Online Practitioner Training in Behavioral Intervention in Autism Skill Training Using an Interactive Simulated Child

Project Summary
Autism Spectrum Disorder ASD is a complex neurological disorder that typically appears before the age of
three and immediately and profoundly affects a young childandapos s ability to communicate develop language form
social relationships and respond appropriately to environmental cues Behavioral intervention is a consensus
andquot best practiceandquot scientific treatment methodology derived from the field of Applied Behavior Analysis that
focuses on providing rigorous and sustained one to one and natural context treatment to teach developmental
skills such as attending imitation receptive language expressive language pre academic social and self help
skills BI based teaching interventions are highly structured and they typically employ a number of procedures
to begin teaching critical developmental prerequisite skills related to language motor and discrimination
training These include Discrete Trial Training Shaping Fading Chaining Differential Reinforcement and
other methodologies all used by practitioners to foster learning This project will develop a simulated
interactive virtual child as a teaching tool for teachers and practitioners who are learning complex behavioral
training procedures For this Phase project we will focus our effort on teaching Discrete Trial Training as a
means of testing the feasibility of the product in preparation for a Phase II submission The project has two
major objectives to design and develop a prototype of the product and to evaluate the effectiveness of
the prototype Project Narrative
The proposed project and the resulting product will directly benefit individuals who
provide behavioral intervention services to children with autism spectrum disorders and
other developmental disabilities The project has two major objectives The project has
two major objectives to design and develop a simulated interactive virtual child as a
teaching tool for teachers and practitioners who are learning complex behavioral training
procedures and to evaluate the effectiveness of the product