Our treatment choice has been validated by The National Autism Standard Report http://www.nationalautismcenter.org (NAS). The NAS sets the guidelines for professionals and educators to select effective and efficient educational modalities for children with autism. Applied Behavior Analysis including Antecedent Package, Behavioral Package, and Comprehensive Behavioral Treatment for Young Children, Joint Attention Intervention, Modeling, Naturalistic Teaching Strategies, Peer Training Package, Pivotal Response Treatment, Schedules, Self-management, and Story-based Intervention Package have been designated as established treatments that have sufficient evidence of effectiveness.
A. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life. For a child to be diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, he/she has to be delayed in the areas of social communication, and restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior. Children with ASD may also exhibit severe behavior challenges. Autism is a spectrum disorder because although all children who have ASD show delays in these areas mentioned, the degree of severity and extend of deficits for each area may differ. Some children show significant delays in language while others in social skills or demonstrate severe behavior problems. Parents need to watch their
A.
- Lack of response to name
- Insist on sameness
- Lack of or delay in spoken language
- Repetitive use motor mannerisms (e.g., hand-flapping, twirling objects)
- Little or no eye contact
- Lack of interest in peer relationships
- Lack of spontaneous or make-believe play
- Persistent fixation on parts of objects
- Spinning objects or themselves
- Flat affect
A. Applied Behavior Analysis is the science that studies behaviors. Socially significant behaviors, meaning behaviors that are needed to function in everyday life are targeted for change. These behaviors are measured to ensure that they are improving at an acceptable rate. The procedures being employed to change behavior are analyst constantly to ensure that behavior has improved due to the procedures being implemented.
A. Discrete Trial Training is a technique utilized to systematically teach specific goals. These goals are broken down into small objectives. The components of DTT are 1. instruction 2. response 3. feedback.
A. Pivotal Response Training is a empirically-validated play-based technique that promotes learning within the natural environment. Parents are an integral part of the program and maintenance and generalization are built into the program.
A. Verbal Behavior (VB) looks at the functions of language and describes numerous verbal operants, or units of language such as: mands, tacts, intraverbals, echoic, etc. ABA/VB in this context addresses difficulties in the development of communication seen in most individuals with autism and other related disabilities, in part by emphasizing functional language. Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior is based on the same principles of behavior analysis that underlie teaching procedures such as: prompting, fading, shaping, chaining, etc. Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior can provide a behavioral foundation for the analysis, assessment, and day-to-day language intervention program for children with autism.