The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

As professionals working with individuals with communication needs, we encounter the need to provide excellent therapy that is effective for students with a variety of communicative and behavioral issues.  Clients may be using behaviors for attention, escape, or access to desired items, or even a mixture of these.  We provide strategies that replace these behaviors with functional communication so that clients can access their environment successfully.  Our therapy methods address a variety of problem behaviors and are appropriate for students of various ages and abilities.  The methodology is flexible – a starting point for professionals to create an environment that increases the need for functional communication!  This will not always make therapy easier, but more valuable to clients.  We will address the basics of functional communication, communicative intent, differential reinforcement, and interventions to increase cooperation and communication.  We will also address the importance of using antecedent interventions that naturally lend themselves to increasing communicative intent.  This is a hand’s on presentation, so come ready to get involved!  Our goal is that you will learn things that you can immediately put into action with your students or clients!

TARGET AUDIENCE

Those working with children with challenging behavior and increasing communication!! 

 LEARNER OBJECTIVES

After participating in this conference, the learner will be able to:

Identify the possible reasons why individuals engage in challenging behavior;

Identify the role of classroom professionals in successful behavioral/communication intervention;

List three types of reinforcement by property;

Identify use of differential reinforcement techniques to increase functional communication;

Identify how appropriate reinforcement schedules can increase functional communication;

List three techniques for using antecedent interventions.