Teaching Strategies and Best Practices in Teaching Children with ASD

1. Teaching Strategies and Best Practices in Teaching Children with ASD Inclusive Strategies Kylea Frei M.Ed, BCBA Applied Behavioral Services March 2012

2. What is ABA? • ABA is a data driven science used primarily with children with developmental disabilities. • ABA’s foundation relies on the use of positive reinforcement. • ABA centers use the ABLLS or VB-MAPP to assess and create a treatment program specific to each child

3. What is ABA? • Behavior analysis is the scientific study of behavior. It is a science that studies environmental events that change behavior (Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968). • Environmental events are all of those events in your world that may influence your behavior. • The environment consists of a variety of stimulus events. These stimulus events can be discussed in terms of their physical, temporal, and functional features, along with their relationship to behavior.

4. A: Applied A: Applied • The label applied is not determined by the research procedures used but by the interest which society shows in the problems being studied. In behavioral application, the behavior, stimuli, and/or organism under study are chosen because of their importance to man and society, rather than their importance to theory (Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968).

5. B: Behavior • Behavior is anything a person or animal does that can be observed and measured. • Behavior is physical and it functions to do something • The dead man test • The dead man test was devised by Ogden Lindsley in 1965 as a rule of thumb for deciding if something is a behavior. The need for such a test stems from the importance of focusing on what an organism actually does when attempting to understand or modify its behavior. 

6. A: Analytic • Demonstrates experimental control over the occurrence and nonoccurrence of the behavior; functional relationship is demonstrated.

7. Brief History • In 1913, John Watson identified observable behavior as the proper subject matter for psychology and stated that all behavior is controlled by environmental events. This was where Watson laid out the stimulus-response psychology that started the movement called behaviorism. • B.F. Skinner later clarified the distinction between Ivan Pavlov's respondent conditioning (conditioned reflexes) and operant conditioning, in which the consequence of behavior controls the future occurrence of the behavior.

8. Brief History Cont. • Lovaas study • Data from an intensive, long-term experimental treatment group showed that 47% achieved normal intellectual and educational functioning, with normal-range IQ scores and successful first grade performance in public schools. • only 2% of the control-group children (n = 40) achieved normal educational and intellectual functioning (Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology)

9. What Does ABA Look Like? • It takes a variety of forms but remember ABA is not just one procedure it is a combination of the following… • Intensive Behavioral Intervention (IBI) • Discrete Trial Training (DTT) • Verbal Behavior (VB) • Natural Environment Teaching (NET) • Errorless Learning • Fluency Training • Table work • Floor teaching • Group instruction • Peer mediation • Community outings • Daily activities • Generalization

10. What skills does the student need to be successful in the classroom? • COMMUNICATION!!! • Preschool: Waiting, sharing, appropriate toy play, absence of aggressive behaviors, receptive commands, gross motor imitation skills, learning independence in play and academic activities, basic fine motor skills. • Grade School: Continuing academic independence, responsibility for own materials, communication with adults and peers, absence of aggressive behaviors, ability to learn new skills in small and large groups.

11. Continued…….. • Middle School: transition between classes, increased social interaction, “hidden curriculum”, learn concepts in a large group, demonstrate mastered skills across multiple environments with various instructors. • High School: Increased social interaction, afterschool activities, “hidden curriculum,” vocational interests/skills, independence, daily living skills, personal hygiene.

12. Do you have a good picture of this child? • What supports does this child need to participate in his environment in a meaningful way? • What part(s) of the day will the student be in the classroom? • Visual supports • Behavioral supports • Communication • Functional Curriculum • Consistency • Literacy instruction

13. Strategies: Visual Supports • Consistency: Use of consistent classroom routines and expectations and visual prompts to support the student. • Visual schedules that outline the child’s day. • Visual prompts for where items belong (HW, materials, etc) • Token economies to earn high level reinforcers. • Visual reminders of behavior expectations.

14. Use of visual supports in the classroom

15. Prompt/Support Levels • Provide the least intrusive prompt/level of support possible. • Fade prompts/support as needed. • Not all supports need to be faded out! Many visual supports need to remain in place, but can be modified to be easily generalized to many environments.

16. Should this prompt be faded out?

17. What about this one?

18. Visual Schedule

19. Behavioral Supports • Can be visual supports. • A behavior support plan written by a BCBA or BCaBA, staff trained on implementation and data collection. BSP’s should outline antecedent, behavior, consequence. • Ensuring a child has basic skills to make them successful in a classroom environment; waiting, following simple directions, accepting “no” with redirection, form of communication.

20. Token Economy: Table work

21. Continued…….

22. Token Economy

23. Independent work/Play Preschool/Kindergarten level School age level Child finds their folder at the center, takes out work, completes, puts in other side of folder or turns in to marked bin. Child stays at a center using a visual timer as a reminder/prompt to transition at the appropriate time. • 3 drawer system with close ended activities. Child matches color or number to each bin, takes out work, puts away, moves to the next bin. • Matches a number to a bin, takes out toy, pushes button to set timer, plays with toy until timer beeps, cleans up.

24. Learning 3 Drawer System

25. 3 Drawer Bin: Mastered

26. Ind. Work Station

27. Social Stories • Social Stories are a tool for teaching social skills to children with autism and related disabilities. Social stories provide an individual with accurate information about those situations that he may find difficult or confusing. The situation is described in detail and focus is given to a few key points: the important social cues, the events and reactions the individual might expect to occur in the situation, the actions and reactions that might be expected of him, and why. The goal of the story is to increase the individual’s understanding of, make him more comfortable in, and possibly suggest some appropriate responses for the situation in question. • www.polyxo.com

28. Sample Lining Up Sometimes my teacher will tell the class to line up. We line up before going places at school like the gym, recess, or restroom. Sometimes my friends and I get excited because we are going someplace fun. It is OK to get excited, but I need to keep my voice quiet in the hallway and my hands to myself.

29. Why use a social story? How can they help in the classroom? • Expectations of adults and peers. • Provide role playing guidance. • Understand the emotions, thoughts, and actions of others. • Become independent in managing their behaviors. • Outline behaviors that are being targeted with a token economy or in the child’s BSP.

30. Thank you! • Questions/Comments • kylea_frei@hotmail.com