By Vince LaMarca, M.A., BCBA, 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, M.A., BCBA, 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, M.A., BCBA, EditorLovaas 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, M.A., BCBA, 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.