Building Your Future Intensive Training
Foundations in Autism Spectrum Disorders &
Evidence-Based Practices

• Morning:
– Orientation to the START Project and BYF
Intensive Training
– Foundations in ASD
• Afternoon:
– Meeting Mechanics

Michigan Students with an ASD Eligibility
20000
18000
16000
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
17,986
4000
2000
1,208
0
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

START Primary Components

START Early Childhood Intensive Training
START K-12 Intensive Training
START Building Your Future Training

START Intensive Training Goals
• Acquire content knowledge
• Apply content knowledge
• Develop teaming and collaborating skills
• Develop systems to assure implementation

Systems Change
• Big change only happens when we change whole systems

Common principles/practices for supporting students with ASD
• Positive behavioral interventions & supports
• Integration of students and peer supports
•
•
•
•
Team approach for planning, development, and implementation
Training and coaching to support implementation
Assessment and planning for program improvement
Networking and sharing across districts and counties

Independence & Socialization
Team Process and
Problem Solving
Universal Supports


Socialization Skills

Independent Skills

Employment

START Primary Components

Student and Family
School Building Coaches & Teams
Intermediate & Local School District Trainer/Coaches
SMART
West
MAC
NAN
Lake side
UPAN
LEAN
CAN4
GCA
Great
Lakes
CMAC
MAC
CRAN Thumb
Kent
CAN
OCAN Wayne SMAC
WIN4
Autism
Regional Collaborative Networks (RCNs)
START/ Autism Education Center at GVSU

START Primary Components

•
Annual START Conference, Leadership
Meetings, Summer Institute
•
START Website http://www.gvsu.edu/autismcenter/transition-312.htm
•
Products and Materials developed by START partners (i.e. RCN)

START Conference 2016
May 2, 2016 @ Kellogg Center, East Lansing
3 KEYNOTES PRESENTERS:
Stephen Shore
Dan Habib
Alyson Beytein

START Primary Components

Resources for Evidence-Based
Practices for Students with ASD
• National Autism Center: National Standards Project
( http://www.nationalautismcenter.org
)
• NPDC: ( http://autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/ )
• OCALI: AIM (Autism Internet Modules)
( http://www.autisminternetmodules.org
)
Evidence-Based

A list of intervention strategies is not enough; interventionists need to identify needs, develop plans to address needs, and match needs to instructional strategies (Strain, Schwartz & Barton,
2011)

Evidence-Based Practice
• NOT just about interventions found to have strong research support (Cook et al., 2009)
• Decision making process that informs all professional decisions (Sakett et al., 2000)
• Professional wisdom is part of selecting, adapting, monitoring, and implementing EBP
(Cook et al., 2008)
• Family and individual input is critical (Strain et al., 2012)

Why Use Evidence-Based Practices
• Improved Student Outcome
• Legally Defensible
• Efficient use of Time and Money

A START Partner for Life!?
We are committed to supporting our training sites for the duration of our grant funding through Regional
Collaborative Networks and Coaches with a goal of improving outcomes for all students with ASD.

START Building Your Future:
Secondary Transition
Intensive Training

Michigan Students with an ASD Eligibility
20000
18000
16000
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
17,986
4000
2000
1,208
0
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Number of Michigan Students with ASD by Age
* Based on 2013 MDE, OSE Eligibility Count
1600
1400
1200
961
1149
1225
1330
1300
1394
1303
1210
1160
1077
1015
1000
809
800
636
600
453
400
255
200
61
0
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
575
352
289
223
177 186
145
115
15
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
Age

Post-Secondary Outcomes
• Access to Higher Education
• Employment
• Independent Living
• Social Opportunities

Engagement in education, employment, or training after leaving school
Other health impairment
Learning disability
Speech / language impairment
Hearing impairment
Emotional disturbance
Traumatic brain injury
Visual impairment
Orthopedic impairment
Mental impairment
Multiple disabilities
Autism
0
NLTS2, 2009
20 40 60
Percentage
80 100 120

ASD and Employment
Reference
ARC-FINDS
Survey
Statistic
85% unemployment, intellectual and developmental disabilities
Autism Society of
America
83% unemployment, ASD
Autism Speaks 85% unempolyment, ASD
68% unemployment, any disability

Changing Trends

Michigan Response
• Michigan ASD State Plan http://www.michigan.gov/autism
• Michigan Autism Council:
Transition and Adult Services Committee
• Outcomes:
– Integration and inclusion within the preferred community
– Maximum independence achieved through policy and practice that promotes self-advocacy, self-determination, and selfmanagement
– Employment, education, housing, health care, and family meets the wants and needs of the individual

START’s Response
Regional
Collaborative
Networks:
PST Goal
Resource
Development
START
Building Your
Future (BYF)
Projects
Intensive
Training
(IT)

Purpose of the BYF IT
• Increase Knowledge of ASD & Implementation of Effective Transition Practices
• Increase Collaborative Teaming Practices
• Improve Transition Outcomes for Individuals with ASD:
– Access to Higher Education
– Employment
– Independent Living
– Community Involvement

Training Curriculum
• Foundations and Meeting Mechanics
• Discovery and Guiding Principles
• Looking at ASD Differently / Adults
• “Stop It” and Other Behavioral Strategies
• Asperger’s
• Natural Supports
• Discovery and IEP
• Systems Change

Getting STARTed:
Plan for your Trip
• Daily Schedule:
– 8:30-3:30
– Lunch provided
– AM & PM Breaks
• Materials:
– Module Materials
– Tool Kit Review
• Activities:
– Content & Discovery Process activities with each module
– Action plan development
– One meeting per team outside of START training

• Table Folders
– Important Information
– Save the Dates
– Sub team lists / email addresses
• Sub-Team Email List Update
– Sign in each session
– Notify START continuity staff with changes
• SCECHs

Training Expectations Activity
• Wait for Team Time to Talk
– Write notes if needed
• Cell Phones on Silent
• CONTRIBUTE
– Everyone has a contribution to make
• OTHERS:
– Sub-Team Expectations
– Large Group Expectations

Introduction to the Tools for the Year
• Complete Release of Information
• Complete Student Information Form
• Picture of Target Student (if not present)
• Complete the Target Student Baseline Form and
Submit

Foundations in
Autism Spectrum Disorders

1994
DSM IV
1 in 2,000
2015
CDC
1 in 68

Foundations of ASD
Autism identified in
1943 by Leo Kanner
Asperger Syndrome identifed in 1944 by
Hans Asperger

Autism’s First Child
In 1943, Donald Triplett of
Forest, Mississippi became the first person to be diagnosed with ASD. His parents chose not only to accept him as he was, but created a hometown environment of love and friendship that refused to allow others to misinterpret or misrepresent him or his
“oddity.”
The Atlantic Monthly

Impairment in
Socialization
Restricted &
Repetitive
Behavior
Impairment in
Communication

Autism Spectrum Disorder
DSM 5 Definition (2013)
Deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts
Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities
*2 core features with 7 criteria can result in 12 combinations that all lead to the same diagnosis of ASD (See DSM V handout)

Autistic
Disorder
DSM IV (1994-2013)
PERVASIVE DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
Asperger PDD-NOS
Rett’s
Disorder
CDD
DSM 5 (May 2013)
Autism Spectrum Disorder


Diagnosticians are good at distinguishing ASD vs. not ASD but lack of consistency regarding autism vs. PDD-NOS vs. Asperger

No consistent research evidence for separation of
Asperger from autism

Diagnostic biases by race and SES

Goals is to be more SENSITIVE (correct inclusion) and more SPECIFIC (correct exclusion)

Cognitive Ability
Social Interest and
Ability
Communication
Interest and Ability
Motor Skills
Sensory
Experiences

Neurbiological disorder that impacts:
• Processing
• Attention and shifting
• Basic social behaviors
• Interaction with the environment
• Learning
Lord, 2010

Processing Differences
An individual with autism is like a
Mac in a PC-dominated environment. It is hard-wired differently. Not incorrectly – just differently.
-- Ellen Notbohm

Social Characteristics

Struggle with nonverbal behaviors in social situations
(e.g., eye gaze, gestures, body language)

Difficulties recognizing and responding to subtle social nuances, cues, and unspoken messages (tone of voice, facial expressions, posture)

Autism is a Social Learning
Disability
• We are wired to read social information into everything
• Social information is protective since it enables us to distinguish positive and negative situations
• We are experts on faces and emotions most of the time

Reciprocity and Emotional
Contagion
• Ever notice that you feel happy around happy people and sad around sad people, or even agitated around anxious people?
• Research shows that if you spend enough time with people, their emotions will actually rub off on you.

Emotional Contagion
Yawning is contagious. A tendency to catch other people's yawns may depend on empathy.
Yawning (Senju et al., 2007; Helt et al, 2010)

What is Perspective Taking?
“ The ability to intuit another person’s thoughts, feelings, and inner mental states is surely among the most impressive of human mental faculties. Adopting another’s perspective requires the ability to represent the self as distinct from others, the development of a theory of mind to realize that others have mental states in the first place…and the explicit recognition that others’ mental states and perceptions could differ from one’s own”
Epley, N., & Caruso, E. M. (2009). Perspective Taking: Misstepping Into Others' Shoes. Handbook of Imagination
and Mental Stimulation (pp. 297-311). New York, NY: Psychology Press, Taylor and Francis Group

What if Theory of Mind is Lacking?
 What I see is what others see.
 What I know is what others know.
 What I feel is what others feel.
 What I believe is what others believe.

Perspective Taking and Theory of Mind
What can you do with it?
• Understand others emotions
• Predict and explain other people’s behavior
• Be compassionate
• Keep a secret
• Tell a lie
• Be sarcastic and understand sarcasm
• Understand inference in communication

Practicing Theory of Mind
• Reciprocity games/activities/exercises
• Learning to predict
• Reading emotions
• Understanding the difference between what is said and what is thought (strategy: comic strip conversations)

Social Thinking
• Social thinking is what we do when we interact with people: we think about them. How we think about people affects how we behave, which affects how others respond to us, which affects our own emotions.
• Most of us have developed our social thinking skills from birth by observing and acquiring social information and learning how to respond to people. However for some individuals, this process does not come naturally.
Garcia-Winner, 2012 www.socialthinking.com

Social Challenges
• Social reciprocity and perspective taking
• Responding to social bids
• Social initiation
• Social repair
• Developing relationships often challenging

Social Characteristics
•
May desire interaction, but lack the social skills needed to initiate and reciprocate appropriately
•
May not desire social interaction
•
Choice vs. Skill deficit

Individuals with delays in language development are at risk for using challenging behaviors as a way to communicate their needs and wants.

Three ASD Communication “Facts”
1.
In ASD expressive language and receptive language are not equal

Three ASD Communication “Facts”
2. If you didn’t write it down you didn’t say it.

Communication
Considerations
• Augment verbal instruction with visuals (write it down).
• Ensure access to an augmentative system at all times (e.g. visual communication system, assistive technology)

Three ASD Communication “Facts”
3. Understanding and communicative expression breaks down under stress
• Even if a student has verbal language, it may be difficult for him to communicate when upset
• A student under stress needs more visual and less verbal input

• Rocking, pacing, motor overactivity
• Perseveration –preferred topics or activities, questions asking, echolalia
• Self-talk
• Social withdrawal/avoidance
• Decreased attention span
• Outbursts

• Changes in schedule, routine
• New people, events, environments
• Unfamiliar task demands
• Immersion in social settings
• Bullying
• Sensory under- or over-stimulation

Restricted and Repetitive
Patterns of Behavior
• Stereotyped, repetitive motor mannerisms
 Hand or finger flapping
 Complex whole body movements
 May be related to anxiety, excitement, or activation

Restricted and Repetitive
Patterns of Behavior
• Adherence to routines and distress at unexpected changes

Restricted and Repetitive
Patterns of Behavior
• Narrow interest or fascination of unusual intensity or focus

There may be challenges on the trip but it’s how you frame it and respond to it, and ultimately, what you expect

Paperwork
• Complete pre-questionnaire
• Target student baseline form
• Discovery form- step 1