Autism consists of a serious developmental problem with varying symptoms and degrees of severity that generally is detected in early childhood, according to MayoClinic.com. The disorder affects a child's ability to socialize and communicate with others. The National Institute of Mental Health indicates that treatment for children with autism generally works best if individualized to the needs of the child. Further, early intervention, which includes a specialized behavioral program with an autistic child, remains paramount to improving long-term outcomes.
Reinforcement
Providing positive reinforcement to autistic children may prove effective in encouraging desirable behavior. Rita Wicks-Nelson of the West Virginia Institute of Technology and Allen Israel of the University of Albany indicate in "Behavior Disorders of Childhood" that contingent reinforcement has long been used with autistic children. Positive reinforcement, according to Alan Kazdin of Yale University, consists of positive reinforcement, such as food, money or a toy, being given after a child acts in a desirable manner. The idea is that the reward increases the probability that the child will behave in a similar manner in the future. Further, the reward must remain contingent upon the child showing a desired behavior; the child cannot attain the reward in any other manner.
Prompts
These may take the form of an instruction, cues, gestures or examples and, according to Kazdin, serve to directly affect that a child will perform a certain behavior. Kazdin writes that prompts may be an effective means to initiate a behavior that may not occur on its own through showing a child "what to do, how to do it and when to do it." Coupling positive reinforcement with prompts increases the effectiveness of this behavior strategy. That is, if the prompt results in a child exhibiting a certain behavior, providing reinforcement further increases the probability that the child will show the behavior again in the future.
Shaping/Modeling
Reinforcement of behavior cannot be effective if the autistic child doesn't know how to perform a behavior in the first place. Kazdin writes that shaping and modeling can help children learn how to perform complex behaviors through showing them how to do it and reinforcing the child when they attempt to approximate the behavior. Modeling refers to a child watching another individual engaging in a behavior, such as making a bed. As the autistic child performs the steps involved in making the bed, he is provided with reinforcement for each successful step completed versus only receiving reinforcement for the finished product. Eventually, through successive approximations and reinforcement, the child may learn to complete a complex set of instructions.
Functional Communication Training
This form of behavior strategy for children with autism, Wicks-Nelson and Israel write, assumes that challenging behavior consists of an attempt to communicate a need. Therefore, the approach of functional communication training is to replace the problem behavior with a more effective and adaptive means to communicate. The first step of the process consists of a functional analysis--which, according to Wicks-Nelson and Israel, works to determine what influences the problem behavior in particular circumstances. The authors provide an example of a child who bites and screams when faced with a difficult school task. To replace the biting and screaming, the child was taught to ask for help when faced with a difficult task, thereby discontinuing the problem behavior.
Pivotal Response Training
Wicks-Nelson and Israel describe this behavior strategy as focusing on improving behaviors deemed of great importance in the hope that improvements in other behavior will occur from this. Children with autism often have a multitude of problem behavior; therefore, pivotal response training may efficiently affect a wide variety of behaviors in a shorter time versus focusing on each behavior individually. Procedures involved in this training, according to Wicks-Nelson and Israel, include increasing a child's motivation to respond to the environment by providing choices of varied tasks and liberal use of reinforcement; teaching a child how to respond to multiple things that life may throw at him; self-regulation skills; and how to start certain behaviors.
References
- "Behavior Disorders of Childhood, Fifth Edition" Rita Wicks-Nelson, Ph.D. and Allen C. Israel, Ph.D.; 2003
- "Behavioral Modification in Applied Settings, Sixth Edition"; Alan E. Kazdin, Ph.D.; 2001
- MayoClinic.com: Autism
- National Institute of Mental Health: Treatment Options
