The SCERTS® Model - Brookes Publishing Co.

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How can you enhance the social and communication skills of children with ASD?

Follow the SCERTS^® Model to make strides toward priority goals

The SCERTS^® Model is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to enhancing the communication and socioemotional abilities of young children with autism spectrum disorder. SCERTS^® refers to Social Communication, Emotional Regulation, and Transactional Support, which are priority goals in supporting the development of children with ASD and their families.

The SCERTS approach recognizes that the most meaningful learning experiences occur in everyday activities within family and school contexts. Therefore, efforts to support a child’s development occur with a variety of partners (e.g., parents, other caregivers, brothers and sisters, other children) in everyday routines.

Benefits

• comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to assessing and planning interventions
• enhances the communication and social-emotional abilities of preschool and elementary school children with autism spectrum disorders

Developers

• Barry M. Prizant Ph.D., CCC-SLP
• Amy M. Wetherby Ph.D., CCC-SLP
• Emily Rubin M.S., CCC-SLP
• Amy C. Laurent, Ed.M., OTR/L
• Patrick J. Rydell, Ed.D., CCC-SLP

The SCERTS Assessment Process is a criterion-referenced, curriculum-based tool that provides a profile of a child’s strengths and needs in the critical areas of social communication and emotional regulation across settings and partners. A child’s scores on selected SAP objectives are combined to measure progress in 8 social-emotional growth indicators that reflect common priorities and concerns expressed by parents and professionals about children with ASD:

• happiness
• sense of self
• sense of other
• active learning and organization
• flexibility and resilience
• cooperation and appropriateness of behavior
• independence
• social membership and friendship