Indiana Psychological Association News

PsychByte: Pivotal Response Treatment for Individuals with Autism

Pivotal Response Treatment for Individuals with Autism

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) present with a range of challenging behaviors and skill deficits that warrant intervention. Interventions rooted in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) are often effective for addressing the complex needs of children with ASD.  ABA therapy relies on the operant principles of behavior and emphasizes the use of positive reinforcement.

Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) is a therapy derived from ABA. The goal of PRT is to target “pivotal” areas of a child’s development and thus make broad improvements across the larger areas of behavioral, social, and academic skills. PRT is naturalistic and child initiated, meaning therapy sessions aim to provide the child with real-life play situations and reinforce positive behaviors with natural reinforcers. The primary pivotal areas are motivation and self-initiated activities.  Many experts describe PRT as a lifestyle change that aims to improve functioning.  There are many ongoing studies examining how effective PRT works for a variety of behaviors.  Although preliminary data are encouraging, a recent meta-analysis concluded PRT requires more longitudinal designs to strengthen conclusions in this area.
 
More resources on PRT can be found here:
https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/treatment/pivotal-response-therapy-prt
 
Cadogan, S., & McCrimmon, A. W. (2015). Pivotal response treatment for children with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review of research quality. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 18 (2). Retrieved from: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/17518423.2013.845615
 
Ventola, P. E., Yang, D., Abdullahi, S. M., Paisley, C. A., Braconnier, M. L., Sukhodolsky, D. G. (2016). Brief Report: Reduced Restricted and Repetitive Behaviors after Pivotal Response Treatment. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46 (8). Retrieved from: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-016-2813-6
 
Contributors:
Jamie B. Gaither, B.A.
Ed.S. School Psychology Student
Ball State University
 
Kimberly A. Zoder-Martell, Ph.D., HSPP, BCBA-D
Assistant Professor of Applied Behavior Analysis
Ball State University
  "PsychBytes” is a weekly educational resource from the Indiana Psychological Association (IPA) provided for psychologists, their colleagues and their patients.