Autism 24/7

A Family Guide to Learning at Home and in the Community

Andy Bondy, Ph.D. & Lori Frost, M.S., CCC/SLP

If your son or daughter is over-stimulated by noisy places or has trouble communicating or interacting with people, then everyday activities like going to the playground or helping out with household chores may seem outside your child’s repertoire. Authors Bondy and Frost, the founders of the award-winning Pyramid Approach to educating children with autism, show how it is possible to keep family life running smoothly and teach a child with autism to participate in important and routine family activities at home and in the neighborhood. And their teaching strategies can be used during the course of everyday life without making too many adjustments or converting your home into a school.

In a reassuring, easy-to-read style, Autism 24/7 encourages parents to pinpoint times when their child’s behavior or lack of skills seems to interfere with family functioning. This step helps identify what to teach your child and what goals to set. Other issues related to "What to Teach" include:

Motivational Strategies and Powerful Reinforcements: Using naturally occurring rewards and token systems
Teaching Functional Communication Skills: The difference between imitation, responding, and initiating communication, as well as how to resolve different types of communication challenges
Creating Opportunities for Learning: Determining the steps to teach a particular skill and a routine where you can incorporate teaching the desired skill

Issues related to "How to Teach" include:

Teaching Techniques: How to choose prompts (verbal, visual, physical, gestural) and how to eliminate them; shaping (rewarding gradual improvement); and video modeling
Managing Challenging Behavior: Knowing when to teach a new behavior versus when to change the environment
Evaluating What You’re Doing: How to measure progress and collect data

Autism 24/7 gives families confidence and concrete tools to integrate their child with autism into life at home and in their community as much as possible.

Andy Bondy, Ph.D., has more than 35 years experience working with children and adults with autism and related developmental disabilities. For more than a dozen years he served as the Director of the Statewide Delaware Autistic Program. He and his wife, Lori Frost, pioneered the development of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and co-founded Pyramid Educational Consultants, Inc., an internationally based team of specialists from many fields who annually train and consult with thousands of people around the world.

Lori A. Frost, M.S., CCC/SLP is a speech/language pathologist certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association with more than 25 years experience working with children with limited communication and severely challenging behavior.