This presentation is a collaborative effort between the following: This material was developed under a grant from the Colorado Department of Education. The content does not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. TASN Autism and Tertiary Behavior Supports is funded through Part B funds administered by the Kansas State Department of Education's Early Childhood, Special Education and Title Services. TASN Autism and Tertiary Behavior Supports does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age in its programs and activities.  The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the non-discrimination policies:  Deputy Director, Keystone Learning Services, 500 E. Sunflower, Ozawkie, KS  66070, 785-876-2214. The contents of this power point presentation were developed under a grant from the Nebraska Department of Education, IDEA parts B and C from the U.S. Department of Education. However, this content does not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

Next Steps – Basics of Behavior Change This is one of the shorter presentations when it comes to the number of slides. However, I find this talk can be very interactive often using a lot of examples. I would also recommend the use of videos during this talk. (see video list)

Next Steps The fundamentals of teaching behavioral skills What is ABA? 3 Keys to Behavior Change: Consistency, Repetition, Contrast ABC’s of Behavior Tonight is an introduction, there will be resources given at the end of the night for those who want to do more reading/learning about the different topic areas.

Intervention Approaches As the number of children identified with ASD increases, so do the number of intervention approaches How do you select the best intervention strategies? We look to the research that has been done to determine what is effective. Remember, last time we got together we talked about Evidence Based Practices? This is where we will look for appropriate interventions. Good news that there is a ton of research out there, we get to use what others have found out and steal it! (totally legal!)

Evidence Based Practices The majority of evidenced based practices come from the behavioral literature. This means these interventions were developed using the principles of applied behavior analysis. No ONE way of practice is perfect, but most involve behavioral interventions. We do not have time to go over every intervention and how it works. Plus not every intervention is appropriate for every child. Tonight we hope to give parents resources to help them decide what directions are appropriate. This is a very brief into to ABA and teaching behavioral skills.

What is Applied Behavior Analysis? Applied Behavior Analysis employs methods based on scientific principles of behavior to build socially useful repertoires and reduce problematic ones (Cooper, Heron & Heward, 1989) Behavior Analytic treatment for autism focuses on teaching small, measurable units of behavior systematically. (Maurice, Green & Luce, 1996) 2 definitions, like the 2nd one better

Behavioral Teaching What is applied ABA? Each skills is broken down into small steps. Each step is taught by giving a specific cue or instruction. Appropriate responses are followed by consequences that have been found to function effectively as a reinforcer. This involves structured approaches to teaching. Many parents and teachers aleady use these skills but we often need to be very specific in how we implement them to teach new behavioral skills. These teaching approaches are used by adults with children every day. With children with an ASD, we often have to be a bit more structured to support learning.

Behavioral Teaching Goal is to make learning fun! It is also a goal to teach the child how to discriminate among many different stimuli. Want children to be able to understand and discriminate between lots of stimuli everyday. We give lots of instructions and we want kids to pay attention to what we say and respond appropriate. We often have to “teach” behavior skills like we would teach other skills, like math. We need to show them how to do the skill, practice the skills with support, provide feedback on their performance of the skill and reinforcement for completing it. Often great at this for skills like reading or multiplication table, but not for skills of appropriate skills during mealtime.

Behavioral Teaching - ABA Set of principles that we use to teach skills by targeting direct observable behaviors. Examine environmental conditions surrounding a behavior. Data based decision making Structured and plan consequences We focus on what we can observe. (We don’t want to rely on, “I think this is what happen….” more of “I observed that Billy engaged in this behavior when this occurred.”) What is happening in the environment influences the behavior we see. (more on ABCs of behavior later) We want to rely on data. Doesn’t have to be scary! Just way to keep objective info on what you see happening. May involve us keeping a tally for each time the child does not listen. Then when we try a new consequence, we can tell if it is working! We want to have a plan for how we handle difficult situations.

Behavioral Teaching - ABA Can be used in any environment!! Can be used to target any area of skill deficit! Can be used as part of any environment, school, home, and community. I would stop here for a bit. People often think ABA is something that it is not. ABA provides us with teaching strategies that can be used anywhere, anytime to address a range of concerns. Doesn’t mean we have to change our structure, the child’s day, but that we want to incorporate these teaching strategies into what we are already doing!

How do we teach new skills? No matter the skills we want to teach (numbers, sitting quietly during story time or listening to instructions etc.) there is the Big 3! Consistency Repetition Contrast No matter

Consistency Inconsistency leads to confusion for the child Our responses to children’s behavior should be consistent. The responses we give to a behavior on Monday, should be the same response we give on Tuesday, ect. All Caregivers should respond the same way to behavior we like and behavior we don’t like! The more consistent we are, the faster they will learn!!

Consistency Consistent Reactions occur when the child behaves appropriately: Praise Giving a high 5 Enthusiasm Sticker Consistent reactions occur when the child behaves inappropriately: Ignoring Time out Loss of privileges Will require lots of practice!!

Repetition Children need lots of practice to learn a new skill - no matter the skill! Behavioral Skills require practice just like any other skill. (being a good listener is a great example!) Practice listening just like the ABC’s! Practice more, explain less! How many times did you need to practice the ABCs before your child learned them? Teaching other skills often requires the same amount of practice but we often fail to stick with it that long. We try a reward system and if it didn’t make a change that day, we often give up! However, we need to practice that skills to get good at it!

Repetition For children to learn the a new skill or a new rule, lots of repetition is needed. When we try something new, we need to remember to give lots of practice before we decide if it is working or not! Example – teaching listening skills. A parent wants to work on a child being a better listener, so they implement at grab bag reward system for listening the first time asked. We try it for a day and the child earns one reward. We are frustrated that it didn’t fix all instances of noncompliance. However, with one trial, there is not enough practice of the skill!

Contrast In teaching a new skill, we need there to be contrast between what happens when they do the skill we like and the skill we don’t like. To develop contrast, make sure there is a LARGE, NOTICEABLE difference for our response to each behavior. Contrast your reactions to the behaviors you want to see and the behaviors you don’t want to see We tend to talk when something good happens and talk when something happens that we don’t like, we want to make the difference really noticeable to increase motivation for appropriate behavior. Example - Your boss says “we are broke, so if you come to work tomorrow, I will pay with with a can of pop.” the constrast between coming to work (the behavior we like) and not coming to work (the behavior we don’t like) is very small. I am not really worried about missing work! However, if your boss says “we just got a huge grant but it has to be used by tomorrow. So if you come to work tomorrow, I will pay you 1 million dollars.” The constrast between coming to work and not coming to work is great, leaving me very motivated to come to work.

Contrast Attention is often the most powerful tool we have to create contrast. How could we use attention to create contrast for the behavior we like and the behavior we don’t like? Discussion about how this works with the use of our attention. I would engage the participants in how to use their attention. If we want to change whining behavior, how could we use attention to create contrast. We could not provide any verbal attention when whining occurs and we could provide a big reaction for when the child asks with no whining!

The ABCs of Behavior Behaviors, those we want to see and those we don’t want to see, are part of a sequence of events Events that come before and after the behavior have an impact on the future occurrence of that behavior Remember everything is behavior. We don’t just mean problem behavior. We have behavior we like too!

What do the ABC’s Tell us? Situations when the behavior is likely to occur Behavior is purposeful – can help us to determine why behavior is occurring. If we understand the ABCs – we can target increasing appropriate behavior and reducing inappropriate behavior.

Parent gives the child the Candy   A  B  C Antecedent Behavior Consequence Things that happen before the behavior A parent tells a child to turn off the TV Child wants candy at the store Behavior Child begins to tantrum Child begins to scream and throw items Things that happen after the behavior Parent sends child to time-out Parent gives the child the Candy

ABC’s We often only think of ABCs of behavior when there is an inappropriate behavior. However, ABCs are very important for increasing appropriate behavior too! Need to consider the what is happening when we see a behavior we don’t like and figure out how to see more of the behavior we like! Example – we want Billy to respond to his name. When asking Billy to do chores or school work, we always use his name, as soon as he looks at us, we tell him to do a task. How are the ABC’s effecting Billy’s behavior? (we are really punishing him when he looks at us by then giving him a task to do. If we want to change this, we would need to provide a big reaction/reward when Billy would respond to his name.)

Next Steps Structuring for Success Next time we will discuss lots of strategies to create a successful environment for your child! Antecedents – What WE do to create an environment for success Additional easy to implement strategies that can set kiddos up for success!

Questions Please discuss questions at your site. Thanks for joining us for this training.