Discrete trial instruction or naturalistic, incidental teaching: How do you choose which approach to use with young children with autism? Now there's no need to "pick a side"—this groundbreaking book helps professionals skillfully blend the best of both behavioral approaches to respond to each child's individual needs. Developed by one of the nation's leading experts on autism, this innovative, evidence-based guidebook cuts through the chaos of conflicting information and gives readers a logical, child-centered way to plan and implement intervention. Professionals will begin with an in-depth guide to creating an autism intervention profile for each child, based on the type and severity of the child's autism characteristics and common predictors of how the child will respond to intervention (such as anxiety level, language, and social interest). Once the profile is complete, readers will learn how to match the child's individual characteristics and needs with a specially tailored blend of DTI and naturalistic teaching. To help them select and implement the right interventions for each child, professionals will get more than a dozen practical tools, including the Autism Intervention Responsiveness Scale, sample data collection forms, schedules, intervention plans, and progress reports. Readers will also learn from detailed before-and-after case studies of five children with very different characteristics and intervention needs. Through vivid accounts of their diverse intervention plans and first-person stories from their parents, readers will see exactly what individualized, child-centered interventions look like and how they help children make improvements in key areas. A must for early childhood educators and interventionists, this book will demystify competing autism treatments and help readers create custom-tailored interventions that really improve child outcomes.
