OAR is hosting a free webinar on the topic of social skills for adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) on March 28, 2019, at 2 p.m. ET, featuring Mary Jane Weiss, Ph.D., BCBA-D. Register now to attend “Social Skills for Adolescents and Adults with ASD: Finding Relevant Targets for Instruction, Using Instructional Strategies that Work, and Balancing Self-Determination with Skill-Building.”
Social skills are an elusive target of intervention for ASD, especially for adolescents and adults. It is imperative that clinicians define and achieve outcomes that matter, including community engagement, independence, and real integration into multiple environments. It is also imperative that these outcomes are identified by the individual with ASD and reflect their interests, values, and goals. This presentation will focus on those outcomes, and on skill building that fosters desired social connections, meaningful engagement, and reduced vulnerability.
During the live webinar event, we will discuss what skills to teach, focusing on increasing integration, preventing behaviors that lead to expulsion from community, and teaching survival skills in social contexts and functional social skills. We will also review how to teach those skills, focusing on using evidence-based practices, generalization strategies, and ensuring the availability of responses. Special attention will also be paid to measures of social validation and the assessment of quality of life.
Attendees will be able to:
About the PresenterMary Jane Weiss, Ph.D., BCBA-D is a professor at Endicott College, where she directs the Master’s Program in ABA and Autism and is a mentoring faculty member in the doctoral program. She also conducts research with a team at Melmark, an agency that services for children and adults with autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disabilities, a brain injury and other genetic and neurological disorders.
Dr. Weiss has worked in the autism field for over 30 years. Her clinical and research interests center on defining best-practice ABA techniques, exploring ways to enhance the ethical conduct of practitioners, evaluating the impact of ABA in learners with autism, teaching social skills to learners with autism, training staff to be optimally effective at instruction, and maximizing family members’ expertise and adaptation.
She serves on OAR’s Scientific Council and the Professional Advisory Board of Autism New Jersey. She is a regular reviewer for a variety of professional journals and is a frequent member of service committees for the Behavior Analyst Certification Board.
Register to attend the live webinar, which includes a Q&A session. Registrants will receive reminder emails leading up to the event. If you have any questions or comments, please contact programs@researchautism.org or call 703-243-9762. You can also view presentations from previous OAR webinars.
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