Special Topics in Autism Model 2 Peer Responses
Please respond to my peer discussions listed below. All responses should 100-150 words peer response. Please agree with all discussion and provide evidence to support your responses.
Peer 1 Elena Habel: Evidence based practices have been instituted in schools as interventions for children with ASD largely in part because there is a high probability of success, a reduction of time in planning and preparing, and an increased likelihood of educators’ responsiveness to student needs. According to the National Professional Development Center on ASD, EBP’s have shown to be safe and effective through peer reviewed research with high standard methodologies (The National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorder, 2017).
In my own experience as teacher to children with ASD, I have found that it is important to have a foundational background on the most common evidence based practices—and with ten years under my belt I finally feel confident to make decisions to support my students. Of course, it is imperative to rely on the support of the special education teacher, speech, ot, and pt therapists, and parent input. I think often as teachers we take on sole responsibility when we should lean on these support resources—they often have experiences and knowledge we do not have.
One specific example of an evidence based practice that worked very well with my students–—allowing children to have choices in preferred activities and materials yields a pivotal response in training students to complete tasks (Prelock, 2021).
References:
Prelock, P. A., & McCauley, R. J. (2021). Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders:
Evidence-Based Intervention Strategies for Communication & Social Interactions.
Second Edition, Baltimore, Maryland: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
Peer 2 Alyssa Friedenberg: Evidence Based Practices are “clinical practice in which clinicians integrate the best available external research evidence; information they obtain about client needs, values, and preferences, and their clinical expertise and practice-internal evidence.” The advantages to using evidence based practices is that they have the research that backs their effectiveness. Or in other words, they are proven to work. Since this is the case, by using evidence based practices, you will be able to provide your clients with the best treatment possible for them.
Even though evidence based practices are proven to work, they may need to be tweaked a little to work better for clients with different cultural backgrounds. Not every intervention works for every person and it is important to keep in mind the cultural background of your client to tailor the intervention to them or pick a different intervention that may suit them better. It is important to keep this in mind because some evidence based practices may actually harm clients from different cultural backgrounds instead of helping them as they were intended to.
My experience in using evidence based practices relates to both my work and school work. Last semester in my Theory and Techniques course we talked about how CBT is an evidence based practice for people with anxiety and depression. I practiced using CBT during a role-play assignment. Ever since learning about CBT, I have been transferring it into my work as an Equine Assisted Learning instructor in the sessions I have with kids with anxiety. Using evidence based practices allows clinicians to make progress towards their client’s goals quicker since they are using research backed methods.
Source- Prelock, P. A., & McCauley, R. J. (2021). Introduction to treatment of autism spectrum disorder- (ASD). In P.
A. Prelock, & R. J. McCauley (Eds.), Treatment of autism spectrum disorder: Evidence-based intervention
strategies for communication & social interactions (2nd ed.). Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
