SPRING 2014 SUPPLEMENT
BRIDGES CONNECTING
E D U C AT O R S
INSIGHTS FROM EDUCATORS The Three Pillars of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) 7 Keys to Managing Difficult Behavior in Students Embracing Collaboration
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Making a Career out of
Making a Difference Meet some of our people
Erika
A Speech-Language Pathologist for Learn It in Las Vegas
“I joined Learn It because of leadership’s passion for children and the opportunity to collaborate with new Charter schools to develop their speech-language programs.”
Cassandra
A Lead Intervention Specialist for Learn It
“Probably the most influential situation was helping a younger student develop reading skills. In the process of facilitating interventions the student looked up at me and said, I can read! Can I call my mom and tell her?”
If you want to learn more about Erika, Cassandra or other great members of our team, visit learnitsystems.com/careers
FROM THE PUBLISHER IT IS IN THE SPIRIT OF PARTNERSHIP that Learn It Systems, created this magazine, Bridges. The name comes from the fact that our organization often acts as a bridge connecting students with their natural curiosity, families to the resources they need, and educators to new solutions for improving student success. Our mission at Learn It is to create exceptional learning experiences for children in need. Operationally, we are always using our “head” to make certain that our programs are working efficiently and effectively. But I believe what truly sets Learn It apart is our “heart.” We are dedicated to those with whom we work and want to see all children achieve their true potential. In publishing Bridges, my hope is that you will find this magazine acts as a “bridge”, connecting you not only with interesting information about our company, but also to new perspectives and insights into helping children succeed in life. Please feel free to email me and share your thoughts about Bridges. I hope you find it both engaging and substantial. Thank you. Ronit Molko, PhD, BCBA-D President, Autism Services, Learn It Systems Ronit@learnitsystems.com
BRIDGES CONNECTING
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The Promise of Online Speech-Language Therapy How technology is changing the delivery of speech therapy services
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TRUE GRIT OR NOT TRUE GRIT – A Current Trend or a Means to an End A provocative perspective on teaching grit
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7 Keys to Managing Difficult Behavior in Students Proven methods from school psychologists that ultimately help students learn to manage their own behavior
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14 The Three Pillars of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Dissecting behavior in children with autism
11 Embracing Collaboration Advice on creating a collaborative learning environment for students with diabilities
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The Promise of Online Speech-Language Therapy The story of Isaac, a bright-eyed and energetic four-year-old, brings to life the power of blended speech-language therapy. All things considered, everything was going as you would expect with a boy his age. He loved superheroes, video games, and trying to learn to skateboard. But early on his mother noticed she was having trouble understanding him when he spoke. She had gone through a similar situation with Isaac’s older sister. So, she had him evaluated.
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Isaac lives in Nye County, Nevada. This rural county is home to several environmentally sensitive areas, including a portion of Death Valley National Park and is remarkable in the fact that it is the third largest county in the contiguous U.S., larger than the combined total area of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Delaware. While those four states hold a total population of more than 17 million, Nye County’s residents are estimated to be less than 44,000. Yet, the needs of a young child, such as Isaac, don’t change with the size of a county’s population. As his mother suspected, Isaac was having articulation problems. So, the county provided the services Isaac needed, until Joe Gent, the Special Education Coordinator in Nye County, Nevada, found himself shorthanded. The therapist working with Isaac moved away in the middle of the school year. Mr. Gent wanted to ensure there was continuity in the services Isaac received. As Mr. Gent puts it, “No ifs, ands, or buts about it, it’s so much more productive and efficient to treat these kids early on. That’s why there’s early childhood screening of the 3-to-5-year-olds.” Mr. Gent was desperately searching for someone to take on the caseload that the recently departed speech therapist had originally covered. He says, “There just aren’t enough SLPs (Speech-Language Pathologists) out there and I don’t think it helps that we’re in such a rural setting. They don’t want to have to spend a lot of time driving to our different schools and then have to stay in hotels.” This need for a therapist caused particular heartburn. If a replacement wasn’t found quickly, compensatory hours would start to pile up. The situation marked the start of a relationship between Learn It, a national provider of special education services and Nye County. When quick action was called for, Mr. Gent was innovative and aggressive enough to introduce telepractice, taking advantage of this bold, new technology to deliver Speech-Language Pathology Services. ENTER ISAAC Isaac’s telepractice therapist, Teresa Grimes, previously a Nevada resident, still maintained her state license but was now living in Long Island, New York. She even knew some of the school district therapists that worked in Nye County, which eased the mind of the Coordinator, knowing that some of his other therapists were familiar with her. And so Isaac’s therapy began. Everyone was struck by how easily he took to the technology. But the technology was just the enabler. It helped him quickly establish a relationship with the therapist. Most SLPs who have tried telepractice agree that it facilitates the all-important connection between the therapist and the student. The experience with Isaac demonstrated the true possibilities of telepractice. For Joe Gent, telepractice proved to be everything he had hoped for. “I’ve sat through dozens of traditional, on-site SLP therapy sessions and I was really impressed. Basically, this was exactly what I was used to seeing,
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except Teresa wasn’t there in person. But her face was right there on the screen and it was big. She was very animated and Isaac loved it. He responded very well and stayed interested the entire time. In fact, each time that he came back for a new session, he always walked in excited and smiling, ready to get down to work.” CREATING NEW POSSIBILITIES WITH BLENDED THERAPY Telepractice redefines the delivery of Speech-Language services. It enables the creation of a new blended therapy model that is more flexible, more customized and more in tune with challenges facing both the administrators who have to address the needs of their students and the ability of the therapists to fulfill their obligations. For Learn It, telepractice has enabled the creation of a wide range of services for both individual students and small groups of students. These services have proven ideal for school districts where there are larger caseloads, high indirect costs, difficult to staff locations, and significant travel time between schools. Learn It has also been able to work with schools just to cover their response to intervention services. In sum, telepractice has proven to be an excellent resource offering the flexibility to be utilized in many different ways to address the needs of school districts. Lara LaZear, M.S., CCC-SLP, Learn It’s Director of Special Education, adds, “With telepractice capabilities, we’ve been able to combine telepractice with on-site support to establish new, custom blended support models for our clients. For instance, we might have a therapist go on-site for IEPs and assessment, while therapy services are
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conducted through telepractice. It’s exciting to be able to look creatively at our partnerships with schools and provide a more efficient and cost effective way of delivering services.” To facilitate a blended approach, Learn It can provide a full or part-time, on-site or telepractice solution that allows for in-person therapy combined with the on-demand benefits of telepractice. This also allows for the greatest short-term and long-term flexibility in caseload management. Learn It can also provide blended on-site/telepractice services in combination with a district’s on-site SLPs, allowing schools to extend services to more students while managing special education costs. This blended solution helps eliminate gaps in therapy and maintain compliance. Telepractice has proven to be a valuable tool in improving access to care and driving efficiencies. With further advances in technology and through innovative uses of these advances, the possibilities in the world of telepractice continue to expand.
To learn more and to see a demo of telepractice, visit: learnitsystems.com/telepractice
Perspectives
TRUE GRIT OR NOT TRUE GRIT– A Current Trend or a Means to an End
Remember the critical need to build self-esteem? Schools embraced all means to instill and infuse a sense of self-esteem in students during the 90’s era when grunge music was celebrating the smell of teen spirit. Teacher training was focused on behavior management as a way to channel positive boosts to students, often times regardless of actual efforts. The first week of my first assignment as a building principal I visited a PE class. Fourth graders were playing volleyball. The principal who preceded me was a wonderful man who fully embraced the notion of no negatives; positivism reigned supreme at the school. I walked over to the PE teacher and asked who was winning. He said that score wasn’t kept. After my quizzical look, he added that the former principal banned score keeping because it made the losers feel bad. After watching for a few minutes, I walked up to a student and asked who was winning. The student turned to me and whispered; “They are 14 to 10, but we are coming back.” This fourth grade student in 2000 was ahead of her time. She was showing grit! Now we are in the midst of another character building paradigm. According to Dr. Angela Duckworth’s research from the University of Pennsylvania, students must grit and bear it or success will elude them. She even goes as far to say that grit or persistence matters more to student success than: intelligence, skill, or even grades. In an age when international competition and lack luster performance in NAEP assessments has led our educational pundits to bemoan our system, a focus on a saving panacea is inevitable. Schools are being reformulated in some cities to focus students on a persistent, growth mindset. But is all this gritty effort new? Haven’t parents, teachers, coaches, and mentors been focused on persistence since…well, since Socrates asked a tough question? When Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed states “It’s so much more powerful for a child to be able to deal with adversity and overcome it. What the child takes from that experience is, ‘Hey, I can solve things.” Paul Tough is an excellent writer as evidenced from the volume of books he has sold. Dr. Duckworth who did teach for five years in the San Francisco school district (maybe not quite as gritty as Oakland) is obviously a smart researcher. But imagine the two of them presenting to a group of veteran, urban teachers, rather than TED conference participants. The reaction may be a persistent, “duh.” Any parent would certainly agree that their students need persistence, drive, and a mindset focused on growth. Educators
have been focused for decades on creating lifelong learners. Research has shown, as has millions of years of progress, that humans are hardwired to learn. Why the sudden embrace of persistence and grit as solutions to education problems? Students are definitely driven to distraction with their choices of stimuli and a persistent mindset is needed to not be completely fluttering among phones, ipads, laptops, TV’s, and whatever else we are truly trying to concentrate on. But that gritty determination is needed among all our informational saturated masses. Is the simplistic band aid of grit training going to stem this flow of distractions? Or can we invest in schools which harness the information flow and channel it into relevant learning projects? Focusing on grit and persistence is manageable. Just as positivism and self-esteem building was a manageable solution in the 90’s. Maybe adults need to persist in funding schools, sacrificing for the common notion of the Jeffersonian ideal of a quality education for all. Maybe citizens need to grit their teeth and demand a complete reconfiguration of teaching training and compensation to ensure teachers are held in high esteem and revered like teachers in Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Rather than panaceas which are as fun and tantalizing as a Malcolm Gladwell article, decision makers may have to face the hard and unsavory reality that educational improvements need resources and funding. Did I already say that? I was trying to be persistent. Bringing multiple perspectives to the education debate is healthy and vital. And of course we need to make certain our minds are open to new perspectives. But when $635,000 is given to Dr. Duckworth to continue the study of what many would consider the obvious, don’t be surprised if cynicism tends to persistent and educators in the trenches working with students who have autism, emotional needs, or learning disabilities turn a blind eye, grit their teeth, and get back to the work of improving student lives. Author Patrick Byrne, Ed.D., is the Director of Education at Learn It Systems, a Baltimore-based education organization. This article is meant to stimulate discussion and is not represent the views of Learn It Systems or its subsidiaries.
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7 Keys to Managing Difficult Behavior in Students
Teachers and educators are always looking for successful ways to change children’s misbehaviors. Effective interventions to address behavior problems within the school setting are essential, not only to the misbehaving child’s ability to learn, but also to that of the children around him or her. The use of positive behavior supports is essential to creating an optimal learning environment that builds positive behavior skills for all students. Learn It believes that any effective intervention allows the child to understand that they are responsible for their own behavior. The choice always rests with them. Although there is seldom an easy fix, there are basic principals underlying effective behavior change. While the intensity and specificity of the strategies outlined may differ, getting to know these concepts can help build and reinforce positive behavior in all students. Here are our 7 keys to managing difficult behavior:
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Understanding The Underlying Cause Of 1 Students’ Misbehavior Almost all behavior is purposeful. The first and critical step to changing behavior is to understand what the child is trying to “get” or “avoid.” By developing an understanding of the underlying causes of a child’s misbehaviors, you are able to determine whether the misbehavior is related to a “skill deficit” or “performance deficit.” Interventions will vary based on whether the behavior is determined to be related to a “can’t do” or “won’t do” attitude. Clearly, a child who is being asked to perform math skills at the 8th grade level, while curriculum-based assessments show the child to be proficient at only the 2nd grade level, may exhibit significant avoidance behaviors, such as aggressiveness, acting-out, or withdrawal. These are an indication of a “can’t do” rather than “won’t do” situation.
Intervention strategies in this situation would be significantly different than in a case where the child had adequate skill development but the child’s misbehaviors were based on a “won’t do” attitude. Identifying the Triggers for the Misbehavior 2 Identifying a pattern of when and how the child acts out helps define the factors that trigger the misbehavior and subsequently suggests strategies that will be most effective for intervention. Does the misbehavior occur during a particular activity, like the math activity describe previously, or a specific setting, a type of instruction, an interaction with a particular classmate, or at a certain time of day? Effective interventions are a result of understanding the circumstance surrounding the misbehavior. Again, all behavior is serving a purpose. The more we can understand
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By providing the positive behavioral supports to assist the child in behavioral change, you can become a “cheerleader” and “coach” as you provide encouragement and support to bring about effective behavior change.
the purpose of the behavior, the more we are able to assist the child in developing alternative choices of behavior to successfully accomplish the same purpose. 3
Advocate for Success Become an advocate for the child’s success in bringing about effective behavior change. Design an intervention strategy that teaches the child that he is in charge of his behavior and that his success is the result of the choices he makes. Involve and empower the child in the intervention process. By providing the positive behavioral supports to assist the child in behavioral change, you can become a “cheerleader” and “coach” as you provide encouragement and support to bring about effective behavior change.
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Common Language A common language component assures clarity of what is being communicated between child and adult. This can be converted to the use of five classroom rules to govern behavior and expectations; • Follow directions • Respect one another and the teacher • Stay on task • Maintain self-control • Participate in the class Making these rules part of the day-to-day operation in the classroom minimizes confusion or attempts to manipulate. In the classroom, the common language may be represented by identifying, posting, and teaching these rules to the entire classroom. This presents clear and consistent expectations for all involved, thus minimizing the probability of unwanted behaviors.
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Praise 5 Research suggests that a praise rate of 5 to 1 maximizes the probability of effective behavior change. When a staff member redirects a child, relative to one of the five classroom rules, the staff member should then look for and reinforce the desired behavior. For example, a child who is corrected for not following directions, such as he keeps getting up from his desk, should be praised five times within a certain time frame for following directions, i.e., staying at his desk.
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Consistency The techniques described above will be significantly diminished in effectiveness if the components are not implemented consistently and with fidelity. What this means is “keep your eye on the target.” Set a schedule to reinforce priority behaviors and stick to it. The use of graphs, charts, and stickers are also helpful in engaging the child to participate in his own behavior change.
Engage and Encourage Parents 7 The cooperation and involvement of parents is essential to changing difficult behavior in children. Involve them in the development of the intervention strategy. They may need to change or adjust some of their own behaviors. Oftentimes the parent/child relationship is supported by habit patterns of maladaptive behaviors developed over time. For example, a parent that gives in to a demanding child who has tantrums to get what he or she wants or to avoid something, is teaching the child to use that behavior in other settings such as school or the community. In this case, it takes parents controlling and changing their behavior to facilitate a positive behavioral change “in their child.
Embracing Collaboration A Practical Approach for Creating Collaborative Learning Environment for Students with Severe Disabilities
Children with severe disabilities encounter many academic hurdles. But it’s not just the students who face challenges when it comes to making strides in school. The team of service providers that serves these students is challenged to work together to produce favorable outcomes, often with limited time, tight schedules, and overlapping goals. The IEP brings together a network to serve the student and family, including classroom teachers, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, social workers, paraprofessionals, and other educational specialists. Each provides a unique role, but all have the same ultimate goal—to help the student learn and succeed. And as with any winning team, those teams that work together successfully will likely see the greatest student progress. Katie Staniszewski, a Speech Language Pathologist and Clinical Manager for Learn It Systems in California, works closely with charter schools and public school districts to manage and deliver special education services. With the support of Learn It’s leadership, she has been studying the impact of a strong collaborative transdisciplinary model of service providers working together to serve students with
severe communication disabilities. And the results are positive, showing greater outcomes for students when the service providers work together in a collaborative approach, and include caregivers in the process. In this model, no single team member is fully responsible for the entire educational program for the child, rather each member contributes and collaborates to meet the needs of the
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whole child. But how does this translate into everyday activities, and is this going to add to the workload of service providers who already have a full plate? It may require some changes to building a successful team model, but Katie has witnessed positive results for students and educators using the collaborative model. Consider Anthony’s story. Anthony faced challenges from a very young age. His parents had a history of drug and alcohol abuse and were incarcerated. When Anthony was placed in his grandparents’ custody at 30 months, he was unable to speak any meaningful words and frequently showed challenging behaviors including tantrums and inability to follow 1-step directions. He was not potty trained and drank from a bottle. The initial assessment found Anthony had a 70% delay and the approximate age equivalent of a 9 month old. He needed help, and fast.
“We believe that collaboration is the key to successful outcomes in special education, too often providers get trapped in silos and fail to share and integrate their approaches. We believe that this fails the child, the family, and isn’t in the spirit of IDEA.” - LARA LAZEAR, M.S., CCC-SLP
The first approach was to provide intervention services at home for 5 hours a week. There was no contact amongst these providers and each performed their tasks independently. After 6 months, Anthony made limited progress. He began to use one meaningful word (which was mama), but his challenging behaviors continued and he was inconsistent with following 1-step directions. His approximate age equivalent at 36 months old was 12 months with a 66% delay. But things started to change for Anthony when he entered an early intervention special education preschool program with an integrated academic, speech & language, occupational, and behavioral goals program. His SLP and OT worked with him at the same time and there were weekly meetings that included the paraprofessionals from
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his classroom. The team involved his grandparents in treatment, sharing the team’s priorities and sending home visual supports to use at home. The school also provided parenting classes where Anthony’s grandparents could share their experiences and find support in a community of peers. After just 3 months using the collaborative model, Anthony was independently using 20 words and imitating 2-3 word functional phrases. He initiated play with peers and adults and participated in classroom routines. He was following 1-2 step directions and there was a dramatic reduction in challenging behaviors. He made 300% more progress under the collaboration model in half the time. This kind of collaborative approach is one of Learn It’s core values and is embraced by the organization. Managers and staff across the country are encouraged, as Katie was, to creatively integrate their services with other disciplines. According to Lara Lazear, Learn It’s Director of Special Education, “We believe that collaboration is the key to successful outcomes in special education, too often providers get trapped in silos and fail to share and integrate their approaches. We believe that this fails the child, the family, and isn’t in the spirit of IDEA.” Katie has outlined 8 collaboration strategies to increase efficiency, and Learn It believes that incorporating these ideas into daily activities can help improve outcomes for students like Anthony.
1. Schedule a Weekly Meeting for the Entire Team
During interviews with special education teachers, Katie found that 92% expressed a desire to collaborate. By bringing the whole crew together—teachers, SLPs, OTs, paraprofessionals, and any other involved parties—the team can effectively evaluate the successes and failures of the past week and plan ahead to determine a single priority for the upcoming week. Team members support each other while brainstorming strategies to help achieve this goal and create materials together to avoid duplication of work.
2. Identify Roles
Once the weekly priority has been determined, discuss and document roles and responsibilities. The group should assign a team leader—frequently the classroom teacher— who is responsible for overseeing the process to ensure that all responsibilities are met. Trying a modified PAC
“Sometimes the best advice doesn’t always come from a teacher or professional—it may be even more effective coming from a fellow parent.” - KATIE STANISZEWSKI (Provider Activity Context) model to case management and collaboration can really help identify roles and assign responsibility. This model brings together the Provider (teacher, paraprofessional, SLP, OT, etc.), the Activity (lessonplanning, assessment, creating visual cues, data collection, etc.), and the Context (classroom, playground, therapy room, etc.). During the team meeting, you can discuss what roles the paraprofessionals might play to provide support. “This gives all team players a sense of ownership for their contributions to the team,” explains Katie.
3. Embrace Efficiency
The biggest challenge many teachers face is the race against the clock. While you can’t create more time in the day, you can work to manage the given time effectively. Of the special education teachers that Katie surveyed, 85% of them described meetings as unstructured. Prepare an agenda for every meeting. The second step of creating an agenda is to stick to it! To help with this, Katie’s team kept a running list—or a “parking lot”—where they could keep track of side topics that came up and veered the conversation off topic. Another solution is to meet more frequently, keeping meetings shorter and on task.
4. Provide Take-Home Materials for Caregivers
Real progress happens when the work at school is supported by the work, play, and routines at home. Provide caregivers with visual supports and strategies to carry over the lessons into the home environment. For example, create a daily review sheet to keep home caregivers in the loop with special activities, successes, and struggles of the day. Include photographs to help reinforce strategies after the school day is over. And consider creating bilingual materials for students who may speak another language at home.
5. Offer Parenting Education Classes
Classes may cover topics like how to best use visual supports and other school-provided materials, how to feed picky eaters, or the best ways to engage children with severe communication disabilities. The added bonus is that these classes create a support network for parents and caregivers and provide an outlet to vent frustrations and celebrate victories with others in similar situations. “Sometimes the best advice doesn’t always come from a teacher or professional—it may be even more effective coming from a fellow parent,” suggests Katie.
6. Utilize Technology
Let technology simplify paperwork by using file sharing programs (like Google Docs or a Dropbox). You can streamline data collection and note-taking by using shared documents. It also saves time searching through emails to find attachments and outdated documents.
7. Use the Same Paperwork
Work as a team to create a system of documents and make a commitment for all team members to use the same forms and conventions. This includes notes from team meetings, classroom observation forms, daily activity charts for parents, and any other paperwork that is included in student files. “When we’re using the same form and same document, we’re all talking the same language,” explains Katie.
8. Be Flexible
What happens when it’s not working? Katie’s final tip is to accept the need for change and embrace it if things aren’t working. Personalities may clash, both amongst service providers and with students and service providers, and the same approach doesn’t always work for every student. If there are conflicts amongst the team, bring in a mediator—any third-party who is not involved with the day-to-day details of this student—for a fresh perspective. If the student’s needs aren’t aligning well with a teacher’s personality, consider placing the student in a different classroom. And, most importantly, be ready to embrace a new plan and think creatively to provide the best outcomes.
Author Katie Staniszewski is an SLP and Clinical Manager for Learn It Systems in California.
Hosting regular parenting education classes uses your time efficiently by teaching all of the parents at one time.
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The THREE PILLARS OF APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS (ABA) World Autism Day was celebrated on April 2nd. The recognition of autism and the need for effective support for children and adults with autism is growing worldwide. In the United States about 1 in 64 children are identified with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and this ratio is consistent in all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. Studies in Asia, Europe, and North America have identified individuals with ASD with an average prevalence of about 1% (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). While the research about the potential causal factors of ASD and improved diagnostic methods for ASD continue to flourish and receive media attention, much of the day-to-day work with ASD children and adults remains mysterious to those not involved as caretakers, teachers, and parents. Much of the work of ASD specialists is nuanced; varying depending on the child’s unique needs or unique place on the autism spectrum. Their work involves years of training, handson experience, and an incredible amount of patience. Fortunately, for individuals with ASD and their families, the ranks of those specialists are growing. Leaders in the field with years of experience are able to identify particular useful strategies to help families coping with ASD. One of the best strategies is Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), previously known as behavior modification. ABA is the application of operant and classical conditioning that modifies
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BEHAVIOR IS COMMUNICATION
BEHAVIOR SERVES A FUNCTION
BEHAVIOR IS LEARNED
behavior, especially as part of a learning or treatment process. ABA methods known as validated intensive behavioral intervention have been shown to be effective for almost all children on the autism spectrum. But what do these interventions look like at a practical level? Rob Haupt, VP of Development and previous Director of Clinical Services at Autism Spectrum Therapies, has spent years researching what is needed for families with ASD, and most importantly, knows how to fulfill those needs. To help people understand the key fundamentals of ABA practices, Rob has developed a simplified overview of ABA. It all started many years ago when Rob was working with a mom of a child with autism who had been a client of Autism Spectrum Therapies for a long time. She came to Rob and explained that she felt stuck.
ABA was something she believed in, but she didn’t quite get how the practices of ABA all fit together. To help the mother better understand, Rob shared with her The Three Pillars of ABA. Pillar I: Behavior is Communication Most children with autism struggle with communication so their behavior is the way for communicating what they want. For example, the mother’s child didn’t want to get out of the bathtub. When asked to get out of the bathtub, he couldn’t articulate his want, so he had a major meltdown in the form of a tantrum. Pillar II: There are Three Reasons for Wants What an child with autism, and most everyone, wants is based upon these three basic reasons: to get something, to get out of something, or because that something just really feels good.
PLACE
The key, as Rob explained, was the applied change, which in this case became the mother using a countdown of 15 minutes left, 10 minutes left and even teaching her son how to use a timer. She also was able to give additional minutes to reinforce the learned concept of time as the factor for getting wants and not the meltdown. Her son learned, over time, this new behavior and the meltdowns stopped. After Rob explained the pillars and put them into the context of the family’s situation, he saw the light bulb go off in the mother’s mind as she experienced an
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Pillar III: Behavior is Learned Over Time So when the child had a meltdown over staying in the bath, it wasn’t that he was born with a disposition or genetic affiliation for meltdowns after baths, it was something he learned over time. The meltdown worked because he got to stay in the bath. The solution in this bathtub situation involved several principals. Understanding functional communication, or how the particular child is able to communicate. Identifying the place of the behavior, what he was trying to communicate, the function of the behavior, and what we want to change. And finally modeling the new behavior.
IDENTIFIED WANT
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NEW BEHAVIOR
“ah ha” moment. By understanding the foundations of ABA in a practical way, she could apply this knowledge to help her son learn new behaviors which involve less stressful communication. While World Autism Day is for one day, practitioners and families work closely to use effective strategies and help those with ASD make everyday a day to enjoy the world. ABA is an effective strategy to address challenges faced by all kids every day.
Author Rob Haupt is the Vice President of Development at Autism Spectrum Therapies and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Listen to Rob’s podcast at autism-podcast.com.
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Connecting the autism community to resources and information Visit autism-podcast.com
Brought to you by Autism Spectrum Therapies.