Association for Behavior Analysis International

Autism SIG and Parent-Professional Partnership SIG will provide brief remarks about the Parent Track.

Parents of children with autism often find it difficult to evaluate information and at times, extravagant and conflicting claims made about various alternative early-intervention approaches for their children. This presentation will review developmental theories and interventions, behavior analytic theory and interventions, and empirical evidence, strengths and shortcomings of each. Finally, blended intervention combining aspects of various behavioral interventions and some components of developmental approaches and their outcomes will be explored.

BACB-behavior analysts and licensed psychologists.

With the advance of behaviorally based programming, children with autism can learn many skills never thought possible. Some children with autism can learn to talk, play with toys, socialize with their peers and become active functional participants in their families and communities. The goal of any intervention program however, is to help individuals with autism perform these responses without supervision and direct prompts from adults. This presentation will review specific skills that enhance the independent functioning of individuals with autism across a range of curriculum areas and behaviorally based teaching strategies to achieve independence.

BACB-behavior analysts and licensed psychologists.

Previous research has demonstrated that escape extinction (EE) is a necessary component of treatment for pediatric feeding disorders in most cases (e.g., Ahearn, Kerwin, Eicher, Shantz, & Swearingin, 1996; Patel, Piazza, Martinez, Volkert, & Santana, 2001; Reed, Piazza, Patel, Layer, Bachmeyer, Bethke, & Gutshall, 2004). Our clinical experience is that EE is not always effective when used alone, which necessitates the use of alternative and/or additional procedures. Although researchers have evaluated the effectiveness of treatment procedures individually, the overall effectiveness of these procedures has not been evaluated on a large scale. In the present paper, we examined 135 data sets from children referred for treatment of a pediatric feeding disorder. We analyzed how often EE-based procedures were effective inincreasing acceptance and mouth clean (a product measure of swallowing) and decreasing inappropriate mealtime behavior. We also analyzed how often it was necessary to use alternative and/or additional procedures when EE was not effective. Weidentified the procedures that were used and evaluated their effectiveness in treating the target behaviors noted above. With Valerie M. Volkert, Rebecca Groff, and Suzanne Milnes

BACB-behavior analysts and licensed psychologists.

V. Mark Durand is known worldwide as an authority in the area of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). He is a professor of psychology at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, where he was the founding dean of arts & sciences and vice chancellor for academic affairs. Dr. Durand is a member of the Professional Advisory Board for the Autism Society of America. He is the co-editor of the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions and has written 10 books including abnormal psychology textbooks that are used at more than 1,000 universities world-wide. In addition, he has more than 100 research publications. Major themes in Dr. Durand’s research include the assessment and treatment of severe behavior problems (such as aggression and self-injury) for children and adults with ASD and other severe disabilities, parent training and the development of treatments for child sleep problems. Most recently, he developed an innovative approach to help families work with their challenging children (optimistic parenting) and published a multiple award-winning book for parents and caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorders, Optimistic Parenting: Hope and Help for You and Your Challenging Child (Brookes Publishing, 2011).

Sleep refreshes and restores us. However, when sleep is disrupted it can result in behavioral as well as physical problems that can seriously impact the ability of a child to perform optimally in school. This talk will provide participants with an overview of sleep and the problems that are associated with it. The highlights will include a number of the more common disturbances of sleep such as bedtime difficulties, night waking, circadian rhythm disorders and sleep terrors, and recent work on the nonmedical treatments for these problems. Described will be our work with children who have autism spectrum disorder who pose unique challenges and who exhibit a higher prevalence of sleep problems compared to the general population.

BACB-behavior analysts and licensed psychologists.

There is considerable discussion today about the importance of evidence-based practice when working with individuals with ASD. However, the great majority of that discussion focuses around young children with little attention paid to adolescents or adults. This workshop will provide an overview of the implications of ABA as an evidence-based practice with adolescents and adults and the challenges related to effective design, implementation, and oversight. Particular emphasis will be placed on the importance of defining and measuring outcomes in terms much broader than the acquisition of individual skills.

BACB-behavior analysts and licensed psychologists.

Forthcoming.

Parents of children with autism, BACB-behavior analysts and licensed psychologists.