• Brain plasticity and early intervention

    Plasticity is the brain’s ability to learn, i.e., to change as a result of its interaction with the environment, for instance by creating new synapses or by specialising its initial structures. Brain’s plasticity is higher during the first years of life, making the brain considerably sensitive to damaging factors but also significantly able to acquire…

  • Autism and school inclusion: 10 steps towards success

    Mainstream settings offer more opportunities for social interactions to children with autism and other special needs than special settings, therefore lead to more space for social growth. However, simply “placing” a student in a mainstream classroom does not guarantee meaningful inclusion and skills development. Inclusion is about adjusting the educational environment to meet each individual…

  • Sleep: A nourisher in life’s feast? How to teach your child to sleep well

    Although sleep is very important to a healthy development (see how many hours of sleep humans need at different ages by clicking here), sleep disorders appear very often during childhood. At the age of 3-6 months, most children can sleep through the night without needing an adult’s intervention, however 25 to 50% of children at…

  • What is a β€œBoard Certified Behavior AnalystΒ�-BCBAΒ�”

    Numerous studies have shown that Behaviour Analysis is the scientific basis for the most effective interventions for individuals with Autism and other developmental disorders. Because Behaviour Analysis is a science, the quality and integrity of the intervention that is designed based on the discipline greatly depends on the training background of the expert who designs…

  • Autism Diagnosis and now what? 7 steps on how to start an ABA programme

    1. Supervisor: A successful ABA programme starts with the identification of the specialised clinician that will design and supervise it, will train parents and the therapeutic team, will be in contact with school and ultimately will be the person responsible for the overall student’s progress. The quality of the intervention based on Applied Behaviour Analysis…

  • Towards true multidisciplinarity

    Read our article published by the Centre for Education Research and Practice entitled “Towards true multidisciplinarity: How behaviour analysis can feed multidisciplinary work.”

  • Teach me how to talk: 10 Tips for teaching language to children with Autism

    1. Motivation: Identify reinforcers, i.e., the student’s preferences, and make sure these vary as often as possible. 2. Create opportunities for the students to ask for access to things or activities they like, make comments, respond to other people’s questions. 3. Use a variety of antecedent stimuli (e.g., pictures, objects, questions) so that the acquired…

  • Evidence-based therapy for Autism

    In the last years, due to the significant increase in the number of children who receive a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (recent estimates in the USA point to a prevalence of Autism of 1 in every 68 children), a high number of therapies have been developed promising improvement in the symptoms of the disorder,…

  • Autism: Signs and Diagnosis

    Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a group of disorders that share the following common elements: difficulties in social interactions, impaired communication skills and presence of restricted interests and repetitive behaviours. The severity of ASD is classified in three levels and indicates the level of support required for the individual to overcome or counterbalance developmental difficulties, with Level 3…