Teaching Communication Skills to Children & Adults With Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities

On November 5th & 6th, 1999, in Houston, Tx., I attended a workshop named "Teaching Communication Skills to Children and Adults with Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities", conducted by Vincent Carbone, Ed.D. and Patrick McGreevy, PhD., P.A. There are several communication workshops available from many sources, and I've attended several of them. However, what makes this one stand out is it's training method which, like many others, is based on Applied Behavior Analysis. The difference here is in it's application. I was very impressed with the results shown on video tape.

Four things makes this approach different. First, it usually obtains results quickly. Second, the frequent spontaneous expressive communications helps develop more general communication skills instead of having the student echo the scripted exercises. The spontaneous expressions are often questions or comments that keep the student from developing a scripted response to the actual stimuli. Third, it results in less scripted responses from the student. Fourth, is the frequent conversations between the student and others (peers and/or adults).

I can see how this method provides still another tool that is based on Applied Behavior Analysis. I have attended Lovaas conferences, and have been trained as a Lovaas therapist. The difference in the results that I saw from my limited experience using Lovaas techniques and the results shown in the video presented at this workshop were astonishing. As one of the presenters said, having several approaches to the same problem helps the therapist identify the particular set of activities or techniques that works well with the individual student. The techniques presented here are clearly worthwhile.

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