Teaching Children With Autism In The 1970's

Many treatment approaches have developed different ways of dealing with the challenges of autism. First, there is the theory of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), which consists of giving a child a specific task, which teaches skills from basic ones to more complex ones, such as social interaction. Children taking this approach, work 30-40 hours a week with a trained professional. (West 66) It may be emotionally difficult for the child, and his/her parents to dedicate so much time, yet it is worth it. However, it has been proven that ABA methods have shown consistent results in teaching new skills and behaviors to children with autism. (West 68)

The first three years of a child’s life is the most important and central time for the brain’s development. Autism is a disorder that can be diagnosed during the infant or toddler stage. Children can be diagnosed with autism by having different impairments such as social interaction, pattern of behavior, eye contact and speech impairment. Having the child being diagnosed with ASD can change a parent’s life view. Parents can learn different things in order to help their child. Parents will be provided by health providers different treatment, different placement in education and knowing about the different risk factor to make a difference for their autistic child now and in the future.

Speech therapy is also a commonly used therapy with children who have been diagnosed with ASD. Every educator interviewed included speech therapy in the list of therapies they incorporate into educating students with ASD. Speech is helpful

demonstrated that naturalistic interventions, such as pivotal response training (PRT) are effective in producing positive changes in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

The Regents of the University of California. (2014). About PRT. Retrieved from The Regents of the University of California: https://education.ucsb.edu/autism/pivotal-response-treatment

Autism has become an increasingly important public health concern as the number of yearly diagnoses of the disorder has increased since the late 20th century. The National Institute of Health estimates that 1 in 88 children in the United States are classified as having an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (NINDS, 2009), a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder that impairs children 's ability to learn and causes issues with social interaction and communication. Symptoms of ASD include delays in speech and language, issues with social interaction, and unusual behaviors/routines.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, autism is defined as a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interactions and verbal and nonverbal communication. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may also display attention deficits, engage in repetitive behaviors, resist environmental changes, have unusual sensory experiences, and may exhibit inappropriate behaviors that have adverse impacts on educational performance (Delano, 2007). The incidence of children identified with ASD has steadily increased and has thus changed the dynamics of education. Due to the number of children diagnosed with autism dramatically increasing over the last fifteen years, the demand for research-based

There has been a significant amount of progress in defining the rights of special education for students over the years. Special education assists students who require guidance as he or she is attempting to learn within a public education environment. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 in 68 children are identified with autism, which is also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (“Facts about ASD”). According to Autism Society of Maryland, “Autism is a complex developmental disability’ signs typically appear during early childhood and affect a person’s ability to communicate, and interact with other individuals differently and to varying

144). Some other techniques for improving the learning experience of students with autism are structured teaching, speech and language therapy, social skills therapy, and occupational therapy. Keeping a structured and predictable schedule is imperative when instructing a child with autism. The child will also, most likely, need some specialized classes in speech as well as instruction in appropriate social interaction, as one symptom of autism is a lack of comprehension of social norms. Educators need to keep in close contact with the team responsible for the student’s educational plan and diagnostic write-up to ensure that there are no large gaps in the educational programs suggested and the ones being applied.

Research designs will be a mixed measures design such as a combination of a typical experiment and other forms of non-experimental designs. Procedures will be used in this research will be audio and video recording, audio and video editing, researchers and confederate will observe children and their families, in addition to ask open and closed ended questions to children, parents, teachers, and school administrators. Younger children would benefit from play therapy, whereas older children would benefit from written and spoken journals in addition to additional learning time in respite care. What are the necessary steps, procedures, and funding to help these children, teens, and young adults with ASD to become overachievers in academic, vocational, and professional settings?

Pivotal response treatment (PRT) is a form of naturalistic behavioral intervention based on the principles of applied behavior analysis, which assumes that children’s impairments can be improved with environmental manipulations such as reinforcement, consequences, and extinction (Koegel, Koegel, & Carter, 1999; Stahmer, Suhrheinrich, Reed, Bolduc, & Schreibman, 2010). Pivotal response treatment (PRT) is one of the few interventions used in the treatment of children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that is both comprehensive, as listed by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, and empirically supported. It is also recognized by the National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders

Another method that is commonly used as an intervention for students with ASD is the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM). ESDM is an inclusive behavioral intervention for infants to preschool-aged children (Dawson et al., 2009; Vivanti et al., 2014). The learning objectives are based on individual strengths and weaknesses, with a focus on developmental fields that are foundational to social and social-cognitive learning and development (Vivanti et al., 2014). The students with ASD work to enhance their verbal and nonverbal communication, emotion sharing, imitation, joint attention, play, social orienting, and attention (Rogers et al., 2012).

All students deserve the best education possible. To ensure that, teachers should use techniques and strategies that has been proven to be effective. Evidence based practices are those teaching and intervention practices that have well conducted research to prove that it works. Furthermore, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) require schools to use programs, practices and curriculum that are based on scientific based research when teaching students with disabilities (IDEA). According the national Autism Center’s national Standards Report, there are eleven practices that qualify as established evidence based practices for use with students with ASD. These practices include, antecedent package, behavioral package, comprehensive

Autism Spectrum Disorder is not curable but it can be controlled using a certain type of treatments. There are various types of treatments used by parental, caregiver and clinical. The treatments can be separated into behavior and communication approaches, medication and complementary and alternative medicine. Applied behavioral analysis is a treatment approach that is used in many schools and treatment clinics (Foxx, 2008). There are different types of ABA and one of it is early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI). EIBI is the most effective treatment used for young children from birth to 3 years old as the services consist of treatments to assist the child to talk, walk and interact with others (Matson & Goldin, 2014). Discrete trials teaching (DTT) is one of the key teaching methods in EIBI. An efficient approach for teaching children with ASD has been shown by DTT and it plays an important role in language, social and academic skills. DTT has a sequence of discrete learning units that allows the skills to broken down into smaller units when teaching a new skill. DTT consist of three-term possibilities,

Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorder is one of many developmental disabilities that affect students learning. In fact, in the United States, Autism is the fastest-growing severe developmental disorder (“What is Autism,” n.d.). Also, the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder is 1 in 68 children and the prevalence in boys is 1 in 42 children (“What is Autism,” n.d.). Furthermore, Autism Spectrum Disorders also affects the way a child learns and over the years, several teaching strategies have been developed to help teachers to effectively educate students with Autism. Research has also been conducted to develop and test new teaching strategies for Autism and continues in playing an important role in the education of students with Autism.