Autism spectrum disorders: characteristics and diagnosis

¶ … functional analysis before intervening in severe behaviors? How would you address ethical concerns regarding self-injury?

Functional analyses help determine a more precise cause of a behavior, in order to recommend a more appropriate intervention. Functional analyses acknowledge the diversity within autism spectrum disorders and respect individual differences. A functional analysis is especially important in cases where children demonstrate severe behaviors, because an imprecise intervention can cause further harm and injure trust. Self-injury presents some problems for counselors, such as countertransference issues, bias, and judgmentalism. Counselors must also take care to respect patient autonomy and right to privacy.

Why do think it is so important to teach communication skills to children with autism?

Communication is a core are of concern among children with autism spectrum disorders. Behavioral and cognitive-behavioral interventions that emphasize communication skills are therefore crucial to children who exhibit communication difficulties. Communication is essential for the child's overall social and psychological growth and development, and has a major impact on family relations and learning as well.

What are some of the research-proven strategies for educating students with autism? What are the arguments that some propose against these strategies? How can these arguments be combated?

Applied behavioral analysis (ABA) is one of the research-proven strategies for educating students with autism. One of the strongest arguments against ABA is cost, as the intervention is both time and resource-intensive. Parents may often object to research-proven strategies if those strategies entail separating their child from the mainstream classroom or including the child in a mainstream classroom -- both of which may be problematic for the child or the parents.