Chaos to Cooperation: Creating an Enjoyable and Productive Learning Environment for EVERY Child 

Most parents would say that there are too many things to do and not enough hours in the day to do them. For a parent of a child with autism, this struggle may be compounded by dealing with the effects of the disorder, harried therapy schedules, and the necessity to carry over instructional techniques into the home. The latter is especially important since parental participation in implementing intervention plans is considered essential to achieve generalization and maintenance of skills. Creating a schedule that will allow for life in general, as well as for opportunities to practice functional communication, socialization, and independence, is a must.

The presenter will demonstrate through video how identifying robust reinforcers, carefully distributing a variety of essential activities throughout the day, and implementing research-based teaching procedures can help to establish and maintain an enjoyable and productive learning environment in the home. At the end of this training, participants including caregivers, teachers, therapists, supervisors, behavior analysts, etc., will be able to:

• Identify the core deficits identified by the DSM-5 that define the autism diagnosis.
• Explain how poor programming choices can impact behavior and learning.
• Define Motivating Operation (MO) and explain its importance in assessing and treating problem behavior.
• List three methods that can be used to assess a child’s positive reinforcers.
• Explain how positive reinforcers can be used as contingent rewards.
• Describe how a child’s existing likes and interests can be used to pair teachers, teaching materials, teaching environments, and peers with reinforcement.
• Identify components of an effective schedule.
• Develop an individualized schedule that maximizes learning opportunities and minimizes problem behavior.
• Identify teaching procedures that have been demonstrated to be effective in increasing cooperation and decreasing problem behavior.
• Identify controlling variables that may be responsible for maintaining problem behavior.
• Identify three reinforcement-based interventions that can assist with the reduction of problem behavior.