nt approach, careful consideration must be taken to obtain adequate information about the abilities and limitations of the autistic child (Howlin, 1998). This can be done using a wide assortment of assessing tools such as cognition tests. Once this is accomplished the causes and functions of the behavior must be assessed relative to the individual and the particular situation in which the target behavior occurs. As no two people exhibit identical behaviors in the same situation or for the same reason and no single person may engage in the same behavior for the same reason in different environments, it is extremely important to identify the events occurring prior to and following after each behavior occurrence as well as the situational circumstances involved. This is often accomplished using a technique called functional analysis (Howlin, 1998). It is considered a most powerful tool by Matson (1996). The environment that will be used in presenting the treatment must be carefully considered. If a proper and complete assessment has been done then identifying the environment most conducive to success of the method should be fairly easy to accomplish. If the proper environment is not arranged then the target behavior, treatment goal and application of treatment may be affected. While any treatment that has a significant effect on its target behavior is considered successful, the treatments that have generalization capabilities are more highly sought though it is one of the more difficult challenges in the teaching of autistic persons (Matson, et al.). Behavior modification through the use of aversive stimuli, non-aversive stimuli, noncontingent access to preferred stimuli, self-management and incidental teaching has established itself as a highly effective method of treating behaviors in autism when proper evaluation is accomplished....
