes of "maximal benefit" to children with autism have been achieved via early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) in home and clinic settings with children under age 6. While some children who have received EIBI make a smooth transition to public school classrooms, many others struggle mightily with the demands of a new and highly complex environment. ABA has yet to answer fully the question: What behavior changes produced by what techniques will accrue maximal success for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in regular classrooms? A group of teachers, clinicians, researchers, and parents-all with extensive experience in ASD-were asked to identify the 3-4 most important (a) skills needed by students with ASD for success in general education classrooms, (b) instructional tactics teachers must know how to use to help students with ASD succeed in general education classrooms, and (c) things a behavior analyst should do or know to help teachers help students with ASD.

The group's responses revealed a remarkably similar set of behavior change targets (e.g., complete tasks without teacher prompts, interact appropriately with peers), instructional techniques for achieving those behavior changes (e.g., teach self-management, use collaborative learning activities), and suggestions for behavior analysts working in schools (e.g., simplify data collection, respect teachers' expertise and experience). This presentation will rely heavily on the collective wisdom and perspectives of this group of autism experts.

Certified assistant behavior analysts and behavior analysts, behavioral consultants, behavioral therapists, clinicians, educational consultants, psychologists, special education teachers, supervisors of early intervention programs, and other individuals working with children with autism or other developmental delays

1. Identify six skill areas most frequently listed by a group of autism experts as most important for success in regular classrooms by students with autism.
2. Define choral responding and response cards and how these techniques make group instruction more effective.
3. Briefly describe how Numbered Heads Together and well-designed classwide peer tutoring systems (CWPT) counter the problems that make many collaborative learning activities ineffective.
4. Identify three positive outcomes of teaching students how to recruit teacher attention and assistance.

A practitioner/service-provider manifesto/creed: We must train more students to become basic researchers. We must train more students to become applied researchers. But our journals and books are already full of evidence-based best practices, yet we are without enough practitioners to significantly impact the well being of humanity by implementing those best practices. So even more importantly, we must produce more well-trained practitioners. Furthermore, our practitioner theses and dissertations (a) must really help the participating children, (b) must help the participating classroom or setting, (c) must help the student become a better practitioner, (d) must get the student a degree, (e) and a publication would be nice, but is not crucial. This presentation will illustrate an attempt to follow our manifesto/creed.

Certified assistant behavior analysts and behavior analysts, behavioral consultants, behavioral therapists, clinicians, educational consultants, psychologists, special education teachers, supervisors of early intervention programs, and other individuals working with children with autism or other developmental delays

1. Describe the suggested problems with many programs designed to provide undergraduate and graduate training in autism.
2. Describe the proposed solutions to training undergraduate and graduate students in autism.

A child's potential is compromised when that child cannot express him or herself or does not understand what is being said. Frustration in communication often results in challenging behaviors. Intervention can offer conventional forms of communication and reduce problem behaviors. One form of intervention involves visual aids such as communication books or high technology devices from which the user selects symbols to produce messages; these are often called selection-based or aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). An interdisciplinary program of research that seeks to optimize the design of AAC systems will be discussed. This research integrates information from developmental psychology, visual cognitive science, and the experimental analysis of behavior to understand how individuals, particularly those with autism, process visual communication displays. Some unique demands of aided AAC will be highlighted and current research on visual functioning in autism will be reviewed. Specific ways in which cross-disciplinary collaboration between professionals in aided AAC intervention, autism spectrum disorders, and behavior analysis (groups that are not necessarily mutually exclusive of one another) could enrich both basic and applied sciences will be discussed. Behavior analytic approaches in particular excel at disentangling complex challenges of learning and attention through examination of the influences of stimuli in the environment on behavior. This approach may help optimize aided AAC displays because it can (a) enrich our understanding of the unique visual processing demands of selection-based AAC, and (b) contribute methodologies for studying the effects of these demands on behaviors related to aided AAC communication.

Certified behavior analysts, behavioral consultants, behavioral therapists, clinicians, educational consultants, psychologists, special education teachers, and individuals working with children with autism or other developmental delays.

1. Discuss the reasons that visual processing is important to development of optimally effective selection-based communication displays.
2. Identify the demands of selection-based AAC on visual attention and processing.    
3. Analyze the ways in which these demands may interact with the visual processing skills and limitations of individuals on the autism spectrum. 
4. Consider how emerging knowledge of AAC demands and display structure might influence construction of displays for clinical use.           

Behavior analysts have increasingly applied economic concepts towards understanding issues of social significance in areas such as consumer choice, gambling, and substance abuse. This presentation will describe a translational progression of studies that applies economic concepts to work with individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities, culminating in demonstrations of the implications for the treatment of behavior problems. Initial laboratory investigations revealed that although two stimuli may appear equally valuable when their cost (in terms of response requirements) is low, under certain circumstances differences in value emerge when the response requirements increase. In subsequent clinical studies, this general theme was extended towards examining (a) the utility of various consequences when arranging interventions for behavior disorders, and (b) examining how the analyses required to identify these relations can be made practical and practicable in applied settings.

Certified behavior analysts, behavioral consultants, behavioral economists, clinicians, educational consultants, psychologists, researchers, special education teachers, and individuals working with children with autism or behavioral disorders.

1. Explain what is depicted in a demand curve, both in terms of population consumption of a commodity and in relation to the consumption of reinforcers by individuals.
2. Describe what is meant by demand elasticity and how the concurrent availability of substitutable reinforcers influences demand elasticity.
3. Recognize at least one set of circumstances in which behavioral interventions for problem behavior may be more durable when they incorporate reinforcers that differ from those that maintain problem behavior.
4. Utilize a brief assessment of demand elasticity to predict which sort of reinforcer will result in the more durable intervention for escape-maintained problem behavior.             

Repetitive behavior and interests are a common clinical feature of autism. Specific patterns of behavior and interest give us insights into motivation in general. Functional or motivational theories are central to our understanding and treatment of many conditions; however, very little is known about motivational features in autism apart from general ideas of reduced social motivation and models of situational environmental correlates of aberrant behaviors. Research findings from the area of behavioral neuroscience of reward and addiction may help explain how repetitive behaviors and interests emerge, and how they can influence motivation, choice, learning and development in autism. Importantly, these basic research findings can be used to guide the development of novel forms of intervention in autism. In this talk, attendees will learn about (a) the clinical phenomenology of repetitive behavior and interests in autism, (b) brain-behavior research on interests and motivation in autism, and (c) how this research might be translated to everyday clinical practice.

Certified behavior analysts, behavioral consultants, behavioral therapists, clinicians, educational consultants, psychologists, special education teachers, supervisors of early intervention programs, and other individuals working with children with autism or other developmental delays.

1. Describe the role that a variety of repetitive behaviors can play in the clinical presentation of autism.
2. Identify findings from brain-behavior research on repetitive-behaviors, reward, and motivation.
3. Explain how a model of brain-behavior relationships for repetitive behaviors can be used to guide the development of novel interventions for autism.

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) methods have been built into comprehensive, intensive, and often early intervention for children with autism. Supporters of these intervention approaches often enthusiastically share the evidence base for these interventions with parents and policy makers. Although the evidence is impressive, it is important to understand the nature of the evidence base so that its limitations can be ethically and professionally communicated. The evidence from decades of single case experimental designs under-pins ABA intervention with children with autism, but such studies might best be considered a fine example of practice-based evidence and also do not directly support comprehensive and intensive long term intervention models. Group design studies provide the core of the evidence base for comprehensive ABA interventions for children with autism. However, the way that this evidence is used is too often at least implicitly driven by a medical model understanding of autism. In this presentation, I will examine the limitations of the evidence for comprehensive ABA interventions for children with autism and discuss an alternative outcomes model that does not get caught up with the recovery/cure debate. This model draws on the concept of reliable change first discussed in the general psychological therapy outcomes literature.

Psychologists, behavior analysts, teachers, and other professionals working with children on the autism spectrum

1. Identify strengths and weaknesses of the evidence base for intensive behavioral intervention (IBI) for young children with autism
2. Describe ethical and professional issues related to the communication of IBI evidence to the non-ABA community
3. Describe the differences between a medically-informed perspective on outcomes of intervention for children with autism and an alternative “reliable change” perspective.