Behavior Support for Students with ASD: Practical Help for 10 Common Challenges

When students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) engage in challenging behavior, how can teachers best respond? This practical guidebook shows you how to address ten of the most common classroom behavior challenges - from following directions to handling transitions - with skill, insight, and compassion.

You'll start with an in-depth overview of the characteristics your students with ASD may have, plus foundational guidance on using functional behavior assessment (FBA) and multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) to address challenging behaviors. Then, for each of the ten behaviors, you'll get a dedicated chapter on how to:

• Understand your students. Learn more about the academic, social, cognitive, and physical challenges that may contribute to each behavior.
• Assess their behavior. You'll get an easy-to-use FBA checklist for assessing the function of each specific challenging behavior, along with classroom examples and helpful tips for accurately assessing items on the checklists.
• Support positive behavior. You'll discover how to use research-based strategies to help students develop more adaptive behaviors. Vignettes and sample intervention plans show you how to translate assessment into effective supports tailored to each student's needs.

A must for all teachers of students in Grades K-12, this reader-friendly guide will help you support students with ASD, resolve or reduce behavior challenges, and strengthen academic and social-emotional outcomes for every learner.

Practical Materials Include:

10 FBA checklists, plus detailed guidelines, vignettes, and sample intervention plans.

Help students who struggle with::

• Following directions
• Engaging during group instruction
• Working independently
• Repetitive behaviors
• Aggressive behaviors
• Working with partners and groups
• Attempting unfamiliar or difficult tasks
• Engaging in nonpreferred tasks
• Transitions
• Shouting out

Table of Contents

About the Forms

About the Author

I. Understanding Students With ASD and Frameworks for Providing Behavioral Support

1. Characteristics of Students With ASD
2. Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Students With ASD
3. Functional Behavioral Assessment for Students With ASD

II. Ten Common Behavioral Challenges of Students With ASD

4. Following Directions
• Appendix 4.1: FBA Checklist for Difficulty Following Directions
5. Engaging During Group Instruction
• Appendix 5.1: FBA Checklist for Difficulty Engaging During Group Instruction
6. Working Independently
• Appendix 6.1: FBA Checklist for Difficulty Working Independently
7. Repetitive Behaviors
• Appendix 7.1: FBA Checklist for Repetitive Behaviors
8. Aggressive Behaviors
• Appendix 8.1: FBA Checklist for Aggressive Behaviors
9. Working With Partners and Groups
• Appendix 9.1: FBA Checklist for Difficulties Working With Partners and Groups
10. Attempting Unfamiliar or Difficult Tasks
• Appendix 10.1: FBA Checklist for Difficulties Attempting Unfamiliar or Difficult
11. Engaging in Nonpreferred Tasks
• Appendix 11.1: FBA Checklist for Difficulties Engaging in Nonpreferred Tasks
12. Transitions
• Appendix 12.1: FBA Checklist for Difficulties With Transitions
13. Shouting Out
• Appendix 13.1: FBA Checklist for Shouting Out
• Appendix A: Characteristics of ASD Assessment
• Appendix B: Characteristics of ASD FBA Template and Samples

References

Index

"Behavior Support for Students with ASD is a practical, user-friendly guide to understanding and developing comprehensive individualized interventions based on the unique challenges of each student. I highly recommend it for parents, professionals, pre-professionals, and others who work with individuals with ASD."
- Lynn Koegel, Stanford School of Medicine

"[This book] will be a wonderful resource for not only educators but for anyone who works with students on the spectrum."
- Cindy Golden, University of West Florida