#2 Establishing Instructional Control with Children with Autism by Pairing with Positive Reinforcement and Teaching Functional Communication Skills

This two-day workshop is designed to help prepare participants to establish instructional control and teach functional communication skills to students with autism or other developmental disability using the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA) that incorporates B.F. Skinners analysis of verbal behavior.

At the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to: (1) describe three methods used to assess a students positive reinforcers, (2) describe how unconditioned reinforcers and conditioned reinforcers can be used to pair teaching staff, peers, teaching materials and teaching environments with positive reinforcement, (3) describe B.F. Skinner´s classification of language and explain its importance in teaching persons with language delays, (4) describe the behavior analysis of motivating operations (MOs) and explain their relevance to mand training for persons with language delays, (5) describe the importance of an echoic and mimetic repertoire in language training, (6) describe and implement effective procedures and data collection for teaching vocal words as mands, (7) describe how motiviating operations can be manipulated to increase manding opportunities, (8) describe how transitive motivating operations (CMO-T) can be used to expand language repertoires, (9) describe when an alternative communication response form signing, pictures, or augmentative deviceis necessary, (10) describe the advantages and disadvantages of various augmentative communication systems, (11) identify three important variables that should be considered when selecting initial Sign/mand targets, (12) describe and implement effective procedures and data collection procedures for teaching manual signs as mands, (13) describe the behavior analysis of stimulus-stimulus pairing and its potential benefit in facilitating vocalizations for non-vocal students, (14)describe the difference between natural environment teaching (NET) and discrete trial training (DTT) and explain their benefits for educating persons with developmental disabilities, (15) develop a group NET lesson plan that teaches skills across the verbal operants using a common reinforcer, and (16) describe how antecedent manipulations, extinction, and differential reinforcement can be implemented to replace maladaptive mands with appropriate alternative mands.

Who should attend: This workshop provides essential information for behavior analysts (BCBAs and BCaBAs), special education staff, speech-language pathologists, program administrators, psychologists, and others who work with children and adults with developmental disabilities, including autism.

Workshop format: This workshop format will provide written descriptions, lecture, videotape examples, live demonstrations, practice activities for participants, and discussion of specific concerns shared by the audience.