Keynote Presentation

Presented by Dr. Mark Sundberg

Presentation Summary:

Day 1: Topic 1

 How to set up a Classroom or In-Home Program for Children with Autism

There are many components of setting up and implementing an intervention program for a child with autism or other types of developmental disabilities.  This workshop will present the mechanics of running a successful ABA/VB intervention program. Participants will be provided with data sheets, language lists, daily schedules, staff skills list, monitoring forms, tracking forms, binder design recommendations, and many additional materials for running a classroom or in-home intervention program. All participants will receive the first beta version of the new book by Sundberg and Roden tentatively titled “How to set up a classroom or in-home program for children with autism.”

The workshop will cover:

• Activities and data sheets for tracking the use of words through the different verbal skills
• Tracking generalization and maintenance
• Activities and data sheets for incorporating language into everyday activities
• Activities and data sheets for play and social skills
• Data sheets for measuring readiness for transition to less restrictive settings
• Binder content recommendations
• Recommended daily schedules
• Classroom and in-home structure
• Staff training and staff meetings
• Parent training and support
• Staff monitoring systems and forms
• Vocabulary lists

Day 2: Topic 1

How to reduce or remove barriers that impede a child’s language and social development

Children with autism often face many challenges when it comes to learning new skills.  Some may be dependent on prompts, have difficulty generalizing the skills they have learned, seem unmotivated, or emit scrolling (guessing) responses. They may also exhibit other behavioral and instructional control problems. These behaviors can often be overcome if they are identified early, and appropriate steps are taken to ameliorate them. The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment is a tool that is designed to identify and score 24 different learning and language acquisition barriers that might affect an individual child. Participants will learn how to analyze these various problems, as well as learn a variety of intervention strategies that can reduce or remove the various barriers. All participants will receive a beta version of the new book by Mark Sundberg tentatively titled “How to analyze and ameliorate barriers that impede a child’s language and social development.”

This workshop will cover:

• How to identify a learning and language barrier using the VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
• How to use a descriptive and functional analysis to determine the cause of these language and social barriers
• How to implement an intervention program to reduce or eliminate the barrier
• Strategies for preventing the development of barriers
• How to measure progress

Day 2: Topic 2

Why Children With Autism Often Have Difficulty Acquiring an Intraverbal Repertoire and What to do About it

Many children with autism acquire an extensive vocabulary of mands, tacts, and listener skills, but have difficulty answering WH questions or engaging in meaningful conversational behavior (intraverbal skills). Sometimes the intraverbal behavior they do have may be rote, scripted, or irrelevant to the conversational context. This workshop will present several examples of intraverbal problems experienced by children with autism along with an analysis of why these problems are occurring and suggestions for possible intervention programs. It will be also be pointed out that intraverbal development in typically developing children can serve as a guide for sequencing an intraverbal assessment and intervention program for children with intraverbal delays.

This workshop will cover:

• How to assess a child’s intraverbal skills using the VB-MAPP intraverbal subtest
• How to determine the cause of a child’s weak intraverbal skills
• How to design and implement and intervention program
• Activities to encourage intraverbal and social skills for functional use and generalization
• How to measure intraverbal development

Additional Speakers' Agendas Coming Soon!