MALKA217 Early Intervention for Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders Course description

The course prepares participants for working in intensive programs designed to accelerate learning for young children with pervasive developmental disorders. Applied Behavior Analysis is the treatment of choice, and this course teaches application of several behavioral technologies that have been shown to be effective, especially for the acquisition of communication skills, academic, play, and social skills. Rules for ethical and professional conduct are discussed.

Admission to the study program

On successful completion of the course, the student has the following learning outcomes classified as knowledge, skills and competence:

Knowledge

The student can

• describe the common elements of Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention, and discuss the pros and cons of different service delivery models
• discuss the outcomes reported in the literature, and the quality of the evidence for Early Intensive Behavioral Interventions and other interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorders.
• explain important predictors of outcome and describe quality control measures
• discuss the validity of the most commonly employed outcome measures
• describe commonly used assessment instruments
• describe the difference between standardized and non-standardized assessments
• discuss positive and negative aspects of Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention and explain arguments against applied behavior analysis and Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention proposed by the neurodiversity movement

Skills

The student can

• demonstrate and monitor Discrete Trial Teaching, Precision Teaching, shaping, chaining, and preference assessments

Competence

The student can

• discuss the application of intervention protocols for teaching listener responding
• discuss the application of Sufficient Exemplar Training
• discuss advanced considerations when teaching vocal imitation, assessments, target selection and procedures for teaching
• apply knowledge of single-case experimental designs in clinical settings, and give examples on how to achieve experimental control

In the BSCA specialisation, campus-based lectures and seminars are the main teaching methods. Students read selected texts in advance for each day of class, and everyone is expected to participate in class through questions and through joining in discussion. In the BSII specialisation, the main teaching method is digital course sequences, and feedback on details of course content, and supervised discussion groups will be available during pre-determined time periods. Feedback on written assignments is used in both specialisations.

The following required coursework must be approved before the student can take the exam:

• 2 individual written assignments submitted digitally, each with a maximum length of 6000 characters, including spaces. References are to be included in the 6000 characters.

Individual home examination, 5 hours. Exam questions are in English. Students may submit their exams in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.

All

Grade scale A-F

All answers are assessed by one examiner.

An external examiner is used regularly, at a minimum of every third completion of the course. When selecting answers for external evaluation, a minimum of 10 percent of the answers shall be included, with no fewer than 5 answers. The external examiner’s assessment of the selected answers shall benefit all students.