ASAT newlsetter Jan 2023
The venerable and valuable Association for Science Autism Treatment published its monthly newsletter for January 2023 (20.1) on 2 January 2023. Regular readers will remember that I’ve announced (“shared,” in contemporary intertube parlance) the previous publications of the newsletter pretty consistently.
My consistent sharing is because the newsletter almost invariably includes valuable content. Among other articles and features (e.g., clinical recommendations, looks back at historical events, etc.) linked to in this issue, for example, there is one about the research on Direct Instruction with students with autism.
Direct Instruction (DI) is an evidence-based practice developed by Carl Bereiter and Siegfried Engelmann in 1966. It has been demonstrated to improve skills in academic content areas (e.g., reading, math) with a variety of students, including students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It is an approach to instruction that stresses mastery of content and teachers are urged to obtain professional development to ensure the best implementation results. In this installment of our treatment summaries, Drs. Alice Shillingsburg and Sarah Frampton provide a timely review of the DI literature with current recommendations for practice for our readers.
Oh! Why did I use “venerable” as an adjective for ASAT? That’s easy to answer. ASAT is celebrating its 25 anniversy! This group has done lots of good work for people cocnerned about autism and, especially, for people with autism. I hope readers will Follow ASAT and read its newsletter.
Thanks John. Appreciate the recognition!
Have you done much research into Pathological Demand Avoidance? While it’s not in the DSM-5, it’s an autism profile well recognized in the UK. The reason I bring it up is in the context of learning. Switching to computer-based learning during COVID was an absolute game-changer for my son, who was in high school at the time. Not having a human teacher telling him what to do when and assigning busywork changed everything. Working through a list of assignments on a computer didn’t trigger his PDA.
Not that I’m advocating it for every child. Remote learning was a gut punch for my middle child. He’s never been able to dig his GPA out of the hole he dug for himself sophomore year, even though his other three years were outstanding. It’s probably going to keep him out of his first choice college.