Presentation Outlines Strategies for Encouraging Language in Autistic Children

Brittany Koegel from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at  Stanford University School of Medicine will present Practical Strategies to Encourage Autistic Children’s Language as part of Lehigh University Autism Services' Community Learning Series.

Koegel's presentation will focus on research-supported strategies that have been shown to significantly increase child engagement in learning, increasing the speed of new skill acquisition. She will cover the concepts of child choice, task variation, interspersal of maintenance and acquisition tasks, natural reinforcers, and reinforcing attempts. 

This lecture will present specific procedures for teaching verbal initiations to children on the autism spectrum. A number of video clips will be used to demonstrate these motivational components. Research shows that child initiations are critical for more positive long-term outcomes in autistic children. Koegel’s lecture will cover positive long-term social and communicative outcomes of this approach.

The event will be presented on Zoom and is open to the public. To register, please visit https://bit.ly/45Z7o71

Koegel received her Ph.D. in Education with an emphasis in Special Education, Disabilities, and Risk Studies (SPEDR) from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her interests are socialization skills for young adults with Aspergers’ syndrome, academic motivation for children with autism, and communication for individuals with ASD. She specializes in training teachers, parents, and professionals in Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT).

Lehigh University Autism Services provides high quality therapeutic services for young children with autism residing in the Lehigh Valley and surrounding areas. Services are based in the science of applied behavior analysis and incorporate evidence-based interventions to improve the lives of children with autism and their families.