Evidence-Based Practices for Teaching Autism

From the National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders:

• Evidence-Based Practices: rating out of total of 18 criterion, and area of strengths:

Self Management: 18 Academics/Cognition, Behavior, Communication, Social, Play, Transition: fade support, teaching student to manage their own behavior
Visual Supports: 18 Academics/Cognition, Behavior, Communication, Social, Play, Transition: anything that the student can see that will support them: pictures, words, objects, schedules, timelines, lists, maps, labels, scripts, arrangement of environment, boundaries

Pivotal Response Training: 15 Academics/Cognition, Behavior, Communication, Social, Play: targeted ABA, focus on motivation, responding to multiple cues, self-management, self-initiation, allows learner to more easily generalize what they are learning
Social Narratives: 15 Academics/Cognition, Behavior, Communication, Social, Play: teaching social skills or appropriate behaviors through a script, practicing responses to social cues

Task Analysis: 12 Academics/Cognition, Behavior, Communication, Social: breaking a task down into smaller steps as the student learns one step at a time
Video Modeling: 12 Academics/Cognition, Communication, Social, Play: giving the student a more realistic example of what a targeted skill, appropriate response, or situation looks like

Discrete Trial Training: 10 Academics/Cognition, Behavior, Communication, Social, Play: teaching a skill with a beginning and end of steps, using antecedent, consequence, and rewards
Differential Reinforcement: 9 Behavior, Communication, Social: increase positive and decrease negative behavior through rewards
Picture Exchange Communication System: 9 Behavior, Communication, Social
Prompting: 9 Academics/Cognition, Behavior, Communication
Reinforcement: 9 Academics/Cognition, Behavior, Communication
Structured Work Systems: 9 Academics/Cognition, Play, Transition: Division TEACCH, uses visual support to decrase teacher support and increase independent functioning

Antecedent Based Intervention: 6 Academics/Cognition, Behavior
Functional Behavioral Assessment: 6 Behavior, Communication
Naturalistic Intervention: 6 Communication
Response Interruption and Redirecting: 6 Academics/Cognition, Behavior
Social Skills Groups: 6 Communication, Social

Functional Communication Training: 4 Behavior, Communication
Time Delay: 4 Academics/Cognition, Communication, Social, Play
Computer Assisted Instruction: 3 Academics/Cognition
Extinction: 3 Behavior
Speech Generating Devices (VOCA): 3 Communication