Books

Teaching Children with Autism: Strategies for Initiating Positive Interactions and Improving Learning Opportunities.
By Robert L. Koegel and Lynn Kern Koegel (July 1995)

(From the back cover) This positive, research-based text dispels the stereotypes surrounding autism by providing accurate information on how much children with this complex disorder can learn. Extensively references and comprehensive, this resource discusses the behavioral characteristics of autism, available intervention methods, and key topics such as spontaneous language, overselectivity, social communication, and self-management.

Detailed chapters also examine the goals of intervention, suggest concrete ways to support families, and offer a wealth of strategies that

• focus on long-term gains and short-term problem solving
• contribute to developing a meaningful, functional curriculum
• promote the independence of the child with autism
• include families as valued participants in planning and implementation

Engagingly illustrated and highly readable, Teaching Children with Autism will assist parents and professionals in education, social work, speech-language pathology, psychology, and related fields, preparing them to support children with autism as active participants in their schools and communities.

Teaching Language to Children with Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities
By Mark L. Sundberg, Ph.D. and James W. Partington, Ph.D.

This manual, paired with the authors' Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills (available from the same link as the book, above) this manual forms a rather comprehensive package for running a verbal-behavior based intervention program. The assessment covers 26 behavioral domains, and the text describes in detail how to teach the core of the verbal behavior program: verbal operants, like mands (requests), tacts (labels), intraverbals (conversation), etc.

A Work in Progress: Behavior Management Strategies and a Curriculum for Intensive Behavioral Treatment of Autism.
By Ron Leaf and John McEachin (May 1999)

Behavioral Intervention for Young Children with Autism: A Manual for Parents and Professionals.
By Catherine Maurice, Gina Green, and Stephen C. Luce (December 1996)

Next to Lovaas's Me Book, this is probably the most known text in ABA interventions for children with autism, it is another standard in the field of behavior-based instruction.

Making a Difference: Behavioral Intervention for Autism
By Catherine Maurice, Gina Green, and Richard Fox (May 2001)

Teaching Developmentally Disabled Children: The Me Book
By O. Ivaar Lovaas

Lovaas's book is rather dated, and advocates physical punishment, which may (rightly so in my opinion) send shivers up the spines of many readers. However, when many say that they are "doing" ABA, this is the process and curriculum they're talking about. Elements of Lovaas's model are now common to many behavior-based interventions, but, if for nothing else than historical perspective, you might want to have looked through this text at least once.

Verbal Behavior
By B.F. Skinner (December 1991)

E-mail Discussion Lists

AutismABA@yahoogroups.com

Description from the discussion group's web page: The Autism and ABA list is an open forum for discussing anything related to autism. Much of our discussion centers around Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), including specializations of ABA, such as Applied Verbal Behavior (AVB) and Natural Environment Training (NET). However, any and every topic related to autism is welcome! We're a quiet list, but we have a healthy mix of parents, professionals, and others involved with autism in some way. Welcome!

My two cents: This list and the Verbal Behavior list below are both owned by Ms. Christina Burk, M.A. who is one of my favorite contributors to a number of autism discussion lists. I always read, and almost always save for my files, her contributions. I highly recommend joining the lists that she frequents.

VerbalBehavior@yahoogroups.com

(Description from the discussion group's web page) The focus of this list is Applied Verbal Behavior (AVB), a specialty within the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). AVB is based upon B.F. Skinner's 1957 analysis of verbal behavior, which looks at the functions of the different verbal operants (units of language).

AVB addresses difficulties in the development of communication seen in most individuals with autism and other related disabilities, in part by emphasizing functional language and tying it to motivational variables. Applied Verbal Behavior has yielded dramatic outcomes for many students and has recently been popularized through the successes of certain professionals, notably Drs. Sundberg, Partington, Carbone, McGreevy, Michael, et al.

Members of this list post and answer questions pertaining to teaching with VB. Responses are checked before approval to ensure a high quality of information. Welcome!

My two cents: Again, this is a Christina Burk list and, as such, I highly recommend it.

DTT-NET@yahoogroups.com

(Description from the discussion group's web page) One of the most complex tasks both parents and professionals face is developing and implementing an effective language intervention for children with autism. Parents and professionals are finding that BOTH Discrete Trial Training (DTT) and Natural Environment Training (NET), together with the help of Skinner's (1957) Functional Analysis of Verbal Behavior to be very effective for children with autism. And let me say, ALL THE ABOVE are components of ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis). This list group was designed to discuss how all of these components of ABA work together. It is a place where parents and professionals running home (and school) programs can discuss concerns and share their knowledge of this type of teaching. Other issues relating to autism will not be addressed on this list. (DTT-NET is not a methodology within itself. DTT-NET is an acronym used to describe this listgroup.) Rhonda Miga, founding member. As of Jan 2001, this list is owned and moderated by Jennifer Godwin, ABAqueen1@cs.com Please contact her with any questions.

The ME-List

(Description from the discussion group's web page) The ME-LIST is an email list centered around discussion of issues related to provision of high-quality, intensive, discrete-trial-based intervention for children with autism.