Partners in ABA 2025 Dr. Davies Lackey Keynote

Opening Keynote: Applying ABA and the Science of Reading to Inform Literacy Instruction Practices

Of the nearly 7.5 million students identified under IDEA, fewer than 10 percent demonstrate proficient reading skills by the time they reach 8th grade (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2022). Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) comprise approximately 11% of this population (National Center for Education Statistics, 2023). Challenges with comprehension, language processing, verbal behavior and attending may further diminish proficiency levels for individuals with ASD needing substantial support. These dismal outcomes further strengthen the need for target interventions, instructional design and curricula that improve reading outcomes for such individuals. Identifying reading curricula and empirically based instructional strategies that can be individually tailored for learners with early or emerging verbal behavior repertoires can be challenging for behavior analysts. Both the Science of Reading and ABA provide converging evidence of what matters and what works in effective literacy instruction, organized around models that describe how and why. This discussion will focus on this convergence and provide practical suggestions for evaluating, modifying and/or creating literacy programming through a behavior analytic lens.

Provided by Amy Davis Lackey, PhD, BCBA-D, LBA-NY, SAS/SDA