I seldom see a newspaper article about a child learning to read through the use of phonics. I guess that’s not surprising. Most people know that phonics is an effective method to teach someone to read. There’s nothing that makes it especially interesting enough to make the news. As Autism Awareness month ends, I noticed that I seldom saw newspaper articles about children with autism learning new skills through behavioral treatment. Most articles or TV coverage I saw focused on the latest medication, diet, or novel intervention that has made a big difference in one child’s life. Again, I guess that’s not surprising.

Jennifer LaMarca
Lovaas Institute - Indianapolis

Programs for children with autism utilizing the Lovaas Model of Applied Behavior Analysis typically require a minimum of 6-12 months of one-to-one in-home teaching in order to teach the child the prerequisite skills they need to partake in a group setting. As many of the children progress from basic to more advanced and complex learning programs they are gradually integrated into group settings in their local communication and the teaching procedures become less structured.

While the school setting is one of the most important group environments we want the children to learn and thrive in, there are other groups that may function either as stepping stones to ease a child's transition to the school environment or as extra curricular activities for a child already in school. Such group activities include, but are not limited to, gymnastics, soccer, Gymboree and Kindermusic, library, zoo, and museum classes. When a child is enrolled in any such group activity, we recommend that an instructor from the in-home program accompany the child to help facilitate the transition to group routines and instructions, promote generalization of skills acquired at home to the new environment, and to encourage interaction with other children.

By Vince LaMarca, BCABA, Editor
Lovaas Institute - Indianapolis

Teaching social skills to children with autism is an area of behavioral treatment that is continuously evolving, perhaps more than any other area. The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis alone frequently includes articles discussing the teaching of interactive play skills, the development of creativity and spontaneity, and the development of conversational skills. These articles are now free to the public on the website, http://seab.envmed.rochester.edu/jaba/. (Begin with a "full-text search" or go directly to the "Table of Contents" section).

While the social skills programs at the Lovaas Institute are both numerous and complex it may prove helpful to become familiar with some general basic steps.

By Mariko Okano, M.A., BCABA
Lovaas Institute - Los Angeles

Research conducted as part of the UCLA Young Autism Project (Lovaas, 1987) focused on treatment for "younger" children under the age of 4 years. Treatment for children with autism often lasts longer than a few years, and oftentimes programming and intervention goals change as the children grow older. How can we teach and prepare older children to be successful in school, home, and community settings?

April is Autism Awareness month. When I look back on my experiences with children and families in the past 13 years, I am amazed by the changes that have taken place. Before, families used to tell me they had never heard of autism before their child was diagnosed. Now, many families have heard of autism but have difficulty finding a specialist who can make a diagnosis in a timely manner. Before, school districts used to question the validity of the use of applied behavior analysis for treating children with autism. Now, many school districts I work with accept the usefulness of applied behavior analysis but question the level of expertise needed in order to implement these techniques.

One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is the incredible commitment of parents to finding the best support for their sons and daughters. I’m thankful to all the families who have told me the Lovaas Institute has been part of that support, and I am certain that we will also continue to change as we strive to find what support works best for each family and child with autism.

I would be interested to hear what changes or new challenges others have seen in their experiences with autism across the years.

By Vince LaMarca, BCABA, Editor
Lovaas Institute - Indianapolis

By Vince LaMarca, BCABA, Editor
Lovaas Institute - Indianapolis

As explained on our website, the Lovaas Model of Applied Behavior Analysis provides two general types of treatment: clinic-based services and consultation services. In either service, a thoroughly trained senior staff member is assigned to a family as their consultant/supervisor. While a consultant provides expertise in behavior therapy, parents also play a crucial role in the development of a behavioral treatment program.

Parents are the ones who know their child best. We need to access that knowledge and be familiar with a family's daily routines in order to provide the best behavioral treatment program. Programming is not meant to become a checklist of skills to complete. Such a mindset is why critics will protest that behavioral treatment isn't functional. These critics would be right, if it weren't for the many parents and consultants who, from the beginning, make treatment relevant to their particular family and child's life.

By Vince LaMarca, BCABA, Editor
Lovaas Institute - Indianapolis

As many teachers know, keeping appropriate data on a skill is not as easy as it seems. On one hand, data needs to be collected in order to track a child's progress. On the other hand, data collection cannot be so overwhelming as to interfere with teaching a child. Below are some tips, based on data collections strategies used at the Lovaas Institute, as well as some examples of basic data collection forms.

By Vince LaMarca, BCABA, Editor
Lovaas Institute - Indianapolis

Play scripts are often an important component in teaching creative and spontaneous pretend play. Some people mistakenly believe that scripted responses result in robotic play however, research data indicate that scripted responses often serve as stepping-stones to spontaneous statements. For example, in 2001 Sarokoff, Taylor, and Poulson taught children with autism to engage in conversational exchanges using scripts that were faded over time. The children continued to engage in scripted conversation after the scripts had been removed, but they also added a number of unscripted spontaneous statements.¹

Play scripts can be short or long, based on a child's current skills. Typically, the script starts out in a short form that the child can quickly learn. Once a child is successful with the interactions in the short script, additions are made to facilitate spontaneous and creative responses during the play.

By Vince LaMarca, BCABA, Editor
Lovaas Institute - Indianapolis

After reading examples in our newsletter about generalizing skills in the natural environment or the use of incidental teaching, some might start to wonder, "Isn't this a lot like other kinds of therapy: like Floor Time or speech therapy or just good teaching in general?" The simple answer is, "yes." Practically speaking, some of the suggestions we make will be the same kinds of suggestions other treatments make. However, the reasons we make the suggestions may differ from the reasons other treatments give. While this may seem like a minor difference, these reasons can also change the amount of time devoted to or emphasis placed on specific suggestions. The extent to which different treatments employ similar and different procedures in their practical application would make for an interesting research article. For now, all we know is that of all the treatments for children with autism, behavioral treatment has undergone the most rigorous research. Go to The Lovaas Difference for a comparison of different treatment strategies, based on information gathered from the main websites of particular treatments and the National Research Council's Educating Children with Autism.

By Vince LaMarca, BCABA, Editor
Lovaas Institute - Indianapolis

Springtime means IEP time in a lot of school districts. As a behavioral consultant, I've had my fair share of IEP meetings that have gone smoothly and those that have been contentious. Often there are controversies surrounding the services a child should receive. Both parents and school personnel feel strongly about their position and coming to a consensus can seem impossible. However, I've also found that there are a number of critical areas that make it more or less likely parents will be willing to listen to what the school district has to offer. Here are common requests I hear from parents about IEP meetings.

There are many good reasons to find materials for therapy around the house or create them on your own. Such materials save money and are more likely to be relevant to your individual child. At the same time, finding and making materials can be time consuming and so it can also be helpful to draw upon materials that others have already created.

Following are a few of the sites that have been helpful to many families searching for therapy materials.

• www.difflearn.com
• www.autismshop.com
• www.aba-materials.com
• www.dotolearn.com
• www.superduperinc.com
• www.linguisystems.com

By Vince LaMarca, BCABA, Editor
Lovaas Institute - Indianapolis

After presenting a thoughtful, highly educational overview of strategies and principles of applied behavior analysis that are often utilized with children with autism, one of the teachers in the audience brought me back to earth with this comment, "I don't have time to get a degree in ABA, but I like a lot of the ideas that you talked about in your presentation. If you had to remove all the theoretical talk and could only give me the 5 most practical and specific things to do that would probably increase a child's success in school, what would you say?"

By Vince LaMarca, BCABA, Editor
Lovaas Institute - Indianapolis

Part of the family's role in behavioral treatment is to help a child apply skills he has learned in therapy to everyday life. Some parents question whether they can do this when the day is already so hectic. However, many parents are pleasantly surprised at the benefits of consistently focusing on generalization.

Dorothy, the mother of a four-year-old son with autism put it this way, "Generalization gives me a chance to connect with my child in really positive ways. Bedtime used to just be a routine, but when we started gradually moving things from therapy, it became more of an interaction. My son's so familiar with the games we play at bedtime and he's always been so successful with them that now it's become a time of the day we both really look forward to."

By Vince LaMarca, BCABA, Editor
Lovaas Institute - Indianapolis

As more and more research is conducted, support for behavioral treatment only grows stronger. In the past two years, two replication studies from independent authors have bolstered the Lovaas Model of Applied Behavior Analysis in particular. Bibliographical information and a quote from each abstract are included below.

Sallows, Glen O. & Graupner, Tamlynn D. (2005). Intensive Behavioral Treatment for Children with Autism: Four-Year Outcome and Predictors. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 110 (6), 417-438.

"We found that 48% of all children showed rapid learning, achieved average posttreatment scores, and at age 7, were succeeding in regular education classrooms. These results are consistent with those reported by Lovaas and colleagues (Lovaas, 1987; McEachin, Smith, & Lovaas, 1993)."

Cohen, Howard, Amerine-Dickens, Mila, Smith, Tristram. (2006). Early Intensive Behavioral Treatment: Replication of the UCLA Model in a Community Setting. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 27 (2), 145-155.

"Children in behavioral treatment scored significantly higher in IQ and adaptive behavior scores than the comparison group. Further, 29% (6 of 21) children were fully included in regular education without assistance and another 52% (11 of 21) were included with support. This compares to only 5% (1 of 21) children in the control group who were placed in regular education."

By Vince LaMarca, BCABA, Editor
Lovaas Institute - Indianapolis

When Tyler entered first grade, his parents and teachers had high hopes that he would be able to participate in the classroom with little intervention. However, his parents insisted that a 1:1 aide initially accompany him and then gradually be faded. The school staff opposed the idea on the grounds that a 1:1 aide made the environment more restrictive and they wanted to use the least restrictive environment possible. His parents countered that while it may be reasonable to expect him to be independent over time, they couldn't just throw him into a new school situation without any support. That would be setting him up for failure. A compromise was finally reached in which he would be provided with a 1:1 aide, but the school would use one of it's existing aides rather than hire an instructor who had worked with Tyler in his behavioral treatment program utilizing the Lovaas Model of Applied Behavior Analysis.