Group Presentations on “Treatments” for Autism
Assessing Autism Interventions
Worth 20
points. Presentations
MUST be made with PowerPoint. Each
of your groups will be required to make a 60-90 minute (max.) presentation
using PowerPoint. The presentation will focus on your selected treatment topic.
Your goal is to describe the characteristics of the treatment, what it claims
to do, who originated the treatment (if known), and whether there are any
studies validating its effectiveness. Remember that you will be teaching the
rest of the class about the material in which you and your group members have
become expert. You will also be expected to be able to answer any questions
that the audience might present to you about your presentation. Presentations dates
for specific groups will be announced. If you are absent on the day of your
presentation, you will receive 0 points.
Your presentation should follow the
following guidelines:
Each group member should be
presenting for approximately the same duration of time. Each speaker should
identify him or herself to the audience.
1. Your slides should NOT be a
verbatim reproduction of what you say; they should be in outline form and you
will fill in the details verbally.
2. You should generally count on
each slide taking up about 1-1.5 minutes of your time. If you have about 60-70 slides,
then you are probably in the ballpark time-wise. If you have 99 slides, then
you need to trim your presentation!
3. Begin with a title slide that
contains a title like “A Review of Auditory Integration Therapy for Autism
Treatment” followed by your names and your affiliations (Caldwell College
Graduate Programs in Applied Behavior Analysis).
4. The second slide should have a
title like “What is Auditory Integration Therapy.” You should then have as many
slides as needed to describe the intervention, its history, who originated it,
etc.
5. The next major sections should
address claims made by the proponents of the treatment (e.g., “What Does AIT
Claim To Do?”)
6. The next major sections should
address any research studies assessing the treatment (e.g., “What Research
Support Does AIT Claim To Have?”).
7. The last major sections should
address your conclusions about whether the treatment is a worthwhile one based
on the scientific criteria we have discussed in class.
8. As a prompt for yourself to ask the audience “Any questions?” make the next
slide one that says “Question period.” Be prepared to field questions. (Those
of you in the audience should ask questions! This counts towards your
participation grade. Although I may ask a question or two, the audience members
should bear the major responsibility.)
9. Thank the audience when you are
done presenting. (Audience should applaud politely).
Basic issues of presentation:
The
purpose of this assignment is to give you an opportunity to engage in a very
important set of professional skills. While we all love to be entertained,
please do not take the presentation lightly. Minimize any joking,
self-deprecating comments, sarcasm, and use of cutesy graphics in your slides. You
don’t need to be in a business suit but you should try to at least dress in a
business casual manner for your presentation (At a conference presentation, you
should definitely wear more formal business attire). Remember that in a
professional setting, you will be eaten alive if you don’t treat your
opportunity to present as a privilege. The only folks who can get away with
being cutesy are Lovaas and a few others (I am NOT one of them!) Remember that
at conferences, the time to blow off steam is at the end of the day with
everyone else in the hotel pub, not at your presentation. Then you can be as
funny as you want. Just don’t spill your drink on Lovaas! (Aim for me instead,
I am much more forgiving).