The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

Young children diagnosed with autism engage in behavior to communicate especially during play; the nature of this “behavioral” communication is often misunderstood. Behavioral communication will be examined. As well, strategies to support engagement of appropriate communication and play for young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders will be discussed. An introduction and review of the core deficits of autism, highlighting the areas of social relating and joint attention, will begin the presentation. Joint attention is the foundation for all social relating and play in young children with autism and will be addressed with strategies to gain and maintain joint attention while increasing play and social interactions. Behavioral communication will be defined and discussed as a communication tool for social initiation, and communicative intent during play for young children with an autism spectrum disorder.  A look at evidence based interventions and strategies for joint attention especially as it relates to social communication will be addressed. Comparison of the following interventions:  Early Start Denver Model, Pivotal Response Training, Floor Time, and Applied Behavioral Analysis will be presented as they address similarly ways to address joint attention and social relating in young children with autism.  Naturalistic environments, contextual thinking, peer modeling, and play will discussed individually. These interventions will be used as the foundations for addressing the behavioral communication concerns for young children diagnosed under autism spectrum and giving the audience intervention tools to facilitate more appropriate forms of communication and relating during play and social situations. The following strategies within the interventions will be presented: contingent imitation, balanced turn taking, parallel talk, self-talk, obstruction, sabotage, and modeling within the home and classroom environment. Additionally, non-contingent reinforcement will be addressed to support increasing social communication and, relating and play schemes for young children with an autism spectrum disorder. To address the recommended need for intensity of interventions; all of the interventions and strategies will be discussed for use in both the home and preschool settings. All of the interventions and strategies will be demonstrated using audience participation and ideas/questions as each one is presented.  Opportunities for questions answers and shared experiences will be given throughout the presentation.

Learning Objectives: