Best Educational and Behavioral Intervention Practices

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)

ABA has a significant research base, which supports its effectiveness in addressing a wide range of behaviors and skills for students with ASD. There are a range of intervention strategies that fall under the ABA approach, including discrete trial training; verbal behavior training; pivotal response training; structured teaching; visual schedules; incidental teaching; video modeling; and Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS).  Research supports the positive gains from these approaches and models in various areas such as social skills, communication, and Measured IQ.

Discrete Trial Training (DTT)

Discrete trial training is a well established intervention and has been shown by peer-reviewed research to be effective for teaching a variety of skills to children with ASD such as cognitive, language, adaptive and social skills. It usually needs to be combined, however, with other teaching methods to ensure that students with ASD transfer skills from the teaching situation to everyday environments.

Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)

A number of studies show increased communication skills after two years of PECS usage.  Many other research studies have reported a reduction in behavioral problems, and increased social-communicative skills as a result of PECS training in children with ASD.

Functional Communication Training (FCT)

There is strong evidence to support the efficacy of FCT in children with ASD which replaces the child’s challenging behavior and inappropriate communicative forms with socially acceptable and functional behavior by reinforcement of appropriate forms and ignoring inappropriate forms. FCT targets speech intervention and expressive and receptive language directly by teaching, encouraging, modeling, acknowledging and reinforcing appropriate communicative responses. FCT also encourages pragmatic skills such as eye contact and joint attention.
Visual strategies & visually cued instruction

Research studies show that, while not a program in itself, the use of visual strategies as part of communication and behavior programs may be of benefit.  Visual strategies also play a major role in several programs for children with ASD including TEACCH and PECS programs.

Video Modeling

A review of the research on video modeling for children with ASD show positive results in teaching social and functional life skills, communication, cognitive, and behavioral skills.  It has been used to teach skills such as greeting; naming or labeling; independent play; cooperative and social play; self-help skills; responding to questions and asking questions; and participating in a back and forth conversational exchange around a specified topic.

Assistive Technology

Research shows that assistive technology has positive outcomes for children with ASD enhancing receptive and expressive language and empowering the child over the environment. It improves comprehension, helps with organization, sequential memory and time concepts, and helps children transition from nonverbal to verbal systems.

Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication handicapped Children (TEACCH)

Preliminary studies show the effectiveness of TEACCH but this conclusion awaits reproducible evidence. Many research studies show TEACCH as a promising practice facilitating independence, social interaction and self-organization by emphasizing strengths and assets and treating deficits.

Social Stories

Some research studies have been conducted on social stories and their efficacy in the treatment of the communicative (receptive language), disruptive behaviors, and social skill deficits in children with ASD.  A social story enhances the behavior as being designed to teach children with ASD how to manage their own behavior during a given social situation by describing where the activity will take place, when it will occur, what will happen, who is participating, and why the student should behave in a particular manner.