Welcome to the Pivotal Response Treatment Blog!

This blog provides information for anyone interested in learning more about Drs. Robert and Lynn Koegel and their highly acclaimed research-based intervention for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders. PRT® is a naturalistic intervention model derived from Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA. 

PRT® targets pivotal areas of a child's development, such as motivation, responsivity to multiple cues, self-management, and social initiations.  These skills are pivotal because they are the foundational skills upon which learners with ASD can make widespread and generalized improvements in many other areas.  By targeting these critical areas, PRT® results in widespread, collateral improvements in communication, social, and behavioral domains. 

Specific research based procedures including child choice, task variation, interspersing maintenance and acquisition tasks, rewarding attempts, and the use of direct natural reinforcers, are incorporated to make the intervention extremely powerful and efficient. The goal of PRT® is to move the child with ASD towards a more typical developmental trajectory, through individualized intervention objectives based on the child's needs.

PRT® targets each core area of development, and focuses on increasing motivation for learning in children with ASD. PRT® is implemented in the natural environments of the child  (e.g. home, community, and school) and emphasizes parent education so that family members are agents of intervention, and learning can be embedded across daily routines.

According to the studies that form the evidence base for PRT®, children with Autism Spectrum Disorders aged from 2 to 16 years have benefited from PRT® intervention. Research has shown that the use of motivational techniques inside PRT’s® teaching framework can lead to 85-90% of children with autism, who begin intervention before the age of 5, developing verbal communication as a primary mode of communication. Researchers have also identified specific behavioral characteristics associated with favorable responses to the teaching practices. Precursors related to positive outcomes thus far, include increased use of social initiations, less social avoidance, more toy play, and stereotypic language.

Drs. Robert and Lynn Koegel from the University of California, Santa Barbara are the developers of Pivotal Response Treatment®. Over the past 30 years, the Koegels, their graduate students, and their colleagues have published over 200 research articles in peer-reviewed journals that support the effectiveness of PRT®, and have written over 30 books and manuals. PRT® is listed by the National Research Council as one of the ten model programs for autism, and is one of four scientifically based practices for autism intervention in the U.S. (Simpson, 2005).

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