• What Parents Need to Know about Pivotal Response Therapy

    Pivotal response therapy (PRT) is an empirically supported comprehensive behavioral treatment for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that focuses on pivotal areas of a person’s development, rather than treating individual behaviors one at time. First developed in the 1970s, PRT is now widely used as an intervention treatment for children with ASD and related disorders. Here are the answers to some common questions parents have about PRT.  

    What does pivotal response therapy target?  

    PRT is intended to address pivotal areas of development, including a child’s motivation, responses to multiple cues, the child monitoring his/her own behavior, and the ability to initiate interactions with other people. By targeting these important areas, PRT results in improvements in other social, communicative, and behavioral areas that are not specifically targeted. PRT utilizes motivational strategies to increase child engagement in learning such as child choice, task variation, interspersing already learned tasks with new tasks, reinforcing the child for reasonable attempts, and using direct and natural reinforcers.  With PRT the child plays an essential role in determining the activities and objects that will be used in treatment.  The goal of the therapy is to utilize the motivational strategies to engage the child in learning and provide positive reinforcement to increase skill development.  

    Who can provide pivotal response therapy?  

    PRT can be provided to a child by a number of different specialists, including behavior analysts, behavior technicians under the direction of a behavior analyst, psychologists, teachers, instructional assistants, and speech and language therapists.  Because PRT is a naturalistic intervention, meaning it is done in the child’s natural environment, parents themselves can also learn to apply PRT within their family’s everyday routine. Parents can create learning opportunities at home that will help to reinforce the skill development that is being taught during therapy sessions. 

    Is pivotal response therapy right for my child? 
    Every child’s needs are different, so an individualized approach should be taken to providing treatment to any child who has ASD. However, it’s possible that PRT could be an effective therapy for your child. PRT has proven to be especially helpful in encouraging children to develop stronger social and verbal communication skills.  Additionally, it’s been shown to be effective in teaching play and academic skills and decreasing disruptive/self-stimulatory behaviors. 

    STAR of CA offers a wide range of services, including individualized therapy, for children who have ASD and other developmental disorders. We use evidence-based treatments, and we are continually working to improve and expand our services. Our team has been serving Ventura and nearby communities since we opened our doors in May 2006.  We provide services to San Jose,  To learn more about our behavioral intervention services, call (805) 644-7827 today. 

  • Understanding Pivotal Response Treatment

    autism spectrum Ventura Pivotal Response Therapy (PRT), or Pivotal Response Treatment, is a methodology that falls under the umbrella of ABA therapy. PRT seeks to address autism symptoms and challenges in a way that is based on play and initiated by the child. In other words, the child is allowed to choose an object to work with, which can help increase the child’s motivation. The therapist then provides instructions or opportunities and positively reinforces attempts at responding. Positive reinforcement stems naturally from the action. For example, if the child tries to ask for a ball, the therapist will reward him or her by handing over the ball instead of offering praise.

    PRT is different from other types of autism therapies in that it goes beyond targeting individual behaviors. Instead, it targets specific or pivotal areas of development, such as self-management, motivation, and responses to multiple cues. In doing so, PRT can be helpful in improving communication, behavior, academic progress, and social skills.

    Children with autism near Ventura and their parents can find the help they need at Star of CA, which provides high-quality ABA therapy . Call our center for autism and related disorders at (805) 644-7827.