Association for Behavior Analysis International

Intensive behavioral intervention based on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is repeatedly shown to be effective for children with autism and other developmental delays. An increasing literature outlines empirically supported criteria related to treatment components shown to produce the most robust outcomes for children participating in ABA programs. Many times, ABA intervention programs that meet the outlined recommendations involve provision of services within the childs home or in private school settings. There are few descriptions related to ABA intervention programs delivered within public schools. The typical educational placement offered within the state of California is a Special Day Class wherein children with autism are usually exposed to an eclectic blend of educational practices, clearly differing from that suggested within the behavior analytic community. The current symposium seeks to amend this dilemma by describing how evidence-based behavior analytic classrooms can be developed through systematic collaboration between ABA providers and public school districts. Specifically, a programmatic description of public ABA classrooms resulting from such collaboration will be presented, including further detail regarding training packages and student outcomes. In addition, lessons learned from these various undertakings will be discussed.

Intensive behavioral intervention is known to be an empirically validated treatment for children with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities. Still, this critical treatment is rarely employed within the public school settings. This program description provides details related to a collaborative model developed by a non-public agency (NPA) providing behavior analytic services and a public school district in order to create programs grounded solely in applied behavior analytic evidence-based practices for children with a range of developmental delays, including but not limited to, autism spectrum disorder. An overview of the components of the model will be provided as well as review of the process used to develop and expand its application across two classrooms. A focus of discussion will be the form and frequency of collaboration between the NPA and school district staff. In addition, information related to student characteristics as well as program components such as teacher, staff, and parent training, assessment and intervention strategies utilized, and methods for evaluating outcomes within and across students will be presented.

Staff and teacher training play an integral role in the education provided to students in Special Day Classes. The need for effective training is readily observed when considering the training of educators in an applied behavior analysis (ABA) public classroom. The current paper, therefore, describes and evaluates the effectiveness of a training package utilized to teach ABA procedures to school facilitators and teachers. A Board Certified Behavior Analyst trained facilitators and teachers to provide intensive behavioral intervention in a school district ABA program serving children ages 3-10 with global delays and those on the autism spectrum. The training package employed consisted of initial and ongoing training covering various procedures including rapport building, establishing verbal operants, and decreasing undesirable behavior, among many other techniques commonly used in intensive behavioral intervention. The content, training procedures, and outcomes (e.g., maintenance) of the training package will be discussed in further detail along with implications for further trainings.