Case study regarding behavioral interventions to a child with autism spectrum disorder

The Assessment, Research and Intervention in Autism Spectrum Disorder Laboratory (LAPITEA) from CEUMA University in Brazil seeks to promote the development of skills, such as language, communication, imitation, motor and other behavior repertoires through interventions based on principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), applied to the treatment of children diagnosed with ASD. The purpose of this study was to present an experience report on the efficacy of discrete trial teaching, an intervention format in ABA, in establishing non-verbal and verbal skills in a 5-year-old child with ASD. This paper shows the child’s performance in two interventions to develop repertoires of sitting still and making requests. Access to preferred items was granted to the child when he emitted correct responses while incorrect responses, resulted in corrections with prompts by a therapist. Along the year of 2018, the child showed high rates of correct performance in both repertoires. Implications for the development in social contexts, such as the school, were discussed.