About the presentation:
The selection of an approach to help children with autism acquire communication skills is remarkably challenging. This talk will review many of the issues that relate to evidence-based practices that aim to improve broad language skills, including the acquisition of an array of verbal operants as well as skills associated with “the listener” (traditionally viewed as receptive skills). While the hallmark of applied behavior analysis involves many hundreds of single-subject designs looking at particular skills, many practitioners attempt to use “packages,” that is, an organization of target skills and teaching strategies, including those involving generalization. We will review the evidence that particular packages work, either in terms of outcome measures or in comparison to other packages. We will review several modalities and also consider issues related to the successful transition from one modality to another, including issues related to our ethical responsibilities. Furthermore, consideration must be given to programs/packages that are derived from non- behaviorally based strategies with regard to their evidence for effectiveness. Rather than trying to provide a definitive answer to “Which strategy is universally the best?” guidelines for the most appropriate questions to ask will be offered.