Pivotal Response Intervention
Lynn Kern Koegel, Ph.D., and Robert L. Koegel, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara
This session will provide an overview of several pivotal response interventions, which attempt to identify pivotal areas that, when changed, result in positive changes in other areas. Pivotal areas discussed include responsivity to multiple cues, motivation to initiate and respond to social and environmental stimuli, and self-regulation of behavior. The trend to streamline intervention by targeting behaviors that will have a widespread effect on development rather than targeting individual behaviors one at a time will be discussed.
Dr. Lynn Koegel, and her husband Dr. Robert Koegel, were the recipients of the first annual Children’s Television Workshop Sesame Street Award for Brightening the Lives of Children. In addition, Dr. Lynn Koegel recently appeared on ABC's hit show "Supernanny" working with a child with autism. In 2005, the University of California, Santa Barbara received a $2.35 million gift to expand the physical space of the Center, which was renamed the Koegel Autism Center in recognition of the Koegel’s work on behalf of children with autism. In 2007, the Koegels were awarded a gift from the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Foundation to establish a new center of excellence for Asperger Research.The Center is conducting research and intervention with the purpose of developing a model that can be disseminated nationally, and is moving toward the long-term goal of becoming the largest and most comprehensive clearinghouse in the world on intervention for Asperger's Syndrome.
Dr. Robert Koegel has focused his career in the area of autism, specializing in language intervention, family support, and school integration. His work has focused on the development of Pivotal Response Treatment, an empirically validated intervention for autism listed as one of the primary comprehensive interventions for autism by the National Academy of Sciences. He has published over a hundred and fifty articles and papers relating to the treatment of autism, and has written 6 books on the treatment of autism and positive behavioral support, and is the Editor of the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions
Models of his procedures have been used in public schools and in parent education programs throughout California, the United States, and other countries. He has trained many health care and special education leaders in the United States.