Evidence-Based Speech Production Training for Children with Autism

This session is designed to meet the unique communication needs of children with autism and other developmental disabilities who struggle to speak. This presentation will review available research from the fields of speech-language pathology and applied behavior analysis to identify efficient and effective treatments for improving speech production skills. Specific methods to enhance speech production will be described and/or illustrated via video. The independent and dependent variables will be identified for each strategy. Speech production training in natural environments and in structured teaching environments will be explored, including methods to shape successive approximations to adult form words and improving intelligibility of multiword utterances.