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One antecedent-based intervention -- choice-making opportunities -- is an easy and effective way to motivate students with autism to stay on task, complete academic tasks, and engage in appropriate behavior during academic instruction. The purpose of this article is to discuss three main methods for incorporating choice-making opportunities and describe how educators of students with autism can incorporate choice-making opportunities during academic instruction. Seven steps for implementing choice-making opportunities and examples of how to implement choice-making opportunities during instruction are provided. We intend for readers to: (1) read and comprehend the three methods for implementing choice-making opportunities during instruction, (2) apply the seven steps when implementing choice-making, and (3) use the tables as guide when implementing choice-making during instruction.

Job coaches are not typically trained to implement systematic instructional strategies to teach vocational skills to students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). This study replicated and expanded the evaluation of a job coach behavioral skills training program designed by Brock et al. (2016) to teach participants to implement task analysis, simultaneous prompting, and system of least prompts to teach vocational tasks to students with IDD. We used a multiple probe design with probe conditions across strategies, replicated across three participants, to assess acquisition and generalization. Participants demonstrated mastery of the three instructional strategies in simulated assessments with actors and generalized use of the strategies to teach novel vocational tasks to student interns with IDD. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Although research shows early intensive behavioral intervention is efficacious when delivered in university or private intervention centers, little is known about effectiveness or feasibility of disseminating early intensive behavioral intervention to larger communities. The Michigan State University Early Learning Institute was developed to address gaps in distribution of early intensive behavioral intervention to community settings, with an emphasis of serving children and families on Medicaid. This short report describes the Early Learning Institute's approach and preliminary utilization data among Medicaid families. Results suggest the model has potential for dissemination within community settings and promote utilization among Medicaid children.

Over the past decade, a newer class of interventions has emerged specifically designed for young children with or at high likelihood of autism, which are called Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBIs). NDBIs are particularly well-suited as a discipline agnostic, primary intervention for young children with autism and other social communication challenges; however, community providers from multiple disciplinary backgrounds who serve these children typically do not develop competencies in areas crucial for effectively implementing NDBI. The goal of this commentary is to: (a) describe the interdisciplinary competencies needed to deliver NDBIs effectively and (b) provide recommendations for moving the field of early intervention for autism and social communication delays forward. Resources for building these competencies for providers at the pre- and in-service level are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavior analysts make dozens of practice-related decisions every day. Past research has extensively examined practicerelated decision making by medical and other healthcare professionals, but decision making by practicing behavior analysts has garnered little research attention. The purpose of this proof of concept study was to begin a translational research agenda toward understanding what variables influence behavior analyst decision making and precisely how those variables do so. Behavior analyst decision making often involves data and the most fundamental characteristics of data are those indicating data trustworthiness--validity, reliability, and accuracy. To isolate a single independent variable, we used a lengthening data path procedure to parametrically assess how reducing data accuracy changed decisions to continue or modify an intervention in 30 students of behavior-analytic masters or doctoral programs. When data accuracy was 100%, most participants waited 9-10 trials before intervening. When data accuracy was below 60%, most participants waited 4-6 trials before intervening. To begin exploring potential behavioral processes underlying the influence of data accuracy on practice-related decisions, we also examined how well one popular description of decision making described participant choice--probability discounting. Probability discounting described the pattern of choices well for 16 of the 30 participants, suggesting other analytic frameworks should be explored. Nevertheless, data accuracy systematically influenced the majority of participants choices to continue or modify an intervention, although the degree of influence differed on an individual basis. Keywords visual analysis * choice * probability discounting * decision making, Introduction To extend Hermstein (1970), all practice-related decisions in applied behavior analysis (ABA) are choice. For every decision a behavior analyst makes, there are likely one or more responses the [...]

Homework is a task that teachers assign to students that is typically completed outside of class time to supplement in-school academic activities (Olympia et al., 1994) and has demonstrated to have positive effects on academic achievement (H. Cooper et al., 2006). There are many benefits of homework on student learning. Unfortunately, not all students can develop independent homework completion skills and reap the benefits. Students with developmental disabilities particularly struggle with independent homework completion. One approach that may help individuals with developmental disabilities with homework completion is self-management instruction. Given the effectiveness of self-management strategies in providing support to students with developmental disabilities with homework completion, it is important that strategy instruction is included as part of a student's daily routine. This article provides a step-by-step guide for how to teach self-management of homework completion to a student with developmental disabilities.

Behavior analysts visually analyze graphs to interpret data in order to make data-based decisions. Though front-line employees implement behavioral interventions on a daily basis, they are not often trained to interpret these data. A clinical decision-making model may aid front-line employees in learning how to interpret graphs. A multiple-baseline-across-participants design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a clinical decision-making model on the percentage of correct responses when interpreting line graphs. All of the participants increased their percentage of correct responses after the introduction of the clinical decision-making model. Two of the eight participants required additional feedback. The implications of these findings are discussed.

By engaging with family members through video-chat technology, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may access additional opportunities to develop social connections to build familial cohesion and access emotional support. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a behavioral intervention package in teaching social conversation via video-chat. Using a non-concurrent multiple-baseline across participants with an embedded alternating treatments design, three seven-year-old males with ASD were taught two variations of a social conversation. Their conversation skills generalized to unfamiliar adults, some of whom had no prior experience with children with ASD. When visual supports were removed, participants appropriately varied their social conversations. Social conversations continued to occur 2 weeks following the completion of the study. Results and implications are discussed.

This study examined the associations between sleep and challenging behaviors for average and night-to-night fluctuations in sleep, in 39 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) receiving intensive behavioral intervention (IBI). Child sleep was recorded (via actigraphy) for five nights in conjunction with clinician-reported observations of challenging behaviors. Results indicated that on average, poor sleep was associated with higher rates of repetitive behavior, negative affect, and a composite of overall challenging behaviors. These findings suggest that average sleep patterns are important within the context of IBI (rather than night-to-night fluctuations). Interventions aimed at improving overall patterns of sleep may have important cascading effects on challenging behaviors and developmental outcomes for children with ASD and their families.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a shared reading intervention on narrative story comprehension and task engagement of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A single-case multiple baseline design was used, and three elementary-aged students with ASD participated in this study. The shared reading intervention included before, during, and after reading strategies (i.e., topic anticipation, dynamic reading, story retelling). Results of this study indicated that all participants demonstrated noticeable improvements in reading comprehension. Despite the longer duration of intervention sessions as compared to baseline sessions, participants showed similar or better task engagement with intervention. Improved reading outcomes were maintained at follow up for all participants. Implications for practical implementation and future research were discussed.

By engaging with family members through video-chat technology, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may access additional opportunities to develop social connections to build familial cohesion and access emotional support. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a behavioral intervention package in teaching social conversation via video-chat. Using a non-concurrent multiple-baseline across participants with an embedded alternating treatments design, three seven-year-old males with ASD were taught two variations of a social conversation. Their conversation skills generalized to unfamiliar adults, some of whom had no prior experience with children with ASD. When visual supports were removed, participants appropriately varied their social conversations. Social conversations continued to occur 2 weeks following the completion of the study. Results and implications are discussed., Author(s): Matthew T. Brodhead [sup.1] , So Yeon Kim [sup.2] , Mandy J. Rispoli [sup.2] , Emma S. Sipila [sup.1] , M. Y. Savana Bak [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) grid.17088.36, [...]

We evaluated the effects of an activity schedule embedded within an iPad on varied play across applications. After establishing a pattern of repetitive gameplay, we taught three children with autism to follow the activity schedule using physical guidance. All participants increased their varied play to four applications per session and demonstrated independent and accurate activity schedule usage. The activity schedule was removed, and responding decreased to baseline levels, demonstrating the activity schedule's control over varied responding. The activity schedule was reintroduced and participant responding maintained when engaging with novel applications.