Effective treatment of challenging behaviors in young children with autism spectrum disorder requires identifying consequences that maintain the behavior under specific environmental circumstances. Assessment strategies help to identify environmental factors setting the occasion for the behaviors to continue to occur. Many studies have used…

Over the past 20+ years, researchers have worked toward identifying early behavioral predictors of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developing observation-based screeners to supplement existing parent-report methods. This study is a follow-up, 3 to 8 years later, with parents/caregivers of 57 children previously enrolled in a U.S.…

Early studies evaluating the relative preference for leisure compared with edible items suggested that, for most participants (>80%), edible items are more preferred than leisure items. Recent studies suggest more variability in the percentage of participants with this preference. The rationale for this variability could be sampling, setting,…

Many speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are underprepared to serve children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), despite a growing need and increased expectation for ASD expertise. To understand this practice gap, 60 SLPs and 26 parents of children with ASDs were surveyed regarding SLP knowledge and competency. Of concern was that only about…

Today, the use of formal preference assessments, including paired-stimulus preference assessments, is widely utilized to help determine which items to use as reinforcers during intervention. A second way to determine potential reinforcers is to analyze multiple dimensions of a stimulus in the moment, a procedure known as in-the-moment reinforcer…

The effects of structured work systems based on the principles of structured teaching were evaluated with 3 preschool-aged children with developmental disabilities (2 children had autism). A withdrawal design was used with 2 participants, and a multiple baseline across stimuli was used with the other. During baseline, children were given 3 tasks…

Some researchers have argued for the use of or have attempted to make use of randomization tests in single-subject research. To address this tide of interest, the authors of this article describe randomization tests, discuss the theoretical rationale for applying them to single-subject research, and provide an overview of the methodological…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Power Cards on the initiation and maintenance of conversational skills in students with Asperger syndrome. Three high school students with Asperger Syndrome participated in this study. Power Cards were used to prompt students' previously learned conversational skills in a multiple-baseline…

Benefits of parent education have been demonstrated for decades. However, there exists a lack of formative evaluation of parent education for parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), limiting the interpretation of ongoing and future research. To understand the current status, key characteristics, and evaluation methods of parent…

Self-management for students with autism is important both as a management tool and as a means to enhance students' quality of life by empowering them to control their own behavior. This article reports the results of an examination of the efficacy of self-management for increasing appropriate behavior of children and youth with autism.…

The rise in the number of children with autism poses challenges to professionals in the field of early care and education. The restricted patterns of communicating, relating, and behaving seen often in children with autism necessitate a sophisticated approach to assessment. There is an increasing need in the field to use alternative assessment…

The purpose of this study was to assess the degree to which behavioral intervention studies conducted with children diagnosed with autism operationally defined the independent variables (IVs) and evaluated treatment integrity (TI). The study replicated the criteria from Gresham, Gansle, and Noell (1993) and focused exclusively on research studies…

Discusses the lack of thorough behavioral assessments prior to treatment interventions and describes a sequenced, structured format for conducting a comprehensive behavioral analysis. The procedures for the assessment are described, including recording observations, organizing information to clarify recurring patterns, interpreting observations,…

Discusses how functional analysis may be useful for determining the functions of all communicative behaviors, whether they are aberrant or not. Two case studies of children with autism are presented to illustrate the implementation of the three components of functional analysis: interviews, direct observation, and analog probes. (Author/CR)

A study compared results of a previous study that showed that the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (TONI) holds promise for use with individuals with autism and the results of 39 Taiwanese students with autism. Similar results were found regarding mean TONI scores and the variables that best predicted TONI scores. (Author/CR)