This article describes key areas of behavior (pivotal behaviors) that underlie other behaviors in children with autism. These pivotal behaviors include: motivation, responding to complicated sensory cues, self-management, and initiating social interactions. Applied behavior analysis (ABA) can be used to teach many kinds of behaviors, and some researchers have suggested that teaching "pivotal" behaviors that affect many other, related behaviors is the best approach to treating children with autism. The authors begin by describing pivotal response training, the name given to this idea.... Read more...