Children with Autism Will Never be "Normal": Praise be to Gauss!

We describe autism in terms of patterns of responding that deviate from the Gaussian, or “normal,” distribution. Examining autism in a manner that is conceptually systematic with behavior-analytic intervention provides a better understanding of how to distinguish between autism as a spectrum disorder and autism as a spectrum of diversity.Participants will be able to: 1. Use the conceptual framework presented in this session to identify evidence-based practices from those which are logically fallacious. 2. Describe autism as a pattern of responding in terms of skewness. 3. Describe autism as a pattern of responding in terms of kurtosis.