General Information on Autism

Behavioral Instructional Strategies

With the growing incidence of autism, it is imperative to know how to best provide appropriate educational services. The most effective educational strategies are behavioral interventions. Three of the applied behavioral analysis strategies that are recommended and used by the PSU team are:

• Discrete trial training
  
• Pivotal response training
  
• Teaching functional routines

The PSU Autism Training and Research Center will contract with school districts in Oregon and southwest Washington to provide:

Workshops on behavioral instructional strategies and curriculum

The center will provide extensive training to your staff through one or more workshops that help build the knowledge foundation needed to implement the research-based curriculum strategies. These workshops have been consistently rated as "outstanding" by participants. Workshops include PowerPoint lectures, video examples, modeling, and hands-on practice in the following:

Instructional strategies training

• Discrete trial training
• Pivotal response training
• Teaching functional routines

Training with the STAR program in the curriculum areas

• Expressive language
• Receptive language
• Functional routines
• Academics
• Spontaneous language
• Play and social interaction

Training with the FACTER Program Functional assessment

• Pre-routine teaching
• During-routine teaching
• Focusing on independence

Model classroom development and implementation

The center will help you establish the model program for children with autism. We provide:

• Individual programming for students
  
• Hands-on training for teachers and instructional assistants
  
• Assistance in program development and classroom design for both self-contained and inclusion settings
  
• Behavioral instructional strategies
  
• Ongoing support and follow-up to staff and students

Training of district autism trainer

The center will train a district or regional specialist (e.g. autism specialist, speech pathologist, psychologist) to:

• Implement research-based behavioral program models
  
• Use advanced behavioral techniques
  
• Train others in instructional strategies and classroom setup
  
• Provide ongoing support

Consultation services

In addition, the center will offer graduate and undergraduate courses taught on campus, online, or in your district that lead to a PSU certificate of completion.