This practical manual and accompanying DVD-ROM present a research-supported behavioral intervention for children with autism that teachers can easily integrate into their existing classroom curriculum. Classroom Pivotal Response Teaching (CPRT) enhances children's motivation and participation in learning; increases the number of learning opportunities they experience each day; and promotes mastery of targeted communication, play, social, and academic skills. In a convenient large-size format with lay-flat binding, the book features more than two dozen reproducible worksheets and forms to aid in planning and implementing the procedures. The DVD-ROM includes narrated PowerPoint presentations with invaluable video examples of CPRT in action, along with copies of the reproducibles.
Aubyn C. Stahmer, PhD, is Research Scientist at the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center (CASRC); Associate Project Scientist in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD); and Research Director at Rady Children’s Hospital Autism Discovery Institute. She has over 20 years of experience in working with children with autism and using Pivotal Response Training (PRT). A major goal of her research has been to examine educational services for young children with autism in order to inform the translation of evidence- based practice into community settings. Dr. Stahmer has extensive experience with training teachers in behavioral and developmental techniques, and with developing clinically relevant ongoing program fidelity-of-implementation procedures.
Jessica Suhrheinrich, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher at UCSD and CASRC. She is an experienced PRT trainer. Her primary area of research interest involves examining the use of PRT by classroom teachers and the best methods of training teachers to use PRT in the classroom. Before beginning graduate school, Dr. Suhrheinrich was a classroom teacher.
Sarah Reed, MA, is a doctoral student in the UCSD Autism Intervention Research Program. Her graduate research focuses on the implementation of evidence-based treatments in community environments and on optimal ways to translate intervention research across service delivery settings. Her primary research interest involves continuing to examine the effectiveness of PRT with groups of students. Ms. Reed has extensive experience in implementing naturalistic behavioral interventions with children with autism, as well as in providing training to parents, clinicians, and students in these methods.
Laura Schreibman, PhD, is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at UCSD. For the past 40 years, she has conducted research examining intervention methods for children with autism. She is one of the developers of PRT, and is an author of numerous peer-reviewed publications examining the efficacy of this intervention. Dr. Schreibman is also the author of three books on autism. She has experience in the development of behavioral assessment measures of fidelity of implementation, as well as in treatment adaptation.
Cynthia Bolduc, MA, has been teaching children in special education for 10 years and specifically serving children with autism for 7 years. She is trained in several evidence-based techniques used with this population, including PRT. Ms. Bolduc uses PRT in her program as part of an eclectic set of interventions.
