If your son or daughter is over-stimulated by noisy places or has trouble communicating or interacting with people, then everyday activities like going to the playground or helping out with household chores may seem outside your child's repertoire. The authors, founders of the award-winning Pyramid Approach to educating children with autism, show how it is possible to keep family life running smoothly and teach a child with autism to participate in important and routine family activities at home and in the neighbourhood. And their teaching strategies can be used during the course of everyday life without making too many adjustments or converting your home into a school. In a reassuring, easy-to-read style this book encourages parents to pinpoint times when their child's behavior or lack of skills seems to interfere with family functioning. This step helps identify what to teach your child and what goals to set. Other issues related to WHAT TO TEACH include: Motivational Strategies and Powerful Reinforcements: Using naturally occurring rewards and token systems; Teaching Functional Communication Skills: The difference between imitation, responding, and initiating communication, as well as how to resolve different types of communication challenges; Creating Opportunities for Learning: Determining the steps to teach a particular skill and a routine where you can incorporate teaching the desired skill. Issues related to HOW TO TEACH include: Teaching Techniques: How to choose prompts (verbal, visual, physical, gestural) and how to eliminate them; shaping (rewarding gradual improvement); and video modelling; Managing Challenging Behavior: Knowing when to teach a new behavior versus when to change the environment; Evaluating What You Are Doing: How to measure progress and collect data. "Autism 24/7" gives families confidence and concrete tools to integrate their child with autism into life at home and in their community as much as possible.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Setting Goals at Home; Using Motivational Strategies to Build Successful Change; Important Communication Goals in and around the Home; Creating Natural Opportunities for Learning; Teaching Strategies for the Home and Community; Dealing with Common Errors; Dealing with Difficult Behaviours; Evaluating What You Are Doing; Putting It Together in the Neighbourhood; Forms & Checklists.

Author Biography

Andy Bondy, Ph.D., has over 35 years experience working with children and adults with autism and related developmental disabilities. For over 10 years he served as the Director of the Statewide Delaware Autistic Program. He and his wife, Lori Frost, pioneered the development of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and co-founded Pyramid Educational Consultants, an internationally based team of specialists from many fields who annually train and consult with thousands of people around the world. Lori A Frost, M.S., CCC/SLP is a speech/language pathologist certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association with over 25 years experience working with children with limited communication and severely challenging behaviour. Lori Frost, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech/language pathologist and Andy Bondy, Ph.D. is a behaviour analyst.