Association for Behavior Analysis International

Two of the major defining characteristics of an autism spectrum disorder are qualitative impairments in language and in social interaction. Behavioral teaching strategies have been documented to be effective in helping children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder to develop many critical skills. There is a considerable amount of information available regarding a variety of issues related to the selection of learning objectives and specific strategies to teach skills. However, parents and professionals often find it difficult to motivate a child to participate in learning activities to acquire those skills, to initiate social interactions, and to spontaneously use the skills in their everyday activities and interactions. Some of the most important concerns of those who interact with these children relate to the motivation to participate in learning activities and spontaneously use newly acquired skills outside of specific training sessions. Parents and professionals must address issues involving the evaluation and development of effective social reinforcers that will directly impact the motivation of the child to spontaneously interact with others. Why should a child want to participate in learning activities, to interact with us, or to tell us about something important to them? Answers to these questions are related to the issue of effective reinforcement. There are multiple sources of reinforcers readily available to children, many of which do not require their interaction with others, and can often be obtained with very little effort on the childs part. This presentation will provide an analysis of motivational factors that are involved in both structured teaching sessions and in everyday activities. Methods will be presented to help identify and capture effective motivational factors that influence the childs willingness to participation in structured learning sessions and lead to the child running to rather than running from those who are involved in instruction. Techniques for helping to create motivational conditions that will lead to increased spontaneous language and other social interactions will be reviewed. Additionally, methods will be presented to help praise, smiles and other subtle forms of social feedback from parents and instructors acquire reinforcing properties.

Licensed Psychologists and/or Certified Behavior Analysts

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of instructional techniques for teaching students with autism. Even within ABA, there are many different instructional approaches which can be used effectively to teach skills to students. Educators and parents can be confused with the array of options, and can have difficulty deciding on which approach to use in a given educational context. This presentation will summarize different ABA approaches for teaching skills, and will highlight the potential relevance and utility of each approach. Specifically, well-documented methods which will be covered include discrete trial instruction, incidental teaching, and other naturalistic strategies. In addition, some promising directions which have become clinically prevalent in recent years will also be discussed, including the use of the Verbal Behavior classification system and rate-building to achieve fluency. The presentation will highlight the unique applications and specific advantages of each approach. It will also summarize how the use of multiple methods of instruction results in a more comprehensive program, thereby meeting the needs of learners in more complete and efficient ways.

Licensed Psychologists and/or Certified Behavior Analysts

Treatment outcome research consistently shows a great deal of variability in outcome for children receiving even the best of behavioral interventions. What is needed is a methodology for identifying which behavioral intervention would lead to the best outcome for a specific child. Thus how do we tailor our treatments to the needs of the individual child? Given the importance of early intervention, how can we make sure we choose the best treatment initially in order to take advantage of this early window of opportunity? This presentation will describe recent research looking at specific child characteristics that may suggest particular treatment strategies.

Licensed Psychologists and/or Certified Behavior Analysts

Dr. Heward will provide concluding remarks for the conference.