Pivotal Response Intervention and Autism Treatment
What is Pivotal Response Intervention?
Pivotal Response Intervention (also known as PRT® or Pivotal Response Treatment®) is a behavioral intervention treatment for autism developed by Drs. Robert and Lynn Koegel at the UCSB Autism Center. Pivotal Response Intervention is a naturalistic intervention model derived from ABA approaches. It is a child, parent and family-centered program, where children are taught to master four key pivotal response skills – skills that once mastered, provide the platform for which a broad base of other skills depends on.
In the past, interventions for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have traditionally included clinical, artificial settings and nonfunctional materials. Sound boring? Imagine how the child being taught feels! But Pivotal Response Intervention training is centered around activities that each child finds engaging – based on their unique likes and interests (i.e.; jumping on a trampoline, being pushed on a swing or playing with colored blocks.). So the children find the play – the intervention sessions – and are more open and positive to the messages being taught.
But it’s not all fun and playtime. Pivotal Response Intervention is a scientific, research based, and empirically validated autism training method, with over 30 years of research and development behind its principles.
Research has proved that the early autism intervention is key. The younger the child, the more likely they are to achieve success using Pivotal Response Intervention techniques.
Dr.’s Lynn and Robert Koegel at the UCSB Koegel Autism Center, developed Pivotal Response Intervention, and have been helping children and adults of all ages with autism and autism spectrum disorders for decades.
Pivotal Response Intervention, and the teaching skills it employs, helps children with autism or ASD improve their social skills, deficiencies of which are a key feature of children with autism, particularly in areas where autistic children are engaging with their peers. Learning the rules for engagement to solicit positive interaction with children of their own age is extremely difficult for children
with autism or ASD. "The rules of engagement; of knowing how to enter a group of children; how to join in with their activities; and how to talk to them, are all highly complex, unwritten, and generally poorly understood" (Howlin, 1998).
PRT is also an intervention that typically developing children can use to
help their peers with autism to be present at and maintain positive social interactions such as gaining and maintaining attention, maintaining motivation, model social behavior, extend verbal communications, narrate play, vary toys, take turns – and many more.
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Helpful Information
Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT)® For Autism
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#1 (BEST SELLER): Pivotal Response Treatment®: Using Motivation as a Pivotal Response
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#2: Teaching the Pivotal Behavior of Initiations to Children with Autism
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#3: Using PRT to
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Parents, siblings, teachers, and people in the medical profession – anyone can learn to use the Pivotal Response Intervention techniques on children with autism. And all are strongly encouraged to do so!
Here’s an example of Pivotal Response Intervention, using the key teaching skills that are reinforced with the children during the session:
- Engage in an activity that they are interested in (i.e.; playing with colored blocks).
- Make sure you have their attention on the task at hand.
- Give them clear and uninterrupted instructions or opportunities. For example, if the child is playing with the blocks, pick up the blue block and go to hand it to them and say “blue?”.
- Reinforce or repeat the verbal cue if the child does not respond. Say again “blue?”
- If the child chooses the object from prompting or instructions, and that object is used (for example, the child says “blue!” and reaches for the blue block, give the child praise.
- In this case, the child saying “blue” and reaching for the block (the desired behavior) earns them them praise.
- Praise (when the child does the task correctly) motivates the child.
- Tasks taken on should be developmental appropriate to the child’s level.
- Once tasks are mastered, new ones can be taught (but be sure to always go back and reinforce already learned behaviors too)!
- Multiple components can be introduced or presented as the intervention techniques continue to produce positive results. For example (using the case above), “blue square?” or “blue ball?”. This is done to increase responsiveness to multiple clues vs. one word queries.
Drs. Lynn and Robert Koegel, the founders of Pivotal Response Intervention, also have developed autism intervention certification training, or PRT Intervention Certification.
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