Antecedent Assessment & Intervention: Supporting Children & Adults with Developmental Disabilities in Community Settings. James Luiselli, $57.50

Challenging behavior is a significant barrier to communication, education, and positive social relationships. This practical book helps psychologists, educators, rehabilitation specialists, and other professionals recognize and address the causes of these problems in individuals with developmental disabilities — and resolve even the most difficult behavior challenges.

Assessing and Developing Communication and Thinking Skills in People with Autism and Communication Difficulties: a Toolkit for Parents and Professionals. Kate Silver & Autism Initiatives, $45.95

This fully photocopiable resource offers a flexible framework for the assessment and measurement of the communication skills of children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs). Packed with practical assessment and planning sheets, it enables teachers, educators and other professionals to observe and record how children use and understand language, and to follow their progress over time.

The completed assessment record is an accessible summary of a child's individual communication style, identifying strengths and weaknesses and the ways in which he or she is best assisted and motivated to communicate. It focuses on how children express themselves in everyday situations - for example, how they make requests or gain attention, the words they use most frequently, and how their communication is affected by different people and places. Most importantly, it provides a diagnosis of where communication skills can be developed and improved. Using the communication curriculum, educators can set appropriate targets, linked to work in other areas, such as literacy and science. A separate thinking skills curriculum aims to develop the skills and confidence necessary for social interaction, from making simple choices to understanding humour and abstract ideas.

Originally devised for use with children with ASDs, this toolkit is equally effective in identifying communication problems in other children, and is an invaluable resource for teachers and speech and language therapists.

The Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills (The ABLLS) is an assessment, curriculum guide, and skills tracking system for children with language delays. The ABLLS contains a task analysis of the many skills necessary to communicate successfully and to learn from everyday experiences. The ABLLS is comprised of two separate documents: The ABLLS Scoring Instructions and IEP Development Guide (The ABLLS Guide), and The ABLLS Protocol that is used to record scores for each child. The new revised version of the ABLLS includes many new task items that were not included in the previous edition. There are numerous changes in the descriptions and criterion for individual task items, as well as in the sequencing of many task items. A review of the changes can be found in the ABLLS Changes Chart. Individuals who have used the earlier version are advised to review the information regarding the changes.

WebABLLS 2.0

WebABLLS is a web-based platform for the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills-Revised (ABLLS-R) — an assessment, curriculum guide, and skills tracking system that mirrors the ABLLSR in an electronic format.

WebABLLS incorporates the latest updates and revisions from ABLLS-R and provides an innovative level of program data management.

For more information on the WebABLLS and how to order, please see our WebABLLS 2.0 page here.

The BIG Book of ABA Programs: an ABA Program and IEP Goal for Every Teachable Step in the ABLLS-R.  Michael Mueller & Ajamu Nkosi, $99.95

With more than 500 precisely written, photocopy-ready ABA teaching protocols and empirical, defendable IEP goals, each program in this book can be customized for any student and unique setting.

The BIG Disc of ABA Programs, CD-ROM.  $135.95

This convenient and practical collection contains more than 500 precisely written, printable, modifiable, ABA teaching program protocols for every teaching step in the ABLLS-R (Assessment of Basic Language Learning, Revised).

Developmental Speech-Language Training through Music for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Theory and Clinical Application. Hayoung Lim, $47.95

This is a comprehensive guide to Dr. Hayoung Lim's highly effective approach of using music in speech-language training for children ASD. Part I provides a sound theoretical foundation and employs the most up-to-date research, including the author's own extensive study, to validate the use of music in speech and language training for children with ASD. Part II analyzes the clinical implications protocols, and explains in detail specific interventions that can be used with the approach. The practical application of DSLM to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Verbal Behavior (VB) approaches is also explored.

This is essential reading for music therapists, speech and language pathologists and other professionals working with children with autism, as well as researchers and academics in the field.

Facilitating Early Social Communication Skills: from Theory to Practice. Pamela Rosenthal Rollins, $93.95

Learn how to design and implement a high-quality inclusive program that helps young children with autism spectrum disorders develop social communication and language skills.

This text presents a developmental social-pragmatic approach to facilitating language and social communication. Consistent with the SCERTS model (Social Communication Emotional Regulation and Transactional Supports; Prizant et al.), it makes a major contribution to the training and support of young children on the autism spectrum, ages 3-5. While the focus is on the preschool environment, suggestions about how to extend the approach to the home and other environments where the child with autism spends time are provided.

First Steps in Intervention with Your Child with Autism: Frameworks for Communication. Phil Christie, et al, $23.95

One of the major difficulties for children with autism is in developing communication and language. The earlier this problem is addressed, the more effectively these skills can be improved. Inspired by research and clinical practice, FIRST STEPS IN INTERVENTION WITH YOUR CHILD WITH AUTISM addresses communication and language development of children with autism, from teaching non-verbal communication such as pointing, to moving towards spoken language.

From Goals to Data and Back Again: Adding Backbone to Developmental Intervention for Children with Autism. Jill Lehman & Rebecca Klaw, $69.95

Early intervention is now accepted as essential in helping children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) to cope with the future demands of daily living, education and long-term independence. Choosing the most suitable intervention strategy is difficult because there are a large number of theories, including TEACCH, Floor-time and ABA, and each child with autism presents differently. In this book, the authors argue that theory must be combined with data in order for it to be used effectively in developmental intervention. Aimed at professionals, as well as parents who want to be more involved in their child's development, the authors explain how to write basic developmental goals, how to collect data and analyse it and how to use the results of analysis to inform the next round of intervention decisions. A useful CD ROM provides a shortcut to setting up forms and guidance in their completion.

Getting Started: Developing Critical Learning Skills for Children on the Autism Spectrum — A Step-By-Step Guide to Further the Development of Children with Minimal Language Skills. James Partington, $57.95

This book is a “must have” for every parent or educator of a child who has no—or very limited—language skills.  It provides evidence-based ABA/VB methodology, written in non-technical and easy to understand terms.  It provides critical information on where to start and how to teach initial skills to children with minimal language skills.  It provides the rationale for teaching six critical learning skills and the procedures necessary to develop them.  Professionals have identified these skills as an important basic foundation for a child’s overall development.  

Step-by-step instructions allow a parent or teacher to implement training and track the child’s acquisition of these important skills.  All of the strategies in this book are linked to the skills in the ABLLS-R®.  In addition, it provides the reader with strategies to motivate the child to participate in those learning activities as well as identify appropriate goals.

Language and Autism: Applied Behavior Analysis, Evidence, and Practice. Adrienne Fitzer & Peter Sturmey,$49.95

This volume will provide the reader with a concise overview of applied behavioral interventions for language in people with autism spectrum disorders.

Late-Talking Children: a Symptom or a Stage? Stephen Camarata, $22.95

When children are late in hitting developmental milestones, parents worry. And no delay causes more parental anxiety than late talking. Children’s speech expert Stephen Camarata points out in this enlightening book, children are late in beginning to talk for a wide variety of reasons. For some children, late talking may be a symptom of other, more serious, problems; for many others, however, it may simply be a stage with no long-term complications.

Camarata describes in accessible language what science knows about the characteristics and causes of late talking. He explains that today’s greater awareness of autism, as well as the expanded definition of autism as a “spectrum” of symptoms, has increased the chances that a late-talking child will be diagnosed — or misdiagnosed — with autism. But, he reminds us, late talking is only one of a constellation of autism symptoms. Although all autistic children are late talkers, not all late-talking children are autistic.

Camarata draws on more than twenty-five years of professional experience diagnosing and treating late talkers — and on his personal experience of being a late talker himself and having a late-talking son. Camarata offers parents valuable guidance on seeking treatment, advising them to get second and third opinions if necessary, and warning them against false diagnoses, unqualified practitioners, and ineffective therapies. He provides information that will help parents navigate the maze of doctors, speech therapists, early childhood services, and special education; and he describes the effect that late talking may have on children’s post-talking learning styles.

More Than Words: Promoting the Communication Development of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Other Social Communication Challenges, DVD. The Hanen Centre, $55.00 DVD format (18 months to 5 years) 

This easy-to-use DVD is an invaluable tool for both parents and professionals who support preschool children with social and communication challenges, such as autism spectrum disorder. A companion to Hanen’s popular More Than Words guidebook, the DVD brings to life the research-based strategies parents can use in everyday activities to foster their children’s communication skills.

The book is also available: More Than Words: a Parent's Guide to Building Interaction and Language Skills for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder or Social Communication Difficulties, 2nd Edition.Fern Sussman, $54.00

Nurturing Narratives: Coaching Comprehension, Creating Conversation. Lauren Franke & Christine Durbin, $49.50

Story-based language intervention for children with language impairments that are complicated by other developmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorders.

Teaching Communication Skills to Children with Autism. Pat Crissey, $32.95 (Grades K-12)

TEACHING COMMUNICATION SKILLS TO CHILDREN WITH AUTISM offers a comprehensive overview of methods and strategies for developing functional communication in children with autism. It addresses the needs of non-verbal and beginning communicators, as well as verbal children with high functioning autism and Asperger Syndrome. Includes a license to reprint PDF forms and handouts.

Teaching Essential Discrimination Skills to Children with Autism: a Practical Guide for Parents and Educators. Rebecca MacDonald & Susan Langer, $32.50

Discrimination skills enable us to tell one object from another, understand that different things have different names, and use those names to perform a wide range of cognitive and language skills, including following spoken instructions, communicating, and reading. Teaching Essential Discrimination Skills to Children with Autism outlines a systematic, evidence-based curriculum to promote children’s learning. Based on the authors’ thirty years of research, the user-friendly text and illustrative case studies cover:

• Delivering effective instruction (repeat trials, brisk pacing, child’s active participation, reinforcement)
• Types of discrimination skills (understanding differences, matching like to like, matching words to objects, following spoken-word instructions)
• Prompting and prompt fading
• Prerequisite skills (imitation, readiness to learn)
• Overcoming barriers to learning (lack of scanning, low motivation)
• Assessing a child’s entry level to the curriculum
• Curriculum sequence, specific discrimination skills instruction, and remedial strategies

Parents and educators can use this book to teach the foundational discrimination skills that help children become more proficient and independent in a variety of ways—using picture activity schedules and augmentative and alternative communication systems such as PECS, mastering more complex academic skills, and applying learning across many situations in their daily lives.

VB-MAPP: the Verbal Behavior Milestone Assessment and Placement Program. (Guide & Individual Child Protocol). Mark Sundberg, $99.95

THE VB-MAPP INSTRUCTOR'S MANUAL AND PLACEMENT GUIDE contains a description of how to use Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior for language assessment; the assessment instructions, and the specific scoring criteria for each of 170 milestones. In addition, the Manual contains a placement guide that offers specific suggestions for programming and direction for each of the 170 milestones achieved, as well as suggestions for IEP goals for each skill presented in the three levels of the VB-MAPP.

THE VB-MAPP INDIVIDUAL CHILD PROTOCOL contains scoring forms and charts for each of the 170 milestones, the 24 language and learning barriers, the transition to less restrictive settings assessment, and the over 1000 tasks contained in the task analysis of each skill area.

Verbal Behavior Analysis: Inducing and Expanding New Verbal Capabilities in Children with Language Delays. R. Douglas Greer & Denise Ross, $79.85

This book responds to the large demand for effective language development tools for children with no language and severe language delays related to autism and other disabilities by providing practitioners with the means to advance verbal development.  Step-by-step protocols describe how to move children from pre-listeners to listeners, non-speakers to speakers, speakers to readers and writers, and from non-social to socially verbal individuals.  The procedures are derived from numerous experiments and applications with children in three countries, and are based on Skinner’s (1957) theory of language function and on research findings that extended the theory to verbal development.  The authors synthesize research published across several different journals, including many new findings, in ways that provide readers with the current state of the science of verbal behavior and its application to children with real needs.  While the book emphasizes the vocal production of speech, the procedures are applicable to all forms of language (signs, pictures, voice-generating devices).  The book includes an extensive glossary of terms from behavior analysis and verbal behavior analysis. The instructor’s manual provides a course outline, quizzes, and protocols for training professionals to use the procedures with fidelity in applied settings.

The Verbal Behavior Approach: How to Teach Children with Autism and Related Disorders. Mary Lynch Barbera & Tracy Rasmussen, $27.95

The Verbal Behavior (VB) approach is a form of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), that is based on B.F. Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior and works particularly well with children with minimal or no speech abilitieS. This step-by-step guide provides an abundance of information about how to help children develop better language and speaking skills, and also explains how to teach non-vocal children to use sign language. An entire chapter focuses on ways to reduce problem behavior, and there is also useful information on teaching toileting and other important self-help skills, that would benefit any child. This book will enable parents and professionals unfamiliar with the principles of ABA and VB to get started immediately using the Verbal Behavior approach to teach children with autism and related disorders.

Visual Strategies for Improving Communication: Practical Supports for School and Home, 2nd Edition. Linda Hodgdon, $60.95

This revised and updated edition of this bestseller is the most comprehensive book to explain the use of visual strategies to improve communication for students who experience moderate to severe communication challenges. It is full of easy-to-use techniques and strategies that will help these students participate more effectively in social interactions and life routines.

A Work In Progress: Behavior Management Strategies and a Curriculum for Intensive Behavioral Treatment of Autism. Ron Leaf & John McEachin, $61.95

A WORK IN PROGRESS is a two-part manual that serves as a guide for any parent or professional working with Autistic children. The ABA based behavioral intervention strategies and the detailed curriculum focus on facilitating the child¹s development and helping him or her to achieve the highest level of independence and quality of life possible. The book has served as a launching pad for many parents in the beginning stages of diagnosis and has been used as the cornerstone of countless intervention programs, meeting with enormous success.