Association for Behavior Analysis International

Much attention in our field has been focused on examining the effectiveness of possible interventions in facilitating students' learning or improving their performance. In this symposium, we'd like to discuss the importance of evaluating the efficiency of behavioral interventions. We will present weekly system-wide data from three different centers in three different countries (Italy, Korea and US). Our goals is to identify the key elements in efficient learning and teaching for young children with developmental delays. We hope our studies could shed some light on cost-effective interventions for program supervisors and school directors.

Audience with basic understanding of ABA intervention, trials, and short term objectives.

In many European Countries, including Italy, governments are struggling to provide children with ASD with early and intensive behavioral interventions within the free Public Health and Education System. While access to early diagnosis is improving, the lack of criteria in ABA effectiveness is hindering the direct application of the science. With the aim to measure treatment effectiveness and efficiency and share the results with national parents’ Associations and the Health Department, we tested the effects of implementing a CABAS® based educational model for 18 young kids, all enrolled in a learning and research centre in Italy. We collected monthly data on total number of Learn Units and learning objectives achieved by each Participant. Centre-wide data on rate of response opportunities to criterion were also analyzed and compared with those registered for a control group of 24 children with ASD of the same age, who were receiving free behavioral interventions for four hours a week only. Data suggest that the CABAS® model can be successfully adapted for different welfare systems and can provide Public Services’ leaders with easy-to-read data on how intensivity of early intervention could be individualized. Further research should compare different treatment’s intensivity packages and add norm-based data.

In South Korea, the number of the prevalence of children with ASD is comparable to that of the USA, now climbed up to 1 in 38. Our presentation will report data collected from KAVBA center in Seoul, South Korea, as a direct replication of the CABAS model. Pre and post data of 11 students aged 3 to 5 years olds who enrolled in the year of 03/2017-02/2018 were reported. PEP-R were used for pre and post assessments. With the intervention, the mean developmental gain across 11 children was 27.6 months with an average from 16 months to 50 months. More than half of them showed more than a whole year’s developmental gain. A comprehensive curriculum, and staff training and daily based supervision utilizing TPRA and Decision Analysis Protocol were critical elements for bringing above mentioned outcomes. Data from the one- year intensive behavior intervention in this one year time provided for discussion on effective and cost-efficient service for children with ASD in South Korea.

Fred S. Keller School is a behavior analytic early intervention and preschool program for children with and without developmental disabilities from 18 mon to 5 years old. Keller school is the oldest Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS) accredited programs. At Keller school, we strive to increase daily instruction students receive (measured by number of learn units) and decrease the number of instructional trials required to meet an objective (measured by the learn units to criterion). At a micro level, the learn units to criterion show how fast a student learns and how efficient a teacher teaches. At the macro level, it shows how efficient and cost-effective an educational model is. We are going to present the center-wide data on the number of learn units to criterion, cost per learn unit and cost per short term objective over the past 3 years. We propose the relatively low and stable level of all three measures was a function of an evidence-based decision algorithm, system-wide teacher training, verbal behavior development protocol interventions, among others.