Behavior Analysis Intervention for Austic Children

Introduction

If we look at the anatomical parts of the brain, we can notice differences in autistic children’s brain. According to Just, Cherkassky, Keller, Kana, and Minshew (2007), when autistic group was compared to control group, the functional connectivity was lower for the autistic participants between frontal and parietal areas, relevant parts of corpus callosum were smaller in cross sectional area and the size of the genu of the corpus callosum was associated with the functional connectivity of frontal-parietal. Applied Behavioral Analysis is one of the most widely used interventions working with children that have autism. ABA intervention is bases of the behavioral therapy that was introduced by B.F.Skinner, a spokesperson for behavior, who had a high interest in the concept of reinforcement. Behavior therapy is used for treating many psychological disorders among various patients. Therapists that utilize behavior therapy approach concentrate on observable behavior, learn present causes of the behavior, study what promotes change, match treatment strategies, assess and evaluate clients (Corey, 2005). Agencies that apply ABA intervention are implementing socially appropriate behaviors as well as teaching communication skills, provide services at children’s home. ABA based interventions are evidence based and are supported by research, have discrete trial training, shaping, pivotal response teaching, applied verbal behavior, and backward and forward chaining teaching methods. Speech therapy, which is based on teaching communication by using clear vocalized sounds of speech, is another intervention for children that have language deficits and is utilized mostly in elementary schools and sometimes, at homes also. Southwest A...

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...In Aldred, Green, and Adams (2004) study, the results showed that the cases that were studied, all were able to met complete Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADI) for classical autism criteria. Fortunately, there were no identified treatment dropouts after starting of the treatment when treatment and control groups had similar routine care during the study. Moreover, “the active treatment group showed significant improvement compared with controls on the primary outcome measure - Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) total score, particularly in reciprocal social interaction - and on secondary measures of expressive language, communicative initiation and parent-child interaction.” “ Suggestive but non-significant results were found in Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (Communication Subdomain) and ADOS stereotyped and restricted behavior domain” (2004, p.1420).