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11th Annual Autism Conference
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The PresentersDr. Putnam is Senior Vice President of School Consultation at the May Institute and was on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School. He also serves as Director of Consultation at the National Autism Center. He oversees one of eight national collaboration sites in conjunction with the University of Oregon and Connecticut comprising the National Technical Assistance Center for Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports funded by the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Putnam received his Ph.D. from Boston College and currently serves on the faculty of Northeastern University. His research interests are in the use of function based interventions to improve prosocial skills as well as behavioral support strategies with individuals with autism spectrum disorder and school-wide behavior support interventions. He has published extensively and presents regularly at national, regional and local conferences on these topics.
Dr. Esch is a behavior analyst and speech pathologist with over 30 years experience in behavioral interventions for individuals with developmental disabilities. She has worked in school, home, clinic, and hospital settings. Her workshops, training symposia, and research have been presented in the US, Europe, and Australia and focus on the use of behavioral procedures to improve speech, language, and feeding skills for individuals of all ages with a wide range of medical and educational diagnoses. Dr. Esch received her Ph.D. in Applied Behavior Analysis from Western Michigan University and her M.A. in Speech Pathology from Michigan State University. She is the author of the Early Echoic Skills Assessment, part of the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program: VB-MAPP (Sundberg, 2008). She is the founder and current chairperson of the Speech Pathology Special Interest Group of the Association for Behavior Analysis International. Her research on behavioral treatments for early speech acquisition appears in The Analysis of Verbal Behavior and the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. Dr. Esch is co-owner of Esch Behavior Consultants, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in behavioral treatments for individuals with severe communication delays.
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