Evidence Based Practices Autism Spectrum Disorder ‘Marie Butler-Woodhouse 24th November 2019 School of Education Brandman UniversityEvidence Based Practices 1 Evidence based practices are interventions that researchers have found to be effective when working with individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). As Suhtheinrich et al (2014 in Wong et al 2015) explain, “a commonly held professional value is that practitioners and professionals base their selection of intervention practices on scientific evidence of efficacy” ‘Will et al (2018) highlight, evidence-based practice consists of three elements, consideration of the best available research evidence, to be applied in the context of an individual patient's profile and based on the judgement and professional expertise of the clinician” Within the cognition domain of ASD, Cognitive Behavioral Intervention is a widely used evidence based practice which provides instruction on the management or control of cognitive processes which leads to changes in overt behavior (Iris center 2019). This helps individuals link their thoughts, behaviors and emotions and to see how they affect each other. A specially trained therapist will help the individual break down “problems into feelings, thoughts and actions to work out which are unhelpful or unrealistic” (Research Autism 2019). The therapist works with the client on how to replace those feelings, thoughts and actions with more helpful and realistic ones Time delay is another effective intervention that can address cognitive characteristics of ASD and can be used to teach a variety of skills including academic and social. As Neitzel (2009) explains the strategy focuses on fading the use of prompts during instructional activities using progressive or constant delay. When a leamer should be engaging in a particular skill or behavior, a brief delay occurs between the initial instruction and any additional instructions or prompts. The purpose of this strategy is eventuelly for the leamer to respond without the need of apromptEvidence Based Practices 2 According to Will et al (2018), few interventions relating to social skills have established evidence base. Of those that have, social skills groups, peer mediated interventions and video modeling have shown to be effective. Social skills groups is widely used and includes the direct instruction of social concepts and provides opportunities to role-play and practice them. Wil et al (2018) identified PEERS (program for education and enrichment of relationship skills) as a good evidenced based program especially for high functioning individuals. Video modeling is also an effective practice for improving social skills. This involves the individuals with ASD watching a video of someone demonstrating the target behavior. This method can also be used for video self modeling for students who are on the higher end of the spectrum ‘A commonly used intervention strategy for the behavioral challenges of of autism is that of positive reinforcement. Using this consequences are provided in response to specifi behaviors. These consequences are usually in the form of rewards for example a token or a sticker or any of the reward reinforcement to promote positive behaviors. These have been shown effective to increase a variety of skills. Discrete Trial Training (DTT) is a method of teaching in simplified and structured steps ‘As Smith (2001) explains, instead of teaching an entire skill in one go, the skill is broken down and “built-up” using discrete trials that teach each step one at a time. This can be used for teaching a variety of new behaviors for example speech sounds or motor movement. It is an extremely effective strategy and one that can be applied to many areas of leaming for individuals with ASD. In order to improve an individuel’s communication strategies, environmental arrangement strategies have been identified as evidence based. The work environment is set upEvidence Based Practices 3 so the child has to initiate communication to obtain the desired outcome or item. The communication can be the word phrase or gesture in order to obtain the outcome. Schedules or vritten scripts can be used with a range of communication difficulties from those with minimal communication to those who are very verbal. Include images of words or pictures or both with the idea of assisting the individual and initiating and engaging in a conversational exchange (Will et al 2018). These can comprise of cue or text cards and are commonly used to support a student through their daily schedule with the steps needed to be done to complete an activity. There are a wide range of evidence based practices to use for dealing with various observed characteristics of ASD. I have provided examples for each area in this paper, however there are alot more available to the practitioner. It is imperative as professionals we use evidence based practices to provide effective interventions when working with individuals with ASD. References Neitzel, J. (2009). Overview of time delay. Chapel Hill, NC: National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, TheEvidence Based Practices 4 University of North Carolina Retrieved from https: //osesa fpg unc edu/sites/csesa fpg unc edu/files/ebpbriefs/TimeDelay Overview O.pdf Research Autism (2019) Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Autism Retrieved from, http: /werw researchautism net/interventions/15/cognitive-behavioural-therapy-and-autism Iris Center. (2019). 27 Evidence-Based Practices for Students with ASD. Retrieved from https /liris peabody vanderbilt edu/module/asd2/cresource/q2/p06/27-evidence-based-pra or-students-with-asd/ Smith, T. (2001). Discrete Trial Training in the Treatment of Autism. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 16, 86-92. Retrieved from. DOL 10.1177/108835760101600204 The National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorder (2019). Evidence Based Pra une edu/evidence-based-practices Watkins, L,, Kuhn, M., Ledbetter-Cho, K., Gevarter, C, & O'Reilly, M. (n.d.). Evidence-Based Social Communication Interventions for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. INDIAN JOURNAL OF PEDIATRICS, 84(1), 68-75 https://doi-org libproxy.chapman.edu/10.1007/s12098-015-1938-5Evidence Based Practices 5 ‘Wil, M. N., Currans, K,, Smith, J., Weber, S, Duncan, A, Burton, J, ... Anixt, J. (2018), Evidenced-Based Interventions for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder. CURRENT PROBLEMS IN PEDIATRIC AND ADOLESCENT HEALTH CARB, 48(10), 234-249. https://doi-org libproxy chapman edu/10.1016/j.cppeds.2018.08.014 ‘Wong, C., Odom, S., Hume, K,, Cox, A, Fettig, A, Kucharczyk, $, Schultz, T. (2015). Evidence-Based Practices for Children, Youth, and Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Comprehensive Review. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, 45(1), 1951-1966. https://doi-org libproxy chapman edu/10.1007/s10803-014-2351-2