ABSTRACT
Behavior management has been a central theme in autism education for many years. Challenging behaviors, often encountered in adolescents with autism, can interfere with learning and socialization. This chapter is designed to help teachers and related service providers gain an understanding of how behavior is learned and how to build adaptive and appropriate behaviors.
For the past several decades, applied behavior analysis (ABA), a scientifically based approach to educating youth with autism, with abundant research to support its use, has been widely employed to manage behaviors. While ABA provides a historical perspective for this chapter, we present and advocate a strengths-based broader approach to behavioral intervention, one which is designed to build a positive repertoire of skills and behaviors that will increase students’ accessibility for learning, reduce behaviors that interfere with learning and performance, and facilitate the development of self-determined independence.
