The Central California Autism Center is a treatment & research center that provides principle-based behavior therapy for children 18 months to 6 years of age with a diagnosis of autism or a related disability. Most children receiving behavior therapy services improve their skills and abilities across many domains including language, motor skills, self-help skills, social skills, pre-academic skills and general learning skills. Most will also show a decrease in problem behaviors.


Information on Autism

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) refers to a class of pervasive developmental disorders typically appearing by age 3 or earlier. Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, Asperger Syndrome, and PDD-NOS are all diagnoses along the “spectrum”, with the diagnosis of Autism being the most severe.

ASD disorders have in common a set of symptoms and behavioral characteristics that primarily affect social relatedness and communication and language, although the nature of these “spectrum disorders” is that there are multiple variants and partial expressions of the disorder, with no single characteristic being common among all persons that, nonetheless, share some symptoms in common.

ASD affect 1 in 150 children (the most conservative estimate). The number of children diagnosed with ASD jumped 273% between 1987 and 1998 in California. Autism is, in most cases, a life-long disability and years ago, without treatment, could mean institutionalization.

Although the degree to which individuals improve cannot be predicted with certainty because of many variables, early intensive treatment can result in vast improvement, with a small percentage of children becoming indistinguishable from their peers.

The most evidence-based and empirically validated treatment for autism is an intensive program using the teaching techniques and principles of Applied Behavior Analysis.

Most children receiving services will improve their skills and abilities across many domains including language, motor skills, self-help skills, social skills, pre-academic skills and general learning skills. Also expected is a decrease in problematic behaviors.


CCAC and ABA

What is ABA? ABA stands for applied behavior analysis and is a sub-field of psychology that focuses on objective behavioral science. ABA is used for many socially significant problems, many of which are related to work with children; however one of the most significant areas of application for ABA has been with children with autism. ABA programs are developed by carefully assessing each individual child for learning and behavioral strengths and deficits. Areas of deficit will be targeted for skill acquisition by creating sequential learning steps. These very basic learning units will be repeated many times to give the child ample opportunity to learn to respond correctly.

Many of the best known and most effective treatments for autism were developed using behavior analytic principles and techniques: discrete trials by Lovaas and others, PECS by Bondy and Frost, pivotal response programs by Koegel and Koegel, naturalistic language training by Sundberg and Partington. The list goes on. ABA practitioners are dedicated to helping children with autism by using the most current research in ABA and by ensuring our technology is constantly updated.


CCAC Specifics

CCAC was developed by the Behavior Analysis program in the Department of Psychology at Fresno State. We do not adhere to one particular approach "label" (such as discrete trials), but rather adhere to "principle-based" teaching, considering both current research and decades of past research in the areas of human learning and behavior analysis. We apply these tested techniques and principles in state-of-the-art behavioral teaching sessions.

CCAC is a center-based program (rather than a home-based program). All therapy occurs on our site on the Fresno State campus.

Undergraduate students and graduate students currently enrolled at Fresno State will provide all therapy and supervision for our programs under the direction of Dr. Adams, Sessions will be one-on-one with a behavioral therapist (a student at Fresno State) who has been trained in the principles and procedures of ABA to create a conducive, reinforcing environment for facilitating optimal learning for the child.


A Note About Our Research Program

CCAC is an active research facility. Ongoing research protocols will be a constant in our center and will be designed to enhance the experience of children, families and staff. All protocols will be conducted with the utmost attention confidentiality and will be under the approval of the university's Institutional Review Board. Some research will include investigations of various strategies to accelerate skill acquisition by examining such topics as reinforcement strategies, pre-exposure to concepts, optimal rapport building, and many others.


About Our Director

Amanda Adams Amanda Adams, Ph.D., is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) who joined the Fresno State faculty in 2006 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. Prior to coming to Fresno, Dr. Adams had 10 years of experience in autism work in a variety of settings including university programs, school districts, private companies, and consulting firms in California, Florida, Nevada and Hawaii. She has published in several peer reviewed journals and has been a speaker at regional and national conferences.


Opportunities for Students

• Field Experience – receive course credit for work in the autism center
  
  
• Research Experience: for undergraduate and graduate students
  
  
• Paid Positions: the center will support a limited number of year-round undergraduate and graduate positions.
  
  
• Training in ABA: people who have ABA training with children with autism are in high demand by private agencies offering services all over California and world-wide
  
  
• Supervision towards qualification for the nationally recognized credential in Behavior Analysis