Sarah Edmunds, PhD, University of South Carolina

Active Ingredients of Early Interventions for Social Communication and Autism Spectrum Disorder

Behavioral learning principles from the field of applied behavior analysis allow teachers and interventionists to create effective intervention plans for helping children learn. In turn, it is important—and enhances efficacy—to work with children in a naturalistic setting (e.g., during play) and to scaffold their goals in a way that aligns with the sequence in which children’s skills typically develop.

Naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBIs) are a set of interventions that combine behavioral and developmental perspectives. NDBIs have been found to be effective in helping infants, toddlers, and young children with and at elevated risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) better communicate and interact with the world around them.

This talk will share research by Dr. Edmunds and others that explores the “active ingredients” by which NDBIs may work, how NDBIs leverage developmental science to foster growth in children’s social communication skills over time, and how teachers and therapists can use these strategies with children in their classrooms and caseloads.