 Dr. Marjorie H. Charlop-Christy is Professor of Psychology at Claremont McKenna College and the Director of The Claremont Autism Center, her renowned research and treatment center for children with autism and their families. Through her research, teaching, and writing, Dr. Charlop-Christy has made prolific contributions to the field of autism. Dr. Charlop-Christy has hundreds of professional conference presentations, workshops, and publications in the field of autism to her credit. Her book How to Treat the Child with Autism has been translated into Spanish and Chinese. Her upcoming book How to do Incidental Teaching with Autistic Spectrum Disorders will soon be released. Dr. Charlop-Christy has served as both Associate Editor, Editorial Board member, and ad hoc reviewer for numerous journals in the field of autism/mental retardation and applied behavioral analysis. She is known for her informative yet lively presentation style. |
| Abstract: Deficits in interpersonal or social competency is a core feature of children with autism. Interpersonal competency has been defined as specific, identifiable skills that form the basis of social interactions, such as the contextually appropriate application of motor, cognitive, and affective behaviors. The literature is replete with various applications of ABA-oriented social skills programs. However, many programs are limited to acquisition of isolated social behaviors, or small changes in such, without pervasive generalization and maintenance effects. As well, only recently have we started to address deficits in perspective taking and the autistic childs predictions and responses to how others behave in social contexts. This presentation will focus on interventions that have been empirically verified, and have shown the most promise in terms of generalization and maintenance of interpersonal competency for children with autism. These interventions focus on such behaviors as greetings, social initiation, perspective taking, and verbal interactions. Procedures to be discussed will include Naturalistic Teaching Strategies, Incidental Teaching, Video Modeling, and Photo Scheduling. The efficacy of these types of interventions for interpersonal competency will be discussed. |