1. The Basics of Autism
Spectrum Disorders
Training Series
Regional Autism Advisory Council of
Southwest Ohio (RAAC-SWO)
RAAC Training Committee 2011

2. Training Series Modules
 Module One: Autism Defined, Autism Prevalence
and Primary Characteristics
 Module Two: Physical Characteristics of Autism
 Module Three: Cognition and Learning in Autism
 Module Four: Getting the Student Ready to Learn
 Module Five: Structuring the Classroom
Environment
 Module Six: Using Reinforcement in the Classroom

3. Training Series Modules
 Module Seven: Autism and Sensory Differences
 Module Eight: Sensory in the Classroom
 Module Nine: Communication and Autism
 Module Ten: Communication in the Classroom
 Module Eleven: Behavior Challenges and Autism
 Module Twelve: Understanding Behavior in
Students with Autism

4. Training Series Modules
 Module Thirteen: Social Skills in the School
Environment
 Module Fourteen: Functional Behavior
Assessment
 Module Fifteen: Working Together as a Team
 Module Sixteen: Autism and Leisure Skills to
Teach
 Module Seventeen: Special Issues of Adolescence
 Module Eighteen: Safety and Autism
 Module Nineteen: Special Issues: High School,
Transition, and Job Readiness

5. Training Modules Series
 Module Twenty: Asperger Syndrome: Managing and
Organizing the Environment
 Module Twenty-One: Asperger Syndrome:
Addressing Social Skills

6. Big Idea
We must be like a
detective in order to
find out the reason for a
behavior and follow the
clues.

7. Remember…..
 Behaviors are a way of coping with what is happening
around us.
 Behaviors are learned through trial and error.
 Behaviors that are reinforced are likely to continue.
 If a behavior continues to occur or it is increasing, it is
being reinforced in some way.
 To change the student’s behavior, we must change what
we are doing.

8. Functional Behavior
Assessment
A Functional Behavior Assessment
(FBA) will help you to discover the
reasons behind a behavior. You can
then decide on a plan for how to
change it.

9. Functional Behavior
Assessment
The ABC of Behavior
A B C
Antecedent: What happens before the behavior?
Behavior: What is the behavior?
Consequence: What happens after the behavior occurs?

10. Functional Behavior Assessment:
Finding the Reason for the Behavior
 Medical (physical pain or discomfort)
 Attention (verbal or physical)
 Escape (getting away from something that
I do not want to do or from a place that I do
not want to be in)
 Tangible (getting something that I want)
 Automatic (something my body seeks, such
as something sensory i.e. rocking)

11. Medical Strategies
 If this is a new behavior, check out medical reasons
first.
 Keep track of medical symptoms (when and what).
 Go to the doctor or dentist..

12. Strategies for Attention
Behaviors
 Teach the student better ways to get attention.
 Focus on the behavior that you want to see more
of – and ignore the behavior that you want to
change.
 Avoid using negative words (“don’t, “no”).
 Use positive words about the behavior that you
want them to do instead (“do”……).
 Use a neutral tone. Show no over-reaction, either
words or facial expressions, to the behavior that
you want them to change.

13. Strategies for Escape
Behaviors
 Mix up activities that they like to do with the ones that are
harder for them or the ones that they are not interested in
doing.
 Have a beginning and end to the activity (i.e. your chore is
done when you pick up all the markers from the table).
 Sometimes it helps to break a task down into smaller steps,
doing one at a time.
 Make sure that you “reinforce” when the task is completed.
This might have to happen after each small step along the
way is finished. (i.e. drinking glasses put away, reinforce
with praise, plates put away, reinforce with praise, spoons
put away, reinforce with praise, pots put away, break, etc.)

14. Strategies for Tangible
Behaviors
 If waiting is difficult then you may have to teach the
student how to wait. At first, you may have to use a
lot of reinforcement after just a second or two of
their waiting and then slowly work to extend the
amount of time they can wait.
 Consider using an audible or a visual timer, like a
cooking timer, when teaching “wait”.

15. Strategies for Tangible
Behaviors
 Teach “first and then” (i.e. first you pick up your
clothes from the floor, then you take a television
break). A visual schedule can help here.
 Remember to use a neutral tone when you are
redirecting or giving them another behavior to be
used.

16. More Escape Behavior
Strategies
 Keep things moving on a schedule. Too much time
doing any one thing might cause a problem behavior.
 Start with something that the student does well and
then move to something that is either less
preferred or difficult for them.
 Think about the skills needed, sensory problems or
importance of the activity that the student is being
asked to do.
 When they complete an activity they do not like to
do, remember to use positive reinforcement.

17. Strategies for Automatic
Behavior
Automatic Behavior is usually something that the body seeks,
such as something sensory
(i.e. rocking)
 Replace with an activity that provides a similar experience
(i.e. using a hand fan instead of finger flicking).
 Find a time and place that the behavior is okay to do (i.e.
sitting in a rocking chair when watching TV).
 Limit “down time” by keeping the schedule moving.

18. Big Idea
Changing something that we are
doing is often easier or better
than trying to change
something the other person is
doing.