The Cartoon and Script Curriculum for Teaching Social Behavior and Communication: Using Visual Strategies to Support Behavioral Programming for Individuals with ASD

by Vera Bernard-Opitz PhD, Andra Bernard (Illustrator)

Overview

This easy-to-use book is designed to help children with autism find friends, become better communicators, increase their flexibility, and live lives that are less stressful. Skills are presented in the form of cartoons, scripts and role play—all evidence-based practices—that address a wide range of developmental levels. This book breaks down complex behaviors into manageable steps and provides methods to help children and youth generalize skills across settings and people. The result: individuals on the spectrum become more effective in managing everyday life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781942197317
Publisher:	Future Horizons, Inc.
Publication date:	09/30/2017
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Vera Bernard-Opitz, (Ph.D., Em. Associate Professor National University of Singapore) is a German clinical psychologist and psychological psychotherapist as well as an American board-certified behavior analyst — doctorate (BCBA-D). She supervises ABA teams across the United States and Germany, conducts workshops and is the editor of the German practice series, entitled Autism Concrete. Bernard-Opitz’s book, Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Structured Teaching and Experience-Based Program is available in German, English and Korean. Together with Anne Häußler, she has written a photo book on visual supports that is also available in German and English.

Andra Bernard uses her skills as an illustrator to transform ideas into easily understood concepts. She majored in speech and hearing disorders in Germany and will extend her studies to work with children with special needs.

Read an Excerpt

Visual Learning: Facilitating Skill Acquisition Using Visual Methods Individuals with ASD tend to have good visual skills, which often are in contrast to their communication and social challenges (DiCriscio & Trojani, 2017). Visual supports for both simple and complex teaching targets will help the student make meaningful progress. The TEACCH Program. Visual supports have been a core feature of the TEACCH program (Treatment and Education for Autistic and related Communication Handicapped Children; Schopler & Mesibov, 1994) since its inception. Children learn in an environment with clear expectations as well as obvious spatial and temporal structures. Independent task performance is a very early teaching target. Learning situations are simplified by pictures, symbols and word cards and distinct task setups (Bernard-Opitz & Häussler, 2010). Visual supports show where a task begins, how to do it, when the task is completed and what happens after the task (Aspy & Grossman, 2011; Häussler, Happel, Tuckermann, Altgassen, & Adl-Amini, 2003; Mesibov & Howley, 2003). In addition, picture schedules and augmentative communication such as the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS; Alsayedhassan, Banda, & Griffin-Shirley, 2016; Frost & Bondy, 2002; Tien, 2008) are now a core part of many ASD programs. Activity schedules. Activity schedules can be compared to a shopping or “to-do” list (Brodhead, Higbee, Pollard, Akers, & Gerencser, 2014; McClannahan & Krantz, 1999). They are sets of pictures or words that show a sequence of activities. For young children with ASD, activity schedules often show which activities, tasks or games have to be done in what sequence (Knight, Sartini, & Spriggs, 2015). At a later stage, schedules can also be completed or written by the child. In the TEACCH program, even individuals with severe disabilities have learned to be independent through simple routines and activity schedules (Mesibov, Shea, & Schopler, 2004: Knight et al., 2015).