Incorporating Interests and Structure to Improve Participation of a Child With Autism in a Standardized Assessment

Abstract

The rise in the number of children With autism poses challenges to professionals in the field of early care and education. The restricted patterns of communicating, relating, and behaving seen often in children With autism necessitate a sophisticated approach to assessment. There is an increasing need in the field to use alternative assessment approaches in order to alloW professionals to interact and communicate With the child on multiple levels. Assessment approaches that provide the child With choices yield data that go beyond confirmation of a diagnosis to include information about suitable educational and therapeutic interventions and programming outcomes as Well as ideas to support functioning in the natural environment. This article describes an innovative approach to assessing a girl With autism. The approach includes incorporating interests and a structured schedule.

A novel psychotherapy for low‐needs youth on the autism spectrum with emotional regulation challenges

“…), preferred interests are described under symptom area B3 in the diagnostic criteria for ASD as ‘highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus (e.g., strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interests)’ (p. 50). Several examples of preferred interests have been described in single‐subject design studies of children with ASD, such as jigsaw puzzles (Carnett et al, 2014), letters and numbers (Vismara & Lyons, 2007), and finger painting (Vacca, 2007).…”

“…preferred interests have been described in single-subject design studies of children with ASD, such as jigsaw puzzles (Carnett et al, 2014), letters and numbers (Vismara & Lyons, 2007), and finger painting (Vacca, 2007).…”