New England Center for Children Staff Publish Autism Guide for Parents and Educators

SOUTHBOROUGH, Mass. - Jan. 23, 2018 - PRLog -- The New England Center for Children^® (NECC^®), a global leader in education for children with autism, announced today that staff members Dr. Rebecca MacDonald, Ph.D., BCBA-D and Susan Langer, M.A., BCBA have authored a book, Teaching Essential Discrimination Skills to Children with Autism: A Practical Guide for Parents and Educators, published by Woodbine Press.

Parents and educators can use this book to teach foundational discrimination skills that help children with autism and other intellectual disabilities become more proficient and independent in a variety of ways, such as using picture activity schedules and augmentative and alternative communication systems, mastering more complex academic skills, and applying learning across many situations in their daily lives.

Discrimination skills enable us to tell one object from another, understand that different things have different names, and use those names to perform a wide range of cognitive and language skills, including following spoken instructions, communicating, and reading. The book outlines a systematic, evidence-based curriculum to promote children's learning. Based on the authors' thirty years of translating research to practice the user-friendly text and illustrative case studies cover:

• Delivering effective instruction (repeat trials, brisk pacing, child's active participation, reinforcement)
• Types of discrimination skills (understanding differences, matching like to like, matching words to objects, following spoken-word instructions)
• Prompting and prompt fading
• Prerequisite skills (imitation, readiness to learn)
• Overcoming barriers to learning (lack of scanning, low motivation)
• Assessing a child's entry level to the curriculum
• Curriculum sequence, specific discrimination skills instruction, and remedial strategies

"This how-to discrimination curriculum is a welcome addition to the early intensive behavioral intervention literature, and should be a required reading for those in the fields of education, speech and language pathology, and applied behavior analysis," said Caio F. Miguel, Professor of Psychology, California State University-Sacramento, in a review of the book.

Authors Rebecca MacDonald, Ph.D., BCBA-D, and Susan Langer, M.A., BCBA are long-time staff members of The New England Center for Children. Rebecca MacDonald is a Licensed Psychologist in Massachusetts and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst who serves as the Senior Program Director of NECC's Research Department. Susan Langer, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, serves as the Chief Program Officer.  Both authors are also researchers and teach graduate level courses at universities in Massachusetts.

Teaching Essential Discrimination Skills to Children with Autism: A Practical Guide for Parents and Educators, ISBN: 978-1-60613-257-9, is $24.95 and available from Amazon and publisher Woodbine House (www.woodbinehouse.com (http://www.woodbinehouse.com)). Woodbine is a trusted source of books on disabilities since 1985, publishing over 60 books on autism, ADHD, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and more.  Woodbine's Special-Needs Collection provides vital information and support to families of children with developmental disabilities and the professionals who serve them.

About The New England Center for Children

The New England Center for Children^® (NECC^®) is a world leader in education, research, and technology for children with autism. For more than 40 years, our community of teachers, researchers and clinicians have been transforming lives and offering hope to children with autism and their families. NECC's award-winning services include home-based, day, and residential programs; public school partnerships and consulting; the John and Diane Kim Autism Institute; and the ACE^® ABA Software System currently used by more than 6,100 students and teachers in 27 states and 10 countries. NECC received the 2017 Award for International Dissemination of Behavior Analysis from the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis (SABA). A 501c3 non-profit, The New England Center for Children is based in Southborough, MA, and also operates a center in Abu Dhabi, UAE. More information is available at www.necc.org.