Debra Leach

When students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) engage in challenging behavior, how can teachers best respond? This practical guidebook shows you how to address ten of the most common classroom behavior challenges—from following directions to handling transitions—with skill, insight, and compassion. You’ll start with an in-depth overview of the characteristics your students with ASD may have, plus foundational guidance on using functional behavior assessment (FBA) and multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) to address challenging behaviors. Then, for each of the ten behaviors, you’ll get a dedicated chapter on how to• Understand your students. Learn more about the academic, social, cognitive, and physical challenges that may contribute to each behavior.• Assess their behavior. You’ll get an easy-to-use FBA checklist for assessing the function of each specific challenging behavior, along with classroom examples and helpful tips for accurately assessing items on the checklists. • Support positive behavior. You’ll discover how to use research-based strategies to help students develop more adaptive behaviors. Vignettes and sample intervention plans show you how to translate assessment into effective supports tailored to each student’s needs. A must for all teachers of students in Grades K–12, this reader-friendly guide will help you support students with ASD, resolve or reduce behavior challenges, and strengthen academic and social-emotional outcomes for every learner.

Applied behaviour analysis (ABA) is one of the most effective interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders and other disabilities. Now you can bring ABA best practices into any early childhood setting with this book—your complete guide to using ABA within everyday routines to support children’s learning, participation, and development. Ideal for use with children birth to five, this practical, reader-friendly guidebook is the first to combine ABA with natural environment intervention, the widely used, research-supported approach to meeting the needs of children with disabilities. You’ll learn the fundamental principles and research behind ABA and natural environment intervention, and you’ll get one clear and practical framework for conducting effective assessment of behaviour, skills, routines, and caregiver prioritiessetting meaningful goals that increase the child’s active participation in routinesaddressing the goals with tailored ABA teaching procedurescreating powerful intervention plans that support children in specific developmental domains and routinesselecting an appropriate data collection methodmonitoring progress toward goals and making adjustments as neededensuring consistent implementation of ABA interventionscoaching other professionals and caregivers in the ABA approach. To get you started with ABA, the book gives you 25 sample teaching plans that strengthen communication, social interaction, positive behaviour, independent play and daily living skills, cognitive skills, and participation in everyday routines. Vivid, realistic case studies of diverse children walk you through the ABA process from start to finish. And with the blank forms and data sheets, you’ll easily assess children’s skills and participation and monitor their progress toward goals. With this comprehensive guide to a proven intervention approach, you’ll help young children with ASD and other disabilities make lasting improvements and participate fully at home, at school, and in their community.

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is a highly effective, rigorously researched intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders--but most teachers don't get the training they need to put it to work in their inclusive classroom. That's why every K-12 educator needs this practical guidebook, packed with teaching plans and plain-English guidance on using ABA to improve outcomes for students with autism and behavior challenges. Teachers will start with a systematic, start-to-finish guide that demystifies the entire ABA process, from assessment and goal setting to data collection and analysis. Then they'll get fifty sample teaching plans that clearly demonstrate how to use ABA to support students across social, communication, behavioral, academic, and independent functioning domains. Ready to adapt to the needs of individual students, these concise sample plans give teachers specific ideas for helping children develop critical skills such as: participating in cooperative learning activities with peers; transitioning from class to class independently; responding positively to peer initiations; using simple sentences to make requests; raising their hand to answer a question; waiting for a turn during structured activities; protesting appropriately using a calm voice and positive language; communicating needs using augmentative communication; staying in line and remaining quiet; using the restroom without adult support. Using concrete examples every teacher can relate to, the teaching plans show how to get results using a combination of effective ABA strategies, such as explicit instruction, positive reinforcement, prompting and fading procedures, video modeling, peer-mediated interventions, social stories, and self-monitoring tools. Teachers will also get helpful guidance on developing their own ABA teaching plans to resolve their students' classroom challenges. With this much-needed blueprint for ""quick and painless"" ABA, teachers will have research-proven strategies for effectively meeting the needs of children with autism spectrum disorders--and ensuring the best possible learning environment for all their students.