Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Bring ABA into Inclusive Classrooms Instead of Sending Students with ASD to ABA Schools and Programs
Now that I shared my thoughts on segregated schools and 1:1 ABA therapy in isolation, I would like to share an alternative approach to providing ABA interventions for children with ASD. Early intervention professionals are familiar with Activity Based Interventions or Activity Based Instruction (ABI) and Routines-Based Intervention (RBI) (see the work of Diane Bricker and Robin McWilliam for more info). These approaches provide a framework for embedding individualized interventions for young children with disabilities within the context of everyday routines and activities in the home, school, and community. It is my very strong opinion that we should use frameworks such as these to embed ABA interventions within natural contexts for young children with ASD and school-age children as well. We know that children learn best when they are actively engaged in everyday routines and activities. However, it may be difficult to engage children with ASD in everyday routines across home, school, and community contexts without the use of ABA interventions and other active engagement strategies. Merging ABA interventions with ABI and RBI is a wonderful way to provide intensive ABA interventions within the natural environment. This allows children to learn within everyday contexts without having to be segregated from their typically developing peers and removed from classrooms that provide rich learning opportunities. Below, I summarized the steps discussed in detail in my book (Bringing ABA into Your Inclusive Classroom) that a BCBA or other professional with expertise in ABA and special education can follow for designing ABA interventions for implementation in the natural environment:
1: Conduct assessments (strengths/interests; present levels of performance for all domains that will be addressed in the ABA intervention program; parent and teacher priorities; list of everyday classroom, home, and/or community routines).
2: Set ABA intervention goals that are meaningful, observable, measurable, positively stated, developmentally appropriate, and have a criteria for mastery
3: Design ABA interventions that can be implemented across a variety of home, school, and/or community contexts and align data collection procedures. Consider the strengths and interests of the student when designing interventions.
4: Create a matrix that lists the ABA goals horizontally and the everyday routines vertically and put x's in the boxes to indicate which goals will be implemented during which routines. For example, during small group reading the teacher may be able to address communication goals, social goals, behavioral goals, and/or academic goals.
5: Provide training, modeling, and coaching to the primary interventionist (teacher or caregiver) to assist with implementing the ABA interventions within the context of everyday routines and provide support with data collection procedures.
6: Monitor the student's progress at least bi-weekly to make instructional decisions.