#5 Advanced ABA Programming for Children with Autism

Prerequisite- Participants MUST have prior knowledge of the VB-MAPP, a strong command of the verbal operants, and an understanding of basic NET and DTT procedures.

This two-day workshop is designed to prepare participants to teach advanced language skills to students with autism and other developmental disabilities using a behavioral approach based, in part, on B.F. Skinners analysis of verbal behavior. It is highly recommended that a VB-MAPP protocol be brought to the workshop.

At the conclusion of this workshop, BCBAs, BCaBAs, special education staff, and other participants will be able to: (1) describe and implement ten research-based teaching procedures, (2) describe and implement joint control as a prompting technique for teaching skills that involve the recall of multiple steps, (3) describe and implement backward chaining to prompt skills that involve sequencing, (4) describe how to use functional items from the environment to systematically teach adjectives, (5) describe how to use activities and manipulatives to systematically teach prepositions, (6) describe how to present questions to assess a students ability to make conditional discriminations, (7) describe how preferred reinforcers such as videos and books can be used to teach students how to answer novel wh questions, (8) describe procedures used to transfer responses across verbal operants, (9) describe how to contrive scenarios during natural environment teaching (NET) to provide opportunities to teach manding for information, (10) collect data on advanced language skills in the NET, (11) identify prerequisite skills needed before introducing an academic program such as Direct Instruction, (12) create a developmentally appropriate individualized schedule for an advanced level student, (13) identify the prerequisite skills a student needs to benefit from mainstream experiences, (14) describe the steps to be taken to promote a successful transition to a less-restrictive setting.

Target audience: This workshop provides essential information for behavior analysts (BCBAs, BCaBAs), special education staff, speech-language pathologists, program administrators, psychologists, and others who work with children and adults with developmental disabilities, including autism.

Workshop format: The workshop format will provide written descriptions, lecture, videotape examples, live demonstrations, practice activities for participants and discussion of specific concerns shared by the audience.