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| Recent Research on Teaching Children With a Diagnosis of Autism |
| Tuesday, November 14, 2017 |
| 11:30 AM–1:30 PM |
| Scene C, Niveau 0 |
| Area: AUT/VRB; Domain: Applied Research |
| CE Instructor: John W. Esch, Ph.D. |
| JOHN W. ESCH (Esch Behavior Consultants, LLC) |
| Description: Referring to the verbal behavior of an individual, Skinner (1957) writes: Reinforcing consequences continue to be important after verbal behavior has been acquired. Their principal function is then to maintain the response in strength. How often the speaker will emit a response depends, other things being equal, upon the over-all frequency of reinforcement in a given verbal community (p. 30). This quote highlights the importance of a verbal community in the development and maintenance of language with typically developing individuals. Persons with a diagnosis of autism may have limited verbal communities. Within family and educational settings, a verbal community may consist of only a single main caregiver and one or two teachers. This environment may hinder the development of skills necessary for emergent behavior, e.g., observational learning. This workshop will discuss the importance of a verbal and social community in the education of children with ASD. We will identify and describe recent research of instructional practices that encourage untaught emergent behavior. We will then consider the design of fun group activities that provide motivational events to support emergent behavior in a social community. Lastly, we will look at common language and social concerns, e.g., conditional verbal discriminations. |
| Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the workshop, participants will be able to:(1) describe why conditional verbal discriminations are difficult to learn and teach; (2) state the traditional instructional sequence for teaching children with ASD and the data supporting the recommended changes to that sequence; (3) explain potential benefits for using games in the instruction of ASD children. |
| Activities: Workshop objectives will be met through lecture, keynote presentation, and video demonstrations of main points. |
| Audience: This workshop is intended for BCBAs and advanced BaCBAs working with children or who are responsible for programming others who teach children with an ASD diagnosis. The workshop will address common instructional difficulties e.g., conditional verbal discriminations, instructional sequences, methods to encourage emergent behavior, reinforcement. |
| Content Area: Practice |
| Instruction Level: Intermediate |