Conference Archive 2016

Description forthcoming

This presentation will focus on recent significant findings and National Institute of Health activities in autism research.

Presentation will include a brief overview of evidence-based interventions for students with autism. Since most of that evidence suggests the importance of applied behavior analysis (ABA) in guiding interventions for individuals with autism, many sessions at the National Autism Conference focus on ABA. During this session, the basic principles of ABA will be presented for beginners and those who want a review of those principles. This session is appropriate for parents and educators. The content of this session will prepare attendees to get the most out of this year’s conference. Information presented will be supported by videos of ABA–based interventions. Additionally, the session will include a brief review of how data may be presented in the various ABA–based sessions occurring at the conference.

Although the literature on skill acquisition shows that behavior analysts have effective and efficient interventions for teaching consumers new skills, the integrity with which skill-acquisition programs are implemented affects learning. Strategies that promote the integrity of behavioral interventions are increasingly important to ensure that the expanding number of behavioral providers are implementing interventions with a level of accuracy that is likely to lead to beneficial outcomes. This presentation will review the literature on treatment integrity and skill acquisition, describe the influence of various types of errors in instruction on learning outcomes, and discuss strategies to promote high levels of integrity in service delivery.

Behavioral economics blends behavior analysis with microeconomic theory. Research in this area reveals that concepts, principles, and measures that economists use to examine choice at the population level have important and useful parallels at the individual level. Armed with this understanding, behavior analysts gain a variety of analytic tools with potential for enhancing instructional and therapeutic arrangements. In this presentation, I will describe some basic tenets of behavioral economics, what one needs minimally to grasp its relevance for practice. I will then discuss studies, from my lab and from the literature, that show how these tools can enhance our understanding of functional relations and improve outcomes in work with persons with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

We will present a discussion of the advantages of a multidisciplinary approach to improve vocal-verbal skills in individuals with a diagnosis of autism. In particular, we will identify and discuss specific factors in target selection and in measuring articulation intelligibility to assist classroom teachers, therapists, and caregivers in promoting effective communication skills.

In 1957, B. F. Skinner published his book Verbal Behavior, which was the culmination of two decades of work on the problem of language from a behavior analytic perspective. The book has proven to be something of a watershed and has spawned considerable research and practice in the area of language research and education, especially with young children diagnosed with autism. However, some have suggested that the definition of verbal behavior offered by B. F. Skinner (1957) fails to capture the essence of language insofar as it is too broad and not functional. In this talk, I will explain how the ambiguities of Skinner’s definition are not an indictment of it, and show that suggestions to the contrary are problematic because they suffer a critical error of scientific reasoning. Specifically, I will explain why (a) no clear definition of verbal behavior is possible because there is no natural distinction between verbal and nonverbal behavior; (b) attempts at an immutable definition are essentialistic; and (c) Skinner’s functional taxonomy of language is in no way affected by the particulars of any definition of verbal behavior. Moreover, I will explain how categorical definitions, and the vagaries that sometimes arise from them, are not unique to Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior. I also will discuss how Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior can be applied to language assessment and intervention with young children, including young children with autism. I will begin by describing the rationale and strategies for conducting empirical functional analyses of language prior to developing language interventions. I will then explain how the information produced by such functional analyses can be analyzed and used to design effective language interventions guided by Skinner’s functional taxonomy of verbal behavior.

This workshop will present strategies for working with personnel in schools when in a consulting capacity. The strategies to be presented are also relevant for supervisors in schools. However, the primary focus is nonschool-based consultants and clinicians in schools, who have no direct supervisory authority over school staff, yet are expected to impact staff performance (e.g., to carry out behavior support plans, instructional procedures). Strategies to be discussed are based on existing research on behavioral consulting procedures and the presenter’s three decades of consulting experience. Topics to be covered include specifying respective consumer groups when initiating a consulting process, establishing one’s presence and attention as a reinforcer for staff, selecting most critical staff-performance targets at the beginning of a consulting arrangement, identifying situations in which one’s consulting is not likely to be effective — and subsequent actions, correcting nonproficient staff performance in ways acceptable to staff, and focusing on student interventions that are efficient for staff to implement while maintaining the essential evidence base of the interventions

In the beginning, research on joint attention, the synchronizing of the attention of two or more persons, progressed mainly outside of behavior analysis. Research within the cognitive-developmental tradition has shown that deficient joint attention skills are strongly correlated with later developing “language abilities” and that children diagnosed with autism may display a syndrome-specific joint attention deficit. The present presentation focuses on how basic behavioral processes are involved in the establishment of joint attention skills and on the role of joint attention phenomena in verbal operants, such as tacts, mands, verbal behavior controlled by verbal stimuli, and autoclitics. An operant analysis of joint attention skills and how they are interwoven with verbal operants have direct implications for effective intervention strategies.

Too often, transitioning youth have things done to and for them with little engagement on their part. This presentation, which will include a youth/young adult panel session discussion, will focus on how youth, and the adults that support them, can further develop self-determination and self-advocacy strategies that will assist them in reaching their goals for full participation, economic self-sufficiency, equality of opportunity, and independent living.

Many children with autism acquire an extensive vocabulary of mands, tacts, and listener skills, but fail to acquire fluent and nonrote intraverbal behaviors. The intraverbal often involves explaining or describing items or events that may not be present or currently happening. For example, a child may be able to tact their bike, or mand to ride their bike, but in conversation cannot answer questions about their bike, or describe riding their bike. While it is important that a child can mand and tact, the inability to acquire an intraverbal repertoire limits their ability to converse with others. The intraverbal is complex because it is controlled by verbal stimuli rather than by motivation (mand) or nonverbal stimuli (tact). Verbal stimuli can be quite complex and hard to discriminate among for a variety of reasons, but perhaps most problematic is the fact that typical verbal stimuli often contain many fleeting parts. For example, the question, “What is your favorite game?” has five different parts of speech that all interact with each other, and changing just one word in the sentence changes what would be considered a correct answer (e.g., “What is his favorite game?”). This workshop will describe how and when the intraverbal fits into an ABA/VB intervention program, how to assess it, how to teach it, and how to compare its development to that of a typically developing child.

This presentation will focus on teaching sign language to children with autism. The participants will learn the difference between the two primary types of response forms: topography-based (e.g., sign language) and selection-based (e.g., picture exchange). The benefits of teaching sign language will be discussed. Basic signs will be modeled and taught to participants.

This session will focus on social skills — where to start and how Skills sequences can play a role. The presentation will examine learner profiles based on the VB-MAPP and how to attempt to facilitate social interactions. Emphasis will be placed on peer-to-peer pairing, manding, and how to effectively implement the curricula.

The convergent scientific and technological improvements from neuroscience and functional neuroimaging allow behavior analysis to explore what had been an inaccessible source of information about private events and the relationships that link them to public behavior. Differently from the past, functional neuroimaging can now examine brain events in single volunteers and not only in groups of subjects, and to analyze the behavior in the brain even without the use of inferential statistics, bringing the field of neuroscience to produce very close approximations of the experimental settings used daily by applied behavior analysis to study public behaviors. This presentation will demonstrate the deep similarities existing between the modern experimental designs in functional neuroimaging and the corresponding ones in ABA, and that continuous measures of behavior can be implemented without substantial modifications to produce quantitative measures of behavior in the brain. Furthermore, functional neuroimaging experiments can run parallel to conventional ABA ones, with quantitative measures taken both on public behaviors and on brain events, allowing a comparative analysis of complex behaviors, as will be demonstrated in several different kinds of experimental settings. These new, powerful neurobehavioral approaches will be applied to the study of private events produced during the emission of verbal operants, with the simultaneous recording of private and public behaviors, and will be used to investigate the brain foundations of the independence of verbal operants.

Behavior analysts encounter a variety of ethical concerns when working with individuals with developmental disabilities. As practitioners, researchers, and teachers, we are bound by numerous guidelines related to competence, empirical support, and patient rights, among others. From establishing a professional relationship with a new client to designing and implementing appropriate assessment and intervention protocols, behavior analysts must consider and prepare for ethical issues. Some ethical guidelines pervade every detail of the work we do, others are consulted regularly, and others may rarely come up. At all times, however, it is necessary to be well versed in the ethical guidelines so that in all cases, ethical procedures can be followed. This workshop will cover some of the most common ethical concerns and customary practices to prevent or deal with those situations. Additionally, less common concerns and often underemphasized guidelines will be discussed with strategies to ensure compliance for the practicing and supervising behavior analyst. Finally, new and emerging issues in the practice of behavior analysis, such as the use of technology, telehealth, and social media, will be discussed.

There is an increasing population of students on the autism spectrum who are headed to college. These students have unique needs in transitioning to postsecondary education. The transition process for students and parents must begin early and be designed to meet the unique needs of the student in order to encourage a successful transition. In this session, the presenter will discuss skills needed for higher education, the development of plans for students and parents, how to build resiliency in students on the autism spectrum, technology supports these students may need, and appropriate transition goals for high school. This session will also present information regarding the PaTTAN/PASSHE Model to support Transition to College for Students on the Autism Spectrum.

In this three-hour workshop, the participants can learn how important derived relations and stimulus equivalence is for the development of sophisticated and nuanced language and cognitions. Unfortunately, many ABA practitioners teach students with autism by focusing exclusively on Skinner’s elementary verbal operants — and don’t systematically ensure that the students have a strong derived relating repertoire. This presentation will explore why instructors should leverage the stimulus equivalence and derived relational literature base to build this repertoire. Additionally, the author will present a series of instructional protocols touching on a wide variety of stimulus equivalence skills that should be taught using sample protocols from the PEAK ABA equivalence modules. Finally, the presenter will teach the participants how to create their own protocols using a train/test model. After this, participants will work together to identify targets within their own work experience that could be expanded by teaching through stimulus equivalence, and create a sample protocol for their selected targets.

The need for community-viable evidence-based intervention strategies for toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a state and national priority. The Early Social Interaction Project (ESI) uses the SCERTS curriculum to teach parents of toddlers with ASD how to embed evidence-based intervention strategies and supports in everyday activities in natural environments to promote their child’s active engagement. Research findings from the randomized controlled trial of ESI, funded by Autism Speaks and NIMH, will be presented. Video vignettes will be used to illustrate early signs of ASD and strategies for implementing intervention in everyday activities in the natural learning environment for toddlers with ASD and their families. Autism Navigator®, a collection of web-based courses and tools that uses extensive video footage to bridge the gap between science and community practice to increase the capacity of early intervention providers, primary care, and families to improve developmental trajectories of toddlers with ASD, will be showcased. Plans for strategically rolling out Autism Navigator for sustained utilization will be presented with a discussion of implementation in Pennsylvania.

Referring to the verbal behavior of an individual, Skinner 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. Because of inadequate social and verbal skills, persons with a diagnosis of autism may have limited verbal communities. That is, within family and educational settings, a verbal community may consist of only a single main caregiver and one or two teachers. This talk will discuss the importance of a verbal community in the education of children with ASD, from early learner to more advanced learner. We will identify and describe recent research involving the instruction of verbal and nonverbal operants to persons with ASD. We will then consider how such procedures can be designed or modified to develop fun group activities that support these nonverbal and verbal skills in a verbal community.

This session will focus on the two primary legal issues for students with ASD: eligibility for specialized services and, for eligible students, appropriateness of a methodology-based program. The content will include the applicable federal and state legislation and regulations, the Office of Special Education Program policy memoranda, and the judicial case law. Finally, the emphasis will be on recent legal developments since my corresponding presentations at this conference in previous summers.

Since manding is the only verbal operant that directly benefits the speaker, it is perhaps the most important component to developing strong verbal behavior programs for individuals with autism. While it is crucial to build a foundation of manding for items, activities, and actions, it is still critical for students to progress their manding skills to more complex repertoires. This presentation will begin with a review of Skinner’s (1957) analysis of the mand and the basic manding protocols. Utilizing the three-term contingency as a conceptual tool, this talk will focus on developing a conceptual and practical understanding of how teachers can advance their students’ manding repertoires by manipulating conditioned motivating operations in order to contrive mands for missing items, multiple-component mands, and mands for information. This presentation will also discuss how Skinner’s (1957) analysis of the autoclitic is imperative to dealing with the issues of expanding students’ mean lengths of utterances.

Many children with autism acquire an extensive vocabulary of mands, tacts, and listener skills, but fail to acquire fluent and nonrote intraverbal behaviors. The intraverbal often involves explaining or describing items or events that may not be present or currently happening. For example, a child may be able to tact their bike, or mand to ride their bike, but in conversation cannot answer questions about their bike, or describe riding their bike. While it is important that a child can mand and tact, the inability to acquire an intraverbal repertoire limits their ability to converse with others. The intraverbal is complex because it is controlled by verbal stimuli rather than by motivation (mand) or nonverbal stimuli (tact). Verbal stimuli can be quite complex and hard to discriminate among for a variety of reasons, but perhaps most problematic is the fact that typical verbal stimuli often contain many fleeting parts. For example, the question, “What is your favorite game?” has five different parts of speech that all interact with each other, and changing just one word in the sentence changes what would be considered a correct answer (e.g., “What is his favorite game?”). This workshop will describe how and when the intraverbal fits into an ABA/VB intervention program, how to assess it, how to teach it, and how to compare its development to that of a typically developing child.

What is Direct Instruction and how can group instruction be utilized in an autistic support classroom? A review of Direct Instruction history, basic research, the varying curricula available, and prerequisite skills necessary prior to consideration for placement within the programs will be offered. Specific use of placement assessments, signals across curricula, and the use of within-program assessments will be discussed. Classroom examples of single and small-group presentations will be used to demonstrate the implementation of specific programs with students diagnosed with autism within the classroom setting.

Compliance, or rule-following, is among the most important skills for children with autism to learn, and is often referred to as a “cusp” skill because it enables acquisition of other skills. Unfortunately, noncompliance is a very common behavior problem. The purpose of this presentation is to describe how to assess noncompliance and implement strategies to increase compliance among children with autism and related disabilities. First, methods of assessing compliance will be described. Next, empirically supported interventions to increase compliance will be detailed. Emphasis will be placed on practical procedures that parents, teachers, and caregivers can use to establish rule-following in a variety of settings, including home, school, and the community.

Problems with feeding and eating are common among children with autism spectrum disorders. Some children eat only a limited variety of foods, placing them at risk for being underweight or overweight and having a variety of health problems. Other children may have intake that is so limited that they are dependent on liquid supplements or supplemental tube feedings. The goal of this presentation is to describe evidence-based treatments for these problems with eating and feeding in both home and community settings.

Generalization of learned skills from Discrete Trial instruction or controlled environments to a more naturalized setting is a critical component of any instructional program for students with autism and other developmental disabilities. This presentation will provide a review of the literature related to Natural Environment training, considerations supporting the need for this type of training for students with autism and other developmental disabilities, programming considerations and data systems for various learner profiles, and procedurals considerations for teaching skills in the Natural Environment.

This presentation will cover neurodiversity’s definition, challenges, and opportunities, as well as the role the Office for Vocational Rehabilitation plays in Secondary Transition, Early Reach, and Pre-Employment Training. Presenters will engage the session participants in sharing the specifics of the new Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. Information regarding how to access resources and understand Pre-Employment Transition Services will also be covered.

Educational interventions based on applied behavior analysis have been shown to be most effective in establishing a range of social skills in children with autism. In considering the relationship between social interaction and autism, however, behavior analysis, both conceptually and in application, has not yet provided a complete operational account of the variables that control the types of behavior commonly held to denote Theory of Mind, a deficit that is often viewed to be both syndrome-specific and universal to autism (e.g., Baron-Cohen, 2001). First, this presentation will argue that Theory of Mind should not be interpreted as an “entity” that is either present or absent, but rather as a developmental verbal process that begins in the establishment of tacting public and private events during social interactions in childhood. Firmly based on such behavioral conceptual framework, the presentation will, second, attempt to provide an analysis of the controlling variables of the component verbal skills that may denote Theory of Mind and, in so doing, will illustrate a hierarchical sequence of instructional activities to establish tacting of private events (i.e., emotions), predictions and inferencing (i.e., tacting the source of stimulus control for another person’s actual and future behavior), and, finally, perspective taking in children with autism.

The Professional and Ethical Compliance Code that governs the conduct of Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) may seem straightforward, but when behavior analysts are working in or with schools, many ethical and professional dilemmas can arise. These conflicts are even more common when professionals from different disciplines, with different theoretical and philosophical orientations, are working together on a team. The purpose of this workshop is to provide Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs), who are either employed within school districts or are consulting with schools, with some strategies for addressing ethical issues that occur in practice. We will provide a framework for grappling with the ethical issues, and we will provide problems from practice for participants to discuss using the framework. We will also offer opportunities for participants to share and discuss problems from their own practice.

The State Performance Plan/Annual Performance Report (SPP/APR) of the Individuals with Disabilities Act provides a framework for continuous improvement in educational outcomes for students with disabilities. An additional new requirement of the SPP/APR is the State Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP) built around a particular focus area. Pennsylvania is working to increase the graduation rate and decrease the dropout rate for students with disabilities. Participants will examine the following: 1) research-based strategies to help students with disabilities stay in school, graduate, and become contributing members of society, and 2) current updates of the local implementation of SSIP.

The term “Executive Function” has been getting more and more usage within educational settings and in the behavioral literature. From a behavioral perspective, Executive Function is a term used to describe a set of higher-order skills that help individuals to independently organize and complete tasks. But what are these skills and how are they developed? This presentation will review some general principles of behavior analytic curriculum development and propose certain key curricular sequences within early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) to help establish an Executive Function repertoire. Some helpful behavioral support strategies will be presented and discussed for those students in inclusion placements and/or work settings. The potential impact of poor Executive Function skills on employment options and home-based independence will also be reviewed.

Students with autism in secondary education (grades 9–12) require instruction that prioritizes long-term planning for the skills necessary in the student’s potential placement after high school. Successful techniques for teaching students with autism and other disabilities in public school settings at the secondary level will be discussed. Teaching protocols, data collection, considerations for analog and onsite instruction, and error correction will be presented. This session will provide pragmatic guidance that is applicable to school settings. This session will be beneficial for school personal, consultants, and parents.

One of the most significant advancements in the treatment of behavior disorders in persons with intellectual disabilities and autism over the past 30 years has been the emergence of functional behavioral assessment (FBA) or “functional analysis methodology.” Now considered the standard in the field for both clinical research and practice, and mandated in U.S. federal law (IDEA, 1997), FBA identifies environmental factors that maintain and exacerbate problem behaviors and is essential to the development of reinforcement-based (nonaversive) behavioral interventions. Dr. Brian Iwata is a pioneer in the development of FBA. His presentation will review the learning mechanisms by which problem behaviors, such as aggression, self-injury, and stereotypy, are acquired and maintained; provide detailed description of methods for conducting functional analyses; and integrate assessment findings with intervention strategies.

This workshop will review the basic verbal classes (e.g., echoic and textual behavior, manding, tacting, intraverbals) both as introduced by Skinner (1957) and as they have since evolved and produced applications. We will consider the history of this field, including the context within which Skinner developed it and the challenges that originated in linguistics and other disciplines. The elementary verbal operants provide the foundations upon which we build when we examine more complex human behavior in a variety of situations. Our topics will include multiple causation, the language of private events, autoclitics, motivating operations, verbal governance (as in following instructions and as it operates implicitly in say-do correspondences), and the emergence of novel behavior (e.g., in naming and in joint control). Finally, we will consider how the behavior analysis of language is applicable to human issues ranging from autism to social and cultural practices.

A substantial number of children with autism do not develop functional vocal verbal behavior. For these individuals, alternative methods of communication are often taught in the form of manual sign language, picture/icon selection, or exchange systems and speech generating devices (SGDs). This workshop will provide a behavioral analysis of alternative methods of communication. The issue of selection- and topography-based verbal behavior will be discussed. Science-based methods for increasing vocal responding will be presented, along with video demonstrations of clinical applications of these procedures.

This presentation will discuss various types of stereotypic language and protocols and evidence-based interventions for managing and significantly reducing these behaviors while increasing appropriate vocalizations.

Parents and staff are often responsible for teaching new skills and managing disruptive or noncompliant behavior of children with autism spectrum disorder. Strategies for training parents and staff are abundant but differ in the level support provided by research. This workshop will focus on (a) effective vs. ineffective approaches to training parents and staff, (b) planning for behavioral contingencies that maintain or threaten treatment adherence, (c) the importance of programming for and assessing generalization, and (d) recent research on behavioral skills training and video modeling.

Educational interventions based on Applied Behavior Analysis have been shown to be most effective in establishing a range of social skills in children with autism. In considering the relationship between social interaction and autism, however, behavior analysis, both conceptually and in application, has not yet provided a complete operational account of the variables that control the types of behavior commonly held to denote Theory of Mind, a deficit that is often viewed to be both syndrome-specific and universal to autism (e.g., Baron-Cohen, 2001). First, this presentation will argue that Theory of Mind should not be interpreted as an “entity” that is either present or absent, but rather as a developmental verbal process that begins in the establishment of tacting public and private events during social interactions in childhood. Firmly based on such behavioral conceptual framework, the presentation will, second, attempt to provide an analysis of the controlling variables of the component verbal skills that may denote Theory of Mind and, in so doing, will illustrate a hierarchical sequence of instructional activities to establish tacting of private events (i.e., emotions), predictions and inferencing (i.e., tacting the source of stimulus control for another person’s actual and future behavior), and, finally, perspective taking in children with autism.

We will cover a variety of topics concerning early learners with autism and emergent language and teaching responding.

This session will review social skills strategies for students with autism and intellectual disabilities. Some of the topics addressed in the presentation will include strategies for increasing eye contact and conditioning social attention as a reinforcer, strategies for conditioning peers as reinforcers, and procedures for developing peer manding behaviors. Other topics covered will include teaching rule-governed behavior through Behavioral Skills Training, and strategies for developing peer support systems. There will also be an explanation of recent research conducted on developing peer manding skills in two classrooms in the Pittsburgh region.

The presenters will describe the opportunities and supports for young adults on the autism spectrum for a career in animation and other art and technology disciplines. The presenters will describe the career opportunities in the animation and arts/technology disciplines and the preparation necessary to enter and succeed in the programs. Attend this session to learn how to identify innovative supports that positively impact the college experience that students will need to have in place to assist them in achieving academic, social, and career success.

A substantial number of children with autism do not develop functional vocal verbal behavior. For these individuals, alternative methods of communication are often taught in the form of manual sign language, picture/icon selection or exchange systems and speech generating devices (SGDs). This workshop will provide a behavioral analysis of alternative methods of communication. The issue of selection- and topography-based verbal behavior will be discussed. Science-based methods for increasing vocal responding will be presented, along with video demonstrations of clinical applications of these procedures.

Many problem behaviors are maintained by social reinforcement, such as attention or escape from task demands, both delivered by caregivers. Yet some problem behaviors persist in the absence of social consequences and appear to be maintained by “automatic reinforcement,” a term used by Skinner to describe reinforcement directly produced by a response. This presentation will review the concept of automatic reinforcement, its relevance to an understanding of problem behavior, and challenges faced by practitioners when attempting to conduct assessments and design interventions.

Concurrent contingencies lead to great response variability in individuals, which makes it difficult to predict behavior if one only focuses on one contingency operating at any moment of time. Thus, behavior analysts need to identify competing concurrent conditions given specific contexts that the individual is in throughout the day. Motivating operations (MOs) account for a significant portion of response variability, especially as there are almost always competing contingencies in any situation. Not only do motivating operations have a direct effect on responding, but MOs also have function-altering effects on consequences and discriminative stimuli. These function-altering effects on the other variables operating in any given contingency have a significant effect on response variability. Thus, when conducting functional assessments and developing procedures to change behavior, one must take into account motivating operations across competing contingencies across situational contexts. I will begin by describing different types of contingencies and the three key independent variables that constitute a contingency; how contingencies relate to functional relations; and the importance of concurrent operants and the competing contingencies that produce variability of responding. Then, I will give examples to illustrate how the above can inform the practice of professional behavior analysts.

This session will provide an overview of early intervention from determining eligibility, promoting child progress, and completing transition at both preschool and school age. Family-centered approaches, such as creating a vision for your child and the family’s role as a key team member, will be highlighted. Local resources, family training, and networking opportunities with other families will be discussed.

An important part of teaching is ensuring there is generalization across settings, staff, and stimuli. These two teachers have worked with staff outside of their classroom to incorporate Natural Environment Teaching (NET) within other settings, with other staff, and across stimuli.  The teachers have gained the involvement of other teachers, such as a librarian, art teacher, and a woodshop teacher. They provided guidance on how to incorporate known skills across different operants within a lesson. The lead teachers modeled and then transferred skills to the other area teachers.

It is critical to include a wide range of school personnel in quality instructional programs for children with autism. Four teachers have demonstrated strategies to capture and contrive motivation with staff. In addition, they provided skill development, feedback, and resources to further enhance the instructional experience for staff and students alike. Several types of classrooms will be featured, ranging from elementary to middle school and from self-contained to a staff push in/push out model. Staff roles range from in-class 1:1 instructors to related service providers and general education staff members.

This session will highlight the programming at Armstrong School District’s Autistic Support classroom. Our interdisciplinary approach utilizes techniques and teaching methods presented through PaTTAN’s consultation and courses on the expertise of our teacher, school psychologist, speech language pathologist, and occupational therapist in order to maximize student success. Upon initial evaluation of students utilizing the VB-MAPP, they demonstrated a baseline of 439.5 milestones. A year later, they mastered 669.5 milestones. Due do this success, we implemented a vocal shaping program, as well as a motor fluency program, and experienced similar success in our students’ skill level. By working together and providing an integrated approach to instruction, our students have demonstrated measurable improvements in all areas.

District employees will present on various aspects of integrated instruction. Highlights of the presentation will include a review of student data prior to implementation of ABA principles throughout speech sessions only. Instructors will discuss natural environment teaching and application at home, preparation for participating in general education through targeting skills on the VB-MAPP assessment across environments, implementation of intermediate and advanced teaching procedures, use of antecedent and consequence strategies, training of classroom staff through systematic dedicated time, and training for special area teachers in appropriate interventions. Discussions will also cover district commitment to model through administrative participation, integrated speech and language services aligned with VB-MAPP assessment and provided throughout the day, dedicated commitment to internal coach role, professional development, development of programs, and skill mastery of adults.

This session will explore the makings of an effective early intervention classroom, from behavior management to schedule setup, data collection, staff training, providing sufficient instructional opportunities, aligning to Early Intervention Behavioral Interventions, and much more.

The presentation will review the process of selecting the response mode and cultivating sign, vocal, and device responding. The team will review teaching intermediate and advanced skills to a student with limited vocal skills, the process, and maintaining consistency, rigor, and relevance as a student’ age and needs progress. The presentation will include videos of teaching, data collection systems, and provide an opportunity for question and answer.

The session will focus on teaching functional skills to high school students in an autistic support classroom. The presenter will share examples of task analyses used in her classroom to monitor progress with functional skills, explain the teaching procedures, provide examples of how prompt and differential reinforcement are used, and discuss staff training. The presenter will also describe how a clear task analysis can assist with transitions to new classrooms and new staff and promote consistent practice at home. The presentation will also include examples of how to use functional skills to practice language skills in the natural environment and end with a discussion of how the class plans to continue to build this programming to promote more successful generalization and maintenance of skills as part of students’ post-secondary transition planning.

An important part of teaching is ensuring there is generalization across settings, staff, and stimuli. These two teachers have worked with staff outside of their classroom to incorporate Natural Environment Teaching (NET) within other settings, with other staff, and across stimuli. The teachers have gained the involvement of other teachers, such as a librarian, art teacher, and a woodshop teacher. They provided guidance on how to incorporate known skills across different operants within a lesson. The lead teachers modeled and then transferred skills to the other area teachers.

It is critical to include a wide range of school personnel in quality instructional programs for children with autism. Four teachers have demonstrated strategies to capture and contrive motivation with staff. In addition, they provided skill development, feedback, and resources to further enhance the instructional experience for staff and students alike. Several types of classrooms will be featured, ranging from elementary to middle school and from self-contained to a staff push in/push out model. Staff roles range from in-class 1:1 instructors to related service providers and general education staff members.

This session will highlight the programming at Armstrong School District’s Autistic Support classroom. Our interdisciplinary approach utilizes techniques and teaching methods presented through PaTTAN’s consultation and courses on the expertise of our teacher, school psychologist, speech language pathologist, and occupational therapist in order to maximize student success. Upon initial evaluation of students utilizing the VB-MAPP, they demonstrated a baseline of 439.5 milestones. A year later, they mastered 669.5 milestones. Due do this success, we implemented a vocal shaping program, as well as a motor fluency program, and experienced similar success in our students’ skill level. By working together and providing an integrated approach to instruction, our students have demonstrated measurable improvements in all areas.

District employees will present on various aspects of integrated instruction. Highlights of the presentation will include a review of student data prior to implementation of ABA principles throughout speech sessions only. Instructors will discuss natural environment teaching and application at home, preparation for participating in general education through targeting skills on the VB-MAPP assessment across environments, implementation of intermediate and advanced teaching procedures, use of antecedent and consequence strategies, training of classroom staff through systematic dedicated time, and training for special area teachers in appropriate interventions. Discussions will also cover district commitment to model through administrative participation, integrated speech and language services aligned with VB-MAPP assessment and provided throughout the day, dedicated commitment to internal coach role, professional development, development of programs, and skill mastery of adults.

This session will explore the makings of an effective early intervention classroom, from behavior management to schedule setup, data collection, staff training, providing sufficient instructional opportunities, aligning to Early Intervention Behavioral Interventions, and much more.

The presentation will review the process of selecting the response mode and cultivating sign, vocal, and device responding. The team will review teaching intermediate and advanced skills to a student with limited vocal skills, the process, and maintaining consistency, rigor, and relevance as a student’ age and needs progress. The presentation will include videos of teaching, data collection systems, and provide an opportunity for question and answer.

Mathematics learning is an intricate web of connected logical ideas. Accessing new content requires the ability to identify and verify the needed prerequisite skills and instruct students accordingly so there are no gaps in knowledge. In this session, participants will examine mathematical content and the necessary prerequisites, and determine how to access content contained with the PA Math Standards.

This extended session will focus on level 3 learners on the VB-MAPP and students that are “mapping out.” Emphasis will be on advanced manding, advanced tacting programs, direct instruction and group instruction, IVFFC programs, webbing, teaching conversational and social skills, and all things related to advanced programming for students with autism.

Students with autism who do not emit vocal response forms are at a tremendous disadvantage when it comes to expressive language. This is the case for all of the verbal operants, but it is the lack of or a defective mand repertoire that imposes the most limitations on the student. Selection-based systems, such as PECS and iPads, can be very helpful, but there are many inherent limitations with a selection-based system. This workshop will focus on the benefits of teaching sign language to children and adults with autism (and other developmental disabilities). The participants will learn the difference between the two primary types of response forms: topography-based (e.g., sign language) and selection-based (e.g., picture exchange). Advantages and disadvantages of each will be discussed. The participants will learn how to use signs to teach mands, tacts, and intraverbals, how sign language can actually help with listener discriminations and complex (e.g., multiple step) direction following, and the primary reasons why a sign language program may fail and how to avoid these pitfalls.

Development of friendships is a challenge for individuals with autism. Many friendships are built around recess, family gatherings, and community events that require social and athletic abilities. Learn simple, research-based methods to improve interest, knowledge, and motor abilities via “Friends and Fitness.” This athletically oriented social opportunity offers an individualized, evidence-based curriculum for learners with autism in a small group format. This therapy “class” meets twice weekly at a studio or community location and is team taught by a certified personal trainer, Eric Perez, and Tamara Kasper, MS, CCC-SLP, BCBA. This social opportunity provides direct instruction with prompting and prompt fading, using Direct Instruction cues and procedures in three areas: athletic skills needed in order to participate in games and athletic activities; social skills required to make and maintain friends; and the ability to follow directions from a coach or peer who is organizing an opportunity. Goals are individualized and include recognizing games/sports, understanding the rules of games/sports, pairing games/sports with reinforcement, joining a formal/informal game or activity, organizing a game or activity, asking others to join, predicting the behavior of a peer, identifying and rating your own level of volume, fatigue, like/dislike, speed during an activity, asking others about their feelings, offering assistance, early negotiation/problem solving, and understanding language and figures of speech associated with sports. This instruction consists of cartoon representations of social language goals, video models, guided practice with feedback, and contrived opportunities to practice skills through games and contrived social problems. The class is composed of learners with autism and specially trained, typically developing peer models. Past participants demonstrate dramatic progress in post-test assessment of social skills, motor skills, and sports facts. Shadows are assigned on an individual basis, as needed, based on the social skills and motor skills of the learner.

Identifying efficacious, durable, and socially acceptable interventions to promote the health and development of young children is a shared goal among behavior analysts, pediatricians, and child psychologists. Sleep problems are among commonly reported child-rearing difficulties of parents and caregivers. This interactive presentation will provide attendees with a sound understanding of the factors that worsen and improve children’s ability to achieve age-appropriate amounts of sleep. Discussion will include functional assessment methods and various evidence-based interventions for addressing common sleep problems such as delayed sleep onset, night or early awakening, nighttime routine noncompliance, and problem behaviors that interfere with sleep onset. As a result, attendees will have a better understanding of how to (a) personalize interventions for existing sleep problems and (b) use program preventative strategies that will help promote healthy sleep in young children.

Learn how to apply behavioral principles and teaching methods to the subject of sexual behavior. Behavior analysts and educators or related service professionals who work with children on the autism spectrum with needs in the area of sexuality are the target audience, though parents are welcome to attend.

This presentation will cover the importance of social reinforcement in early intervention, as well as procedures to establish social stimuli and social interactions as reinforcers. First, I will examine the concept of social reinforcement and how it might be different from other reinforcement. Second, I will briefly review research on the effectiveness of social reinforcement for individuals with autism. Third, I will discuss the importance of social reinforcement for crucial intervention areas, such as verbal behavior, joint attention, and peer interactions. Fourth, I will examine commonly and less commonly recommended procedures for establishing social interactions as reinforcers, with an emphasis on stimulus-stimulus pairing and discrimination training procedures. Fifth, I will describe recent studies on a rapport-building procedure that can be used to establish other people as reinforcers. I will discuss the potential for these procedures to improve social interactions and treatment outcomes in general.

Generative language — the ability to produce and understand novel statements — is critical for flexible, fluent conversational skills and academic progress. In this workshop, learn about the theory and applied research behind programs that focus on generative language, including stimulus equivalence and Relational Frame Theory. Effective, evidence-based practical strategies for promoting generalized and generative repertoires for both early and advanced learners will be presented and practiced. Participants will receive a workbook of teaching protocols and data sheets, and may request free access to the iPad or computer-based version of the Training and Assessment of Relational Precursors and Abilities (TARPA).

This extended session will focus on level 3 learners on the VB-MAPP and students that are “mapping out.” Emphasis will be on advanced manding, advanced tacting programs, direct instruction and group instruction, IVFFC programs, webbing, teaching conversational and social skills, and all things related to advanced programming for students with autism.

This session will highlight systemic interventions that help all students succeed in the school environment.

This session will present information related to how educators and parents can apply reinforcement programs with randomly selected components, including randomly selected rewards, criteria, and target behaviors. The focus will be on group-oriented contingencies, and most applications will be related to classrooms. About 12 studies will be presented. I hope that those who attend will be able to apply contingencies in the classroom that reduce negative side effects associated with individual and independent group–oriented contingencies while increasing desired behaviors of individuals and groups. Both social and academic target behaviors will be addressed.

This session is an introduction to teaching functional skills and Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) to individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities, using the principles of applied behavior analysis. Functional skills are a critical outcome for individuals with developmental disabilities. Some examples of the skills that will be addressed during the presentation include toilet training, washing hands, cooking, taking a shower, cleaning up, making a purchase at a store, crossing the street, using public transportation, and completing jobs during competitive employment. This presentation will focus on teaching the basic skills that are needed to successfully teach these skills to a wide variety of learners of different ages. In addition, participants will learn how to individualize the programs for the unique needs of individual learners and troubleshoot problems when learners fail to acquire the necessary skills.

This session is designed to meet the unique communication needs of children with autism, and other developmental disabilities, who struggle to speak. The 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.

Successful programming requires systematic analysis of assessment as well as selection of targeted skill areas that are at the right instructional level and appropriately balanced and sequenced. This session will provide participants with basic guidelines on analyzing and deriving instructional programs from the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP, Sundberg, 2008). It will also provide guidelines and considerations for common instructional programs for all instructional levels.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts supervising those pursuing certification by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) are now required to develop and maintain competency in the evidence-based supervisory skills identified by the BACB (BACB, 2012). Included in these skills is the ability to design a supervision contract; set performance expectations; implement behavioral skills training for a wide variety of technical, ethical, and professional behaviors; deliver frequent positive and corrective performance feedback; and evaluate the effectiveness and acceptability of supervision. At face value, many of these skills appear straightforward; however, complexities arise, for example, when providing difficult (i.e., relatively more subjective) corrective feedback, seeking feedback from the supervisee (i.e., dual-feedback), and objectively defining and monitoring supervisor and supervisee behavior. The purpose of this presentation is to provide considerations regarding these and other complexities of supervision in light of a practice model based on empirical research, the BACB Supervisor Training Curriculum Outline (BACB, 2012), the BACB Ethical and Professional Compliance Code (BACB, 2014), and clinical experience through lecture, structured discussion, and problem-solving activities.

Description forthcoming

Quantitative verbal concepts begin with the ability to tact quantities and extend across exemplars. This session will introduce participants to fundamental verbal concepts in mathematics, such as quantity, “more,” “less,” and “equal.” Participants will be able utilize a skills sequence to teach these concepts.