_____________________________________________________

Name of Centre

Behavioral Intervention for Children with Autism

Address of centre

Phone number of centre

Director: Name Workshop Leader: Name

Educational Consultant Educational Consultant

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Lukas Christopher Workshop Report

d.o.b. date listed November 8, 2000

d.o.t. date listed

Hours 1:1 5.0

Community Trips 5.0

School 32.5

Peer Play 1.5

Total 44.0

Tutors present: Sallie, Julie, Carrine, and Michelle

General comments:

I am so pleased at how well you have all implemented the strategies we discussed at out October workshop. There is great consistency among the team members and your expectations from Lukas. Because of this, Lukas is moving along at a tremendous pace. I am amazed at how much he changes from workshop to workshop. I have not been very good at taking the time to tell you all of the good things I see, but I hope to get better at that. You all deserve lots of reinforcement for the wonderful work you are doing. Keep it up!

School:

1. Sallie, you are doing a super job with Lukas. You are reinforcing him more often and I can tell that has made him more receptive to your prompting him. You are good at reinforcing all of the children. I think you have great rapport with the other children in the classroom. You are also very firm. You follow through on any demands you place. These are valuable qualities for a tutor/shadow. I’m glad you are part of the team!

2. Carrine, we are glad to have you as a new member of our team. Jump in there and work with Lukas. Don’t worry about making mistakes. We all do! That’s fine. The more experienced tutors can help guide you as to what you need to change. Getting in there and doing it is the best way to learn. I look forward to working with you as we help Lukas towards independence!

3. I like the idea of having Lukas draw a scene and then tell about it. This is good language practice for him. Have him tell you so that you can help him get his syntax down. Have him also tell a teacher about the picture. Lastly, have him tell one or two peers. This will give him practice using correct syntax.

4. There needs to be a response cost for behaviors that do not fall in your behavior plan. For example, on my visit I saw Lukas yell at a peer during clean up time. There needs to be a consequence for this. A response cost is removing something to which he usually has free access.

Peer Play:

1. Always be sure to reinforce Lukas for appropriate comments, especially if the peer is not reinforcing. For example, if Lukas asks his friend to play bear hunt and the friend doesn’t want to play, you go play with him so that he is reinforced for initiating play. If you are fun and reinforcing to the peer, he will want to join you also.

2. Back off from placing so many demands on Lukas during peer play. Antonia stated that Lukas does much better when he is playing at Josh’s house with no tutor. He may feel that too many demands are placed on him and he will be corrected for most things he does. Give him some space so that he will play more appropriately. Be sure to reinforce him often. This may not be in an obvious way. It could be playing with him or a quick back scratch. You don’t have to say things like, “good playing.” If the time as a whole is reinforcing to him, he will continue playing appropriately.

3. Pair Josh with reinforcement so that Lukas will want to do the things Josh picks. (Maybe this will work in the other direction also.) You may want to plan more trips with Josh and Lukas. That way, the plan is already made and they know ahead of time what they will be doing. With less decisions to make about what to play, they will have more time to actually play

Home Program:

1. Use a DRO for self-talking. In other words, you should reinforce the absence of the behavior five times more than you reprimand him for self-talk. Set a schedule for how often you should reinforce Lukas. Once per five minutes is a good place to start.

3. Role play getting a peer’s attention. Work on reading body language and reading subtle behavior (e.g., no eye contact, doesn’t comment). Once Lukas gets the hang of this, target it at school and reinforce it highly.

4. Role play knowing when he has your attention. He has to care if he gets your attention because he can just tell a story to himself and he is reinforced. After working on this at home make it a goal at school. Once he has a peer’s attention, he really enjoys talking to them and listening to them. Let’s make this a habit!

Language Discrimination Program

As we discussed at the workshop, I was able to spend some time with a consultant out of Washington named Michael Fabrizio. I gained some valuable knowledge, some of which is applicable to Lukas’s program. One of the things he emphasized was teaching a discrimination between correct and incorrect ways of doing things. We have only been teaching Lukas the correct way to do things, but I agree with Michael that Lukas needs to understand the discrimination between the two. Antonia has already received some of this information, but I will repeat it here for the team.

We basically want to use a four-step sequence to teach Lukas different language and social skills.

1. Labeling
Two tutors + Lukas (Lukas is monitoring only.)

2. In vivo with tutor
Tutor + Lukas (Lukas is monitoring and role playing correct and incorrect responses with tutor.) This should be the emphasis of our program.

3. Labeling and in vivo with tutor
Lukas + peer (Same as # 1 & 2, but with a peer.)

4. Measure transfer to everyday conversations.
You would compare Lukas and his peers, especially at school.
This is the real test of success.

You can use these steps to teach a number of different concepts. I want you to keep a running list of areas which need to be addressed and decide as a team which ones you will address. Spend time on one or two concepts at a time, prioritizing as a group to decide what you need to work on first. Here is an example of how you would use this to teach Lukas to recognize interruptions.

Before stating these steps, you will want to measure how often Lukas is interrupting. You will compare this to the data collected after going through these steps.

Labeling

S^D 1: I’m going to talk with (person). You tell me if I interrupt her or not.

R: Yes or no.

S^D 2: When did I interrupt?

S^D 3: How did I interrupt?

(Another option here is to have him knock – or some other action – when he hears you interrupt.)

Once he has the label do not use it any more. Make your conversation more natural.

In vivo with tutor

S^D 1: We’re going to talk and I want you to interrupt/not interrupt me.

S^D 2: When did you interrupt?

S^D 3: How did you interrupt?

Labeling and in vivo with a peer

Basically, repeat the labeling and in vivo with a peer. Say something like, “We’re going to play a game on spotting when someone interrupts another person. First (peer) and I are going to talk. Sometimes I’m going to interrupt and sometimes I’m not. Lukas, you tell me if I interrupted or not.” Then reverse with the peer monitoring. Then have the tutor monitoring with each child practicing interrupting.

I don’t think this will need to be a major step for Lukas. I think that if you practice a couple of times with a peer that he will get it.

Measure transfer to everyday conversations

Take data again on how often this occurs. You will also want to measure this with his peers. You will not necessarily set this as your goal, but you need to have a general guideline. Take data at several times during the day on several different days for both Lukas and his peers. Make it your goal to have Lukas do a little bit better than his peers on most targets so that when he “gets comfortable” he will be right with his peers.

Note: Be careful about staying on one target too long. I do not want Lukas to memorize a rule. I want him to learn to make a good judgment.

Here is an example of how you can teach correct and incorrect ways to respond to an interruption.

Labeling

S^D 1: I’m going to respond to someone interrupting me You tell me if how I responded is okay.

Model correct and incorrect ways to respond to an interruption, such as:

Okay models:

“Hey, I’m talking” or “Please don’t interrupt me” then continue talking

Raise hand in “stop” gesture + “I’m almost finished”

Stop talking when other person starts talking

Slightly raise voice then continue at normal tone when other person stops talking

Not okay models:

Talking loudly and rapidly and continue doing that even when other person has stopped talking.

Getting really upset that other person has interrupted you

Interrupt the other person right back

Turn around and leave

The team should add other examples, especially the things that Lukas is doing. I would appreciate you e-mailing these to me so that the next person down the line doesn’t have to recreate the wheel.

S^D 2: How did I respond when (person) interrupted me?

S^D 3: Was my response okay or not okay? Why?

S^D 4: What could I have done differently?

In vivo with tutor

S^D 1: We’re going to talk and I’m going to interrupt you. I want you to respond in an okay/not okay way.

S^D 2: Was your response to my interruption okay or not okay? How do you know?

Labeling and In vivo with a peer

Repeat the labeling and in vivo with a peer.

Measure transfer to everyday life

Add this skill to your school data sheet to check for generalization of the skill.

Here is one more example. This teaches correct and incorrect ways to interrupt someone else.

Labeling

S^D 1: I’m going to interrupt (person). You tell me if my interrupting is okay.

Okay models:

“Excuse me” … wait for other person to stop talking then talk

aborted attempt – you start and then stop because the other person does not stop

wait for the other person to slightly pause and then jump in

Not okay models:

“Excuse me” and other person does not stop talking, but you start talking anyway

You start talking and keep talking even though the other person does not stop talking

S^D 2: Why was my interruption okay/not okay?

S^D 3: (If needed)How did (other person) feel about my interruption? … How do you know?

In vivo with tutor

S^D 1: Was that an okay interruption or a not okay interruption? How do you know? (Should be based on your reaction.) NOTE: I think it is important that sometimes the same form of interruption is okay and sometimes it is not based on how the person responded. For this reason I do not want Lukas memorizing a rule for a “good interruption,” but rather I want him to practice changing his behavior based on the behavior of others. You may need to have exaggerated reactions at first to help him attend to the subtle cues such as your voice volume, facial expression, and body language.

With a peer

Practice the labeling and in vivo with a peer.

Measurement

Be sure to measure at school to be sure this is transferring to his everyday life.

Future targets:

Keep a running list of future targets. We have many issues to address and I’m sure others will surface. I would appreciate input from the team as to the order in which we should address these issues. I have starred the ones I feel like are priorities at this time.

*When a person is listening/not listening

When a person is/is not talking too long

*When a person is/is not interested in our conversation

When a person does/does not understand

Sincere vs. joking/sarcastic

Staying on/getting off the topic of the conversation

When it is okay/not okay to switch topics

The correct/incorrect way to switch topics in a conversation

How to let others interject in a conversation

If what you said encouraged/discouraged further conversation

*Thinking out loud/to himself

*Talking fast/slow

*Talking too proper/casual

When another person likes/does not like what you are doing

When you should/should not touch another person

What is appropriate/inappropriate touching

*Proper/improper syntax

repeatedly asking a question

talking too loud

*stimming in the presence of others