Patricia J. Krantz

Age at Intervention and Treatment Outcome for Autistic Children in a Comprehensive Intervention Program.

This study compared the treatment outcomes of nine autistic children who began receiving intensive behavioral intervention prior to 60 months of age with outcomes for nine other children who entered the same intervention program after 60 months of age. The 18 children in the sample included all of the children served by the Princeton Child Development Institutes day school and treatment program during the period 1975-83 who were diagnosed autistic and who had either (a) achieved positive discharge or (b) been enrolled in the program for 24 months or longer and continued to receive program services. Age at program entry was found to be strongly related to positive treatment outcome (i.e., to childrens continued residence with their natural parents and attendance at public school classes). This investigation underlines the importance of early behavioral intervention for autistic children.

Social interaction skills for children with autism: a script‐fading procedure for nonreaders

Engaging in spontaneous social exchanges is a central skill deficit of children with autism, and one that is often difficult to remediate. The 3 boys (ages 4, 4, and 5 years) who participated in this study had acquired small verbal repertoires, but typically spoke only when answering questions or requesting preferred edible items or toys, and did not converse with a familiar teacher during baseline. During teaching, textual cues (‘‘Look’’ and ‘‘Watch me’’) were embedded in the youngsters’ photographic activity schedules; after learning to use the scripts, the children’s verbal elaborations and unscripted interactions increased and were maintained when a new recipient of interaction was introduced. After scripts were faded, unscripted interactions not only continued but also generalized to different activities that had not been the topic of teaching. The script-fading procedure enabled children with autism to converse with adults, to benefit from adults’ language models, and to engage in language practice that contributes to fluency. DESCRIPTORS: autistic children, antecedent control, pictorial cues, social interaction, script fading

Teaching complex language to autistic children

Abstract Although there is a growing technology for teaching autistic children to engage in verbal imitation, to begin with nouns, verbs and pronouns, and to construct simple sentences, there is a continuing need for investigations of procedures that may be used to teach additional language skills. This article reports research conducted in a day school and treatment program for autistic children; the nine children who participated in these studies had acquired a basic set of language skills during the earlier stages of their treatment, but needed to develop more elaborate expressive speech. Thus, experiments were designed to evaluate the effectiveness of three language-programming strategies. Experiment I examined the effects of a procedure for shaping successively more complex utterances that ultimately included nouns, size/shape and color descriptors and verbs, and assessed generalization across a new teacher, a new classroom, a new set of materials and a new response modality (handwriting). Experiment 2 investigated a procedure for teaching children to answer wh-concept questions (what, why and how), and assessed a strategy for programming response generalization to untrained stimulus materials. Finally, Experiment 3 examined the effects of a program designed to teach children to report on temporally-remote (past) events, using “paragraphic” speech. All three investigations were conducted in childrens regular classroom or home environments, during their regularly-scheduled activities, and using materials that are normally available in special education settings and homes. All three language programs were demonstrated to be effective in helping autistic children acquire more complex and sophisticated language skills needed to support their progress toward normalized social participation.

Behavior Analysis and Intervention for Adults With Autism

This article describes a behavioral intervention program for adults with autism, suggests that preparation for adulthood should begin in early childhood, asserts that the curriculum should be just as comprehensive and evaluation criteria just as rigorous in programs for adults as in programs for children, and proposes that close examination of adults’ repertoires may lead to key modifications of services delivered to children. Along theway, the authors provide some data on the progress of 15 people who are now adults and whom they have known for 15 to 25 years. Finally, the authors argue that, because of the diversity of skills and skill deficits displayed by adults with autism, a program model that prevents “falling through the cracks” must provide an array of options—from training center to supported employment.

Conversational Skills for Autistic Adolescents: Teaching Assertiveness in Naturalistic Game Settings.

A naturalistic social skills training program was used to teach assertive responses to three autistic adolescents. Training and assessment of positive and negative assertions occurred in the context of two game situations—a card game and a ball game. Training consisted of modeling and behavioral rehearsal prior to each game, with tokens delivered contingent on assertive responses. Evaluation of training effects was accomplished in a multiple baseline across response classes. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of the procedure in generating high levels of positive and negative assertions that maintained across a 4.5-month follow-up interval. This in vivo procedure for teaching social behaviors permits the concurrent acquisition of assertive responses and leisure behaviors, two skills that are of special importance in improving the quality of autistic youths experiences with their peers.

Teaching-Family Model for Autistic Children

Alan, an autistic adolescent, had a long history of aggressive responses, such as hitting, kicking, and biting, and he had engaged in a variety of self-stimulatory behaviors, including repetitive vocal noisemaking, stereotyped finger play, and noncontextual laughing. Like many autistic youngsters, he had acquired a few words during his second year of life, but these later disappeared from his repertoire. Alan was able to undress himself, but he needed assistance with dressing; he drank from a cup, but did not use utensils. He displayed gaze aversion, and was unable to follow simple directions. When last tested, he had achieved a social quotient of 31 on the Vineland Social Maturity Scale.

Picture Activity Schedules

Many science-based programs for young children with autism include picture activity schedules as key elements as key elements in intervention. This chapter reviews the literature on activity schedules and describes the procedures used to teach children to follow schedules. When correctly implemented, activity scedules diminish prompt dependence, promote on-task behavior, foster generalization across tasks, settings, and persons, and teach social interaction, choice-making, and independent performance. Activity schedules are most effective when used throughout a child’s day, in many different settings, and with different adults. They provide a framework for delivering many well-researched intervention procedures, such as incidental teaching, discrete-trial instruction, and video modeling.