“Story-based interventions have been found to be effective with target skills and behaviors, including:”

¨     “Interpersonal skills

¨     Communication skills

¨     Social behavior

¨     Choice and play skills

¨     Understanding emotions

¨     Mealtime skills

¨     Self-regulation

¨     Problem behavior”

Evidence-Based Practice and Autism in the Schools

¨     http://www.nationalautismcenter.org/pdf/NAC%20Ed%20Manual_FINAL.pdf

¨     “Story-based interventions are often used with students who have acquired reading and comprehension skills.  However, if a child has strong listening comprehension skills, you might read the story to her instead of having her read it independently.”

¨     Evidence-Based Practice and Autism in the Schools

¨     http://www.nationalautismcenter.org/pdf/NAC%20Ed%20Manual_FINAL.pdf

“Social Stories and Modeling”

¨     “Modeling is a powerful teaching strategy with children with some form of autism. A social story is a story that depicts some particular social skill being acted out (or modeled).

¨     A good social story will focus on a particular social situation or interaction. A trip to the store, meeting a new person, or going to the school lunchroom with your class - these are all good examples of situations a social story might focus on. The story serves a number of purposes.”

¨     Read more at Suite101

¨     http://www.suite101.com/content/social-stories-for-autistic-kids-a45197

¨     Stories are written and either read or told, Modeling is acted out; however, the difference can sometimes be somewhat blurred. 

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“Story-based interventions have been shown:”

¨     “To be effective for children aged 6-14 years

¨     To produce favorable outcomes for individuals with autism and Aspergers Syndrome”

¨     Evidence-Based Practice and Autism in the Schools

¨     http://www.nationalautismcenter.org/pdf/NAC%20Ed%20Manual_FINAL.pdf

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“When using a story-based intervention, use written descriptions for:”

¨     “The Target Behavior

¨     The situations in which the behavior should occur

¨     The likely outcome of performing the behavior, which often includes a description of another person’s perspective”

Evidence-Based Practice and Autism in the Schools

¨     http://www.nationalautismcenter.org/pdf/NAC%20Ed%20Manual_FINAL.pdf

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Parenting 101: Joint Attention and children with Autism

¨     Joint Attention is parenting 101, a basic skill for parents to develop with children with Autism as well as typically developing children.

¨     Engage with children. 

¨     Show interest in what they are interested in (within appropriate boundaries, i.e. don’t let your kids have pot parties let alone go with them).

¨     Important for all infants, toddlers, and even teens (spouses too).   (Works much better with teens if you’ve been doing it all along.)

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Effectiveness of Training Parents to Teach Joint Attention in Children with Autism

¨     Parents were trained to increase their joint attention bids using behavior analytic techniques to facilitate appropriate responding.

¨     Parents effectively employed joint attention intervention techniques.

¨     As parent joint attention bids increased, children's responses increased.

¨     Children's joint attention initiations also increased, even though they were not direct targets of intervention.

¨     Findings suggest that parent behaviors during and after intervention impact generalization and maintenance of behavior changes.

¨     http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ767169&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ767169

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How to Teach/Develop Joint Attention (for children with autism)

The P.L.A.Y. Project and DIR/Floortime provide great instruction and opportunities for developing joint attention.

¨     There are many ways to teach and help a child develop joint attention.

Joint attention training for children with autism using behavior modification procedures

¨     The following target behaviors were included in the intervention:

¨     1) Responding to showing, pointing, and gaze shifting of adult;

¨     2) Coordinated gaze shifting (i.e., coordinated joint

¨     attention); and

¨     3) Pointing (with the purpose of sharing, not requesting).

http://www.thelearninglane.com/documents/jointattention4.pdf

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Something a little different in looking at Joint Attention

¨     Imagine a great magician. 

¨     How do they do it???

¨     One of the keys to a great magician is the ability to Share Attention; however, part of the trick is to get you to Share Attention where they determine.

¨     This is a form of Joint Attention

Whithout shared, directed, joint attention it would be very difficult for many magicians to perform their magic.

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