1. How to Teach Pivotal Behaviors to Children with Autism Tse 1

2. Procedures The instruction needs to be clear and concise. Maintenance tasks needed to be interspersed frequently while integrating new tasks. Provide multiple cues if needed. Rewards (preferably picked by the student) needed to be immediate, contingent, and effective. Rewards needed to be contingent on response attempts. Tse 2

3. Motivation Lack of motivation may result in tantrums, crying, noncompliance, inattention, fidgeting, staring, attempting to leave (escaping from work), or lethargy. Tse 3

4. Before the child responds, consider the following: Tse 4

5. A child needs to be attentive when the child is presented the opportunity to learn. GoodNeeds Improvement Approach the child, tap to gain attention, call the child’s name, wait for the child to give eye contact and deliver the command. Calling the child across the room, the child may not be attending/aware to the command. Be clear and concise. Asking long, confusing questions. Tse 5

6. A child’s learning environment should intersperse mastered tasks with new and challenging tasks. GoodNeeds Improvement Spread the trials over several days Drilling new concepts without integrating any mastered task. Combining both mastered and new tasks together Integrating language whenever possible Tse 6

7. Children with shared control become more interested in the teaching interaction. GoodNeeds Improvement Implementing turn taking during the teaching interaction. Educator has complete control over the teaching interaction. Providing choices while using the language “this” and “or.” Educators selects the set of activities while the child chooses between the selected activities. Integrating language whenever possible Tse 7

8. Allowing children to respond to multiple cues builds their vocabulary. GoodNeeds Improvement Encourage children to make discriminations. Implementing the same vocabulary. Include some adjectives. (new, blue jacket) No adjectives, no opportunities for multiple cues. Tse 8

9. Once the child responds… Tse 9

10. Responses must be contingent (immediate when the child responds.) GoodNeeds Improvement Respond before doing another activity. Delayed reinforcement. Prompt the child if the response was incorrect, praise for correct response. Reinforcing incorrect responses. Reinforcing any vocalizing attempts Neglecting to reinforce vocalization When a child engages in disruptive behavior, do not reinforce the disruptive behavior but reinforce for the correct response. Reinforcing negative behavior. Tse 10 Tse

11. Any goal-directed attempt to respond to the instruction should be reinforced. GoodNeeds Improvement Acknowledging verbal response but redirect the child with question. Insisting on the correct answer. Tse 11 Tse

12. Reinforcement should have a direct relationship and be relevant to the response. ReinforcersCreating opportunities in the natural environment Natural consequence Providing a time delay/reducing anticipation Directly related to the behavior Carrier phrases Functionally related to the behavior In sight, out of reach Generalization to the natural environment Breaking it up Surprises and broken routines Tse 12 Tse