Symposium 2022 - abstracts
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Modern Tools in Staff and Parents Training
Dr Anna Budzinska, Institute for Child Development.
There is still a big need of modern tools, to support specialists and parents in the providing treatment for children with autism. During my lecture I will present our „15 Minutes for Treatment” online course . Thanks to the course you will learn how to develop and implement intervention, based on Applied Behavior Analysis, to effectively teach and help children with autism or other developmental disorders. I will also explain how to use a package of educational materials helpful in treatment. The materials are available together with our online training series. -
Establishing a Generalized Repertoire of Initiating Joint AttendingEstablishing a Generalized Repertoire of Initiating Joint Attending with Children with Autism
Dr Sandra Gomes, Sommerset Hills Learning Institute.
The current study evaluated whether a three-component strategy consisting of (a) a general-case analysis, (b) multiple-exemplar training, and (c) experimenter-defined categories along with auditory scripts and script-fading, a trial-unique procedure, prompts and prompt-fading, and socially mediated consequences effectively established a generalized repertoire of initiating joint attending in four young children with autism. One hundred forty stimuli consisting of 20 in each of 7 experimenter-defined categories were used to program for generalization for joint attending from trained to untrained stimuli. Two categories of 20 stimuli each were reserved for assessment of generalization. A multiple-baseline across-participants design with a multiple probe was used to assess the effectiveness of the treatment package on the establishment of a generalized repertoire of initiating joint attending. All four participants learned to make initiations for joint attending in the presence of training stimuli. In addition, all participants displayed response and stimulus generalization. That is, all scripts were successfully removed, and participants continued to engage in joint attending. Also, joint attending generalized from trained settings, interaction partners, and categories of stimuli to an untrained setting, interaction partner, and categories of stimuli. Joint attending skills also maintained at two-week and one- month follow-up assessments. -
The Social Referencing Observation Scale (SOROS) for Children: Scale Development and Reliability
Anna Lubomirska M.A., Institute for Child Development.
The presentation concerns the first phase of PhD project on social referencing behaviors – the development of Social Referencing Observation Scale (SoROS). It is quick and easy observation, consisting of three scenarios (Fear, Pain and Joy), which is meant to be conducted by preschool teachers as a part of standard preschool evaluation. In the first study 204 children with typical development were evaluated in order to prepare a list of behaviors that may appear in described scenarios. SoROS is valid and reliable tool, which in next steps was used to evaluate children with ASD in order to establish it as a screening instrument for ASD. -
Promoting Independence in an Educational Program
Dr Susan M. Vener, dr Alison M. Gillis, New York Child Learning Institute.
Achieving independence is fundamentally important for youth with autism. More independence means less need for adult supervision in the future. As competencies in different skill areas emerge, the level of adult support should lessen. This talk will discuss the steps needed to promote independence throughout an individual’s educational career. We will discuss (a) the need to follow activity schedules, (b) the role of a zone system of supervision to promote autonomy, and (c) the importance of individualized motivational systems. -
Strategies for Increasing Simple Interaction and More Advanced Conversational Skills in Individuals with Autism
Dr Dawn B. Townsend, Alliance for Scientific Autism Intervention.
Individuals with autism, due to their social and language deficits, often face substantial challenges in the area of communication and have limited social and conversational opportunities. Through systematic programming, however, these challenges can be addressed and individuals with autism can learn valuable interaction skills. These social and language skills enable them to interact more effectively with others and ensure that those interactions are rewarding not only to themselves, but also to those around them. The purpose of this presentation is to define basic and more complex skills that should be considered when programming to increase the social and language repertoires of individuals with autism. In addition, in this presentation you will receive valuable information about teaching strategies that can be used to facilitate successful communicative exchanges those with autism and their social partners.