The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

This presentation will introduce a model for providing short-term skill acquisition programs for persons with autism spectrum disorders. The presented model is an 8-week program targeting defined skill acquisition areas by beginning with baseline assessments, continuing with goal setting and skill acquisition work, and providing parent/care provider training by completion of the tutoring program. Data will be presented with highlighted video examples. Program success demonstrates that defined skill acquisition is obtainable in a short-term service delivery model. As the number of children with autism spectrum disorders continues to grow exponentially, the shortage of available services and providers of such services for diagnosed children becomes more obvious. Provision of quality programming is a national concern in that children with autism continue to need programming from professionals who are already at maximum capacity. In light of this alarming discrepancy between children and available services, a model for short-term programming was devised and evaluated. Such a model program would be instrumental to autism service delivery in that it would provide quality programming in skill acquisition areas in a time-limited manner allowing for more children (than usual) to access services on a routine basis. In developing the individual tutoring program, a number of issues were taken into consideration. First, the question of whether children with autism can gain skills in a brief treatment model was posed. Second, the question of best practice in providing those services was asked. Third, the question of parent and child caregiver training in such a model was addressed. In essence, the major research questions were if we could train children in a short amount of time and then if we could train those who work with them regularly in order to maintain the gains made in the tutoring program. The developed individual tutoring program demonstrates that such brief programming can be accomplished and that care providers are capable of being trained in that time in order to effectively continue programming beyond program completion.

This presentation will introduce an evidence-based model for providing short-term skill acquisition programs for children with autism spectrum disorders. The presentation will cover the overall description of the model, the core components of the tutoring program, goal selection and data collection criteria, and important training aspects for continuation of acquisition success. The developed model is an 8-week program with the children coming twice a week for 90 minute sessions (a total of 24 hours over 16 sessions). The program includes an intake interview with the primary caregiver, baseline assessments of the preliminary target acquisition areas, a collaborative individualized goal plan and parent goal setting session, skill acquisition sessions, parent/caregiver training, and a final report and feedback session. Data will be presented on the overall program (currently 16 participants ranging in age from 3 to 11 years with severe to mild autism) and case examples will be highlighted via video footage. Program success demonstrates that defined skill acquisition is obtainable in a short-term service delivery model, and that parent training accentuates acquisition and maintenance.

The pertinence of this program is that children with autism can make gains in a brief acquisition model and caregivers can gain valuable tools to continue to work with their children. The importance of such a finding is that more children can access this service given its relatively short treatment time; hence, service more children without compromising quality programming. It should be noted that such brief programming is not intended to be the sole intervention program for a child with autism, but rather a skills' booster and bridge between programming. That is, the proposed tutoring program aids families and schools in beginning skill acquisition for a given target area and collaboratively targets multiple skill areas. Future directions and limitations of such brief programming will also be discussed in the presentation.

Upon completion of this presentation, participants will be able to: 1) Identify core components of a brief skill acquisition program 2) Identify appropriate short-term goals to target in a tutoring program 3) Conduct data collection (including baseline and acquisition assessments) for short- term programming 4) Identify elements of caregiver training critical to maintenance of acquired skills

Content Area: Education