…things to think about as I enter the internship setting
Dale Harvey
These guys are awesome!
 Steven and Zack are two amazing little guys
both are affected by autism, and both in
very different ways...
 Steven
is the older of the two boys, and tends to
be more quiet and industrious, while Zack is the
wild child with an amazing imagination and even
bigger heart.
 Their mother is Steven's and her older daughter’s
home school instructor.

In meeting and talking with her over the course of our
study this semester, she has related her joys and
challenges that have come from deciding to home
school her children, and that in working with Steven
over the course of the next school year that I will learn
quite a bit as well.
Teaching Play Skills to Children with Autism
Through Video Modeling:
Small Group Arrangement and Observational Learning
 In video modeling - where a model is provided on video, but there are no
living models in front of the participants during the training sessions. (Grant
& Evans, 1994)
 Video modeling only requires the participants to look at the screen and
model the skills they see on it. Thus, it is a one-way interaction, which may
be beneficial for children with autism as they tend to be visual learners.
The impact of the Advancing Social-Communication And Play
(ASAP) Intervention
on Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder
 Another challenging skill area for children with ASD is play, according to
Casby. (1992)
 Children with ASD exhibit differences in quality and quantity of play when
compared to both typically developing children.
 ASAP intervention had a positive impact on social-communication and play
skills for three preschoolers with ASD. All participants showed either
increases in frequency or more stability in targeted behaviors.
ASAP Continued…
 ASAP intervention
 The ASAP intervention (ASAP; Watson et al., 2009) was developed as part
of an intervention development grant funded by the U.S. Department of
Education Institute of Education Sciences.
 Adapted from the interventions of Kasari and colleagues (2006, 2008),
ASAP is designed to target social-communication and play of children with
ASD in a preschool setting using developmental hierarchies.
 ASAP instructional hierarchy
 Provides 20 sequenced objectives across three categories of social-
communication: social interaction, requesting, and joint attention. There
are 21 sequenced objectives across the four categories of play: exploratory,
relational, functional, and symbolic play.
From the Parents’ point of view…
 With my next article I wanted to look at the situation from the side of the
parents, even to go so far as to take a peek at what kind of stress levels
parents that are dealing with even older children who suffer with autism.
 In the article - Daily stress and cortisol patterns in parents of adult children
with a serious mental illness.
 The goal of the current study was to examine whether parenting an adult
child with a serious mental illness (SMI) has a physiological impact on
parents.
 Method: Multiple samples of saliva were collected on 4 days from 61 parents.
 What they found was that after particularly rough days with their children these
parents show sustain levels of cortisol in their saliva, which was a indicator of
sustain levels of stress.
Play Behaviours and Activities of Siblings of Children
with Developmental Disabilities.
 In the first article we look at
how the siblings play patterns
are affected
 What they found was that the
play patterns were greater and
more varied in the siblings that
had affected brothers and
sisters and that the affected
siblings showed increased
positive play patterns, and
behaviors after increase
positive play and socialization
with their siblings.
Changes in the Administrative Prevalence
of Autism Spectrum Disorders:
Contribution of Special Education and Health from 2002–2008.
 This study examined changes in the administrative prevalence of autism spectrum
disorders (ASD) in Utah children from 2002 to 2008 by record source (school and
health), age (four, six, and eight), and special education classification.
 Prevalence increased 100% with 1 in 77 children aged eight identified with ASD by
2008. Across study years and age groups, rates were higher when health and school
data were combined with a greater proportion of cases ascertained from health.
 The proportion of children with both a health ASD diagnosis and a special education
autism classification did not significantly change. Most children with an ASD health
diagnosis did not have an autism special education classification.
 Findings highlight the growing health and educational impact of ASD.
Making the Connection:
Randomized Controlled Trial of Social Skills at School
for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
 This study compared two interventions for improving the social skills of high functioning
children with autism spectrum disorders in general education classrooms.
 One intervention involved a peer-mediated approach and the other involved a child-
assisted approach. Sixty children participated from 56 classrooms in 30 schools.
 Interventions involved 12 sessions over 6weeks, with a 3-month follow-up.
 Outcome measures included self, peer and teacher reports of social skills and independent
weekly observations of children on their school playground over the course of the
intervention.
 What they found was significant improvements in social network salience, number of
friendship nominations, teacher report of social skills in the classroom, and decreased
isolation on the playground for children who received PEER interventions.
 Changes obtained at the end of the treatment persisted to the 3-month follow-up.
Beyond Time Out and Table Time:
Today's Applied Behavior Analysis for Students with Autism.
 What this article does is provide a bit of training on what applied behavior
analysis means for today's special needs students and how to work with that
in the classroom settings.
 Topics that are touched on and explained in this article are:
 Behavior Analysis
 Evidence Based Practice
 Pervasive Developmental Disorders
 Time Outs
Transition Planning for Students with
Intellectual Disability, Autism, or other Disabilities
 National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 - (a federally funded, national study
of the secondary and post school experiences of students with disabilities).
 What the National Longitudinal Transition Study found was that on a national
level as special needs students try to transition out of the elementary school
system is that although transition planning had been conducted for the majority
of students, few of them took a leadership role in their transition planning.
 Students with autism or intellectual disability were significantly less likely than
students with other disabilities to take a leadership role. The majority of the
active participants in transition planning were school-based personnel, the
research also found limited participation from other agencies/support persons
(e.g. vocational rehabilitation).
Closing….
And Questions That You
May Not Get an Answer to…
?
References
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Barker, E. T., Greenberg, J. S., Seltzer, M. M., & Almeida, D. M. (2012). Daily stress and cortisol patterns in parents of adult
children with a serious mental illness. Health Psychology, 31(1), 130-134.
Boutot, E. A., & Hume, K. (2012). Beyond time out and table time: Todays applied behavior analysis for students with autism.
Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 47(1), 23-38.
Dykstra, J. R., Boyd, B. A., Watson, L. R., Crais, E. R., & Baranek, G. T. (2012). The impact of the advancing socialcommunication and play (ASAP) intervention on preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder. Autism, 16(1), 27-44.
Kasari, C., Rotheram‐Fuller, E., Locke, J., & Gulsrud, A. (2012). Making the connection: Randomized controlled trial of
social skills at school for children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry,
53(4), 431-439.
Ling, C. Y. M., & Mak, W. W. S. (2012). Coping with challenging behaviours of children with autism: Effectiveness of brief
training workshop for frontline staff in special education settings. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 56(3),
258-269.
Ozen, A., Batu, S., & Birkan, B. (2012). Teaching play skills to children with autism through video modeling: Small group
arrangement and observational learning. Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 47(1),
84-96.
Pinborough-Zimmerman, J., Bakian, A. V., Fombonne, E., Bilder, D., Taylor, J., & McMahon, W. M. (2012). Changes in the
administrative prevalence of autism spectrum disorders: Contribution of special education and health from 2002–
2008. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42(4), 521-530.
Shogren, K. A., & Plotner, A. J. (2012). Transition planning for students with intellectual disability, autism, or other
disabilities: Data from the national longitudinal transition study-2. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 50(1), 16-30.
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Tzanakaki, P., Grindle, C., Hastings, R. P., Hughes, J. C., Kovshoff, H., & Remington, B. (2012). How and why do parents c
hoose early intensive behavioral intervention for their young child with autism. Education and Training in Autism
and Developmental Disabilities, 47(1), 58-71.
Venkatesan, S., & Ravindran, N. (2012). Play behaviours and activities of siblings of children with developmental disabilities.
Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 38(1), 74-83.