Taking ACTion: 18 Simple Strategies for Supporting Children With Autism During the COVID-19 Pandemic
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DISCUSSION AND REVIEW PAPER
Taking ACTion: 18 Simple Strategies for Supporting Children With Autism During the COVID-19 Pandemic Courtney M. Tarbox 1 & Erin A. Silverman 1 & Amanda N. Chastain 1,2 & Alexandra Little 1,2 & Taira Lanagan Bermudez 1 & Jonathan Tarbox 1,2
# Association for Behavior Analysis International 2020
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically uprooted the lives of families around the world. Families living with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be particularly affected due to being abruptly deprived of their usual in-person support from applied behavior analysis (ABA) service providers. This article gives how-to instructions on 18 simple acceptance and commitment training (ACT) programs that can be used as supplements to ongoing ABA services to support children with ASD whose verbal repertoires may play a part in the challenges they are facing during the current crisis. We describe several challenges that have been frequently reported by families and ABA practitioners during the pandemic. For each behavioral challenge, we provide a brief practical description, brief behavioral conceptual description, and how-to guidance on implementing ACT procedures that address each behavioral challenge at a functional level. The Appendix contains child-friendly worksheets for practitioners to use as visual supports while implementing the intervention procedures. Keywords Acceptance and commitment training . ACT . Autism . COVID-19 . Mindfulness
The current COVID-19 pandemic has brought a crisis that has required an unprecedented upheaval of normal everyday domestic routines and demands. This change has caused an entirely new set of challenges for the children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) whom many practitioners of applied behavior analysis (ABA) have dedicated our careers to supporting. Many of these challenges are nonverbal in nature. That is, direct antecedents and consequences of child behavior
Editor’s Note This manuscript is being published on an expedited basis, as part of a series of emergency publications designed to help practitioners of applied behavior analysis take immediate action to adjust to and mitigate the COVID-19 crisis. This article was submitted on April 26, 2020, and received final acceptance on April 29, 2020. The journal would like to especially thank Dr. Alyssa Wilson for her blinded expeditious review of and editorial decision on the manuscript. The views and strategies suggested by the articles in this series do not represent the positions of the Association for Behavior Analysis International or Springer Nature. * Courtney M. Tarbox [email protected] 1
FirstSteps for Kids, Calabasas, CA, USA
2
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
are simply different and less desirable right now for many children. To some extent, different contingencies will bring about different behavior; children and parents will adjust. However, for those who have the verbal capacities to lament about the past and worry about the future, adjust
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