Looking at Me, Looking at You: Establishing Eye Contact and Joint Attention in Children with ASD

Course Description

In this course, participants will learn how to teach eye contact and joint attention skills with children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. They will identify why eye contact is important in the development of various skills and the importance of an analysis of the controlling variables for eye contact. Participants will be able to describe procedures for teaching joint attention (responding and initiating), following eye gaze and how to establish others as discriminative stimuli and reinforcers. Finally, they will be able to describe the importance and how to condition eye contact as a reinforcer. This presentation includes video examples and resources for participants. This course is one part of a four-part Verbal vs. Non-Verbal Behaviour Series that dives into the functional analyses of language by teaching learners with autism how to use verbal or non-verbal immediacy behaviours to communicate and deepen their relationships with their peers and loved ones.

Participants will:

• Describe why eye contact is important in child development
• Identify the controlling variables for establishing and maintaining eye contact
• Describe the procedures for responding and initiating bids for joint attention describe
• Describe the process to develop eye contact as a reinforcer

2 Learning CEUs Available

The workshop is designed for those who: have or are pursuing BCBA/BCaBA/RBT; teacher; therapists; and others whose role uses ABA to design & implement programming to decrease behaviours and increase skill acquisition of individuals with autism.