The National Professional
Development A tism
De elopment Center on Autism
Spectrum Disorders: Promoting g
Early Identification of ASD
Tuchman-Ginsberg, L (March 5, 2009). The National Professional Development
Center on ASD. Salt Lake City, UT: Act Early Summit.
Cooperative Agreement H 35G 070004
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs
What is the National Professional
Development Center on ASD and
how can it help promote optimal
outcomes for children and
adolescents with ASD and their
families?
p
National Professional Development
Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders
A multi-university
center to promote
evidence-
use of evidence
based practice for
children and
adolescents with
autism spectrum
disorders
Cooperative Agreement H 35G 070004
U.S. Department of Education
Office of Special Education Programs
National Professional Development Center
on Autism Spectrum Disorders: Sites
• FPG Child Development Institute, University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin at
Madison
• M.I.N.D. Institute, University of California at
Davis Medical School
Goals of the Center
• Promote optimal development, learning,
infants, preschoolers
and achievement for infants preschoolers,
elementary, and secondary students with
ASD and support for their families through g
use of evidence-based practices (EBP)
and earlier identification of ASD
• Increase state capacity to implement EBPs
in early identification, intervention, and
education
• I th b f hi hl lifi d
Increase the number of highly qualified
personnel serving children with ASD
g
through sustainable technical assistance
and professional development
evidence-based
Why evidence based practices?
• Because using evidence-based practices to
t th ti l d l
promote the optimal development, l i
t learning,
achievement, employment, and well being of
individuals with ASD is defensible
• Because IDEIA (2004) requires the use of
scientific, evidence-based practices for children
and youth with disabilities
• Because teachers are accountable for their
instructional/intervention practices
i t ti l/i t ti ti
• Because instructional/intervention decisions should
be data driven
State Involvement
• Year 1, Cohort 1: Master content and process in
collaboration with NPDC staff (IN, NM, WI)
• Years 2-4: States complete competitive application
Year 2, Cohort 2: KY, MN, MI
Year 3, Cohort 3: ???
3
Year 4, Cohort 4: ???
• Total number of states served: 12
Access State Application Forms
and Instructions
at
Project Web site
www.fpg.unc.edu/~autismpdc
State Applications
pp cat o s June , 009
Applications due Ju e 1, 2009
Contact Evelyn Shaw to participate—
instructions in application package
Conference Call held for Interested
Applicants on January 15, 2009
www.fpg.unc.edu/~autismpdc
www fpg unc edu/ autismpdc
What can NPDC provide?
Professional
Development
p
Technical
Assistance Evaluation
Content
Development
D l t
Content Development
Products
•Project Website
•Assessment Instruments
Autism Program Environment Rating Scale (APERS)
Autism Evidence-Based Practices Inventory
Fidelity Implementation Checklists
•Web-based Modules on EBP
•User friendly Resources for Implementing EBP
User-friendly
•Online Introductory Course on ASD
•National Network for Information Dissemination
Collaboration with OCALI and
Partners for Module Development
http://www.autisminternetmodules.org/
What responsibilities do early
interventionists and early
childhood special educators have
have
regarding children who have, or
who might have, ASD?
Child Outcomes
g
Overall goal is to enable children to be active
and successful participants in their early
childhood years and in the future.
Three outcomes that reflect achievement of this
goal are:
1 Children have positive social relationships
1. relationships.
2. Children acquire and use knowledge and
skills.
3. Children take appropriate action to meet their
needs.
ECO Center, 2005
Family Outcomes
children s
1. Families understand their children’s
strengths, abilities, and special needs.
2. Families know their rights and advocate
effectively.
effectively
3. Families help their children develop and
learn.
4. Families have support systems.
5. Families access desired services, programs,
communities.
and activities in their communities
ECO Center, 2005
What motivates the quest for
li id ifi i ?
earlier identification?
• Mean age of autism
diagnosis = 34 – 61 months
di i th al.,
Mandell et al 2005
• Mean age of first parental 8
concern = 18 – 19 months
6
• Gap means 1-2 years
ears
before treatment begins
g 4
Ye
• Intensive early
2
intervention = better
o tcomes
outcomes 0
• Earlier identification = earlier First
concerns
Autism
Dx
PDDNOS
Dx
Asperger
Dx
intervention n = 965
Content Development
Evidence-based Practices
What is an EBP?
To be considered an evidence-based practice (EBP) by The National
ASD,
Professional Development Center on ASD efficacy must be established
through peer-reviewed research in scientific journals using:
• randomized or quasi-experimental design studies.
Two high quality experimental or quasi-experimental
T hi h lit i t l i i t l
studies,
• single-subject design studies. Three different
h th d t d five hi h
researchers must have conducted fi high quality lit
single subject design studies, or
• combination of evidence. One high quality randomized
i i t l design t d
or quasi-experimental group d i study and th d three
high quality single subject design studies conducted by
at least three different investigators or research
groups.
groups
What is an EBP?
• High quality randomized or quasi experimental
design studies do not have critical design flaws that
g g
create confounds to the studies and have design
features that readers/consumers can use to rule out
ti hypotheses f study findings.
competing h th for t d fi di
• High quality single subject design studies have no
iti l design flaws th t create confounds and
critical d i fl that t f d d
demonstrate experimental control at least three
times.
times
Review of Literature
• Began by looking at outcomes that related to the
features of autism
core f t f ti
Social
Communication
Repetitive and problem behavior
Adaptive behavior
p
Academic /cognitive skills
• Identified and grouped interventions that
addressed these skills
• Looked for similar interventions across skill
domains and age levels
Focused Interventions
Focused-Interventions
• Behavioral intervention practices
Prompting
Reinforcement
Task analysis
Time delay
Behavioral Interventions to
Decrease I
D f i B h i
Interfering Behaviors
• Positive behavior support
Functional behavior assessment
Stimulus control/environmental modification
Response interruption/redirection
Functional communication training
Extinction
Differential reinforcement of other behavior
Focused Interventions
• Discrete trial training
• Naturalistic interventions
• Pivotal response training
• Self-management
Focused Interventions
• Visual supports
• Structured work systems
• Video modeling
• Computer-aided instruction
• VOCA/Speech generating devices
Focused Interventions
• Social skills training
• Peer-mediated instruction and intervention
• Parent-implemented interventions
• Social narratives/Social storiesTM
• Picture exchange communication system
(PECS)
Some Defensible Practices For
Early I i
E l Intervention
• Parent-implemented interventions
• Naturalistic interventions employed in the home
• Current work on joint attention and prelinguistic
communication
• Discrete trial training for older 2s
Evidence-based Practices:
Birth-Two
Bi h T
• Little literature to document efficacy of focused
intervention with this age group
• Emerging science
g g
• Remember Sackett’s words:
NPDC on ASD: Key Features
• Takes systems change perspective
• Promotes use of data to drive instructional
planning, implementation, continuous progress
it i
monitoring
• Promotes development of measurable,
observable IEP/IFSP goals and objectives
• Provides flexible resources that can be used for
ongoing training
• Advances early screening and diagnosis of ASD
• Links use of EBP to IEP/IFSP goals