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Explore a non-profit school's ABA approach in teaching preschoolers with autism, focusing on individualized instruction and communication methods.
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Background and Context InformationThe school: The school a non for profit urban school located in Manhattan, NY. The school is a special education institution, dedicated exclusively to teach students with autism. The classroom is a self-contained preschool classroom which consists of 6 students, 1 teacher and 3 teacher assistants (6:1:3). The school’s mission is to provide meaningful education to students under the autism spectrum and help them acquire and maintain necessary skills and even help them participate in mainstream education if possible. The institution follows an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) approach. ABA is a science based practice that focuses on applying interventions based upon the principles of learning theory, to improve socially significant behaviors. ABA is used to help many types of learners, but is it especially used to help children with autism and related developmental disorders. One of the most important principles of ABA is the use of positive reinforcement to increase the occurrence of appropriate behavior. ABA principles and techniques can foster basic skills such as eye contact, imitation and even reading, conversing and understanding somebody else’s perspective.
Type of Instruction • The students in this classroom receive 1:1 instruction, because the school follows an ABA approach, which focuses on teaching basic skills individually. ABA studies show that intensive one-to-one teaching may be required to produce maximum effect. 1:1 instruction recognizes the individual differences among children, even among diagnostic groups. The students in the classroom receive 30 minutes of instructional lunch, during which the staff monitors and helps the students to eat appropriately and socialize with their peers and this is the only activity that they do as a group. The rest of the instruction is delivered individually. During individual lessons, the students work on a variety of skills that range from learning to use the bathroom, wash hands and put on their coat to more academic abilities such as expressive and receptive language skills, cognitive skills, gross and fine motor skills, social skills and any other skills targeted in the students’ IEP .
Instructional Program • The school uses the “Individualized Goal Selection” (IGS) curriculum as a guide for the selection of appropriate goals, in accordance with the student’s individual needs and circumstances. The IGS curriculum serves as an educational and administrative tool, because it systematizes the development, implementation, supervision and monitoring of the 1:1 (individualized) programs for each student.
Focus Learner • Age: 3 years old • Gender: Male • Grade level: Preschool • 4. Primary language: English • 5. Augmentative or alternative communication device: The focus learner has been diagnosed with autism and is at the time non-verbal. He is currently beginning to use Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) to communicate his needs. PECS is a non-electronic alternative communication system that uses an exchange of symbols for requesting wants and needs and eventually for commenting and answering questions.
Learning Targets Both of these targets are extracted from the student’s IEP • Learning target #1. The student will learn to use Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) to communicate his needs. The Picture exchange Communication System (PECS) is an augmentative and alternative communication device used as a communication aid for students with communicative, cognitive and or physical impairments. With this system, the student exchanges a symbol with a picture of a desired item for the actual desired item. The instruction is divided in six phases, which begin with teaching the student to make a single exchange and ends with the student answering direct questions. When the student masters phase I and II, he is provided with a PECS communication book, which is a ring binder with Velcro strips where pictures are stored and easily removed for communication. • Learning target #2. The student will improve his fine motor skills. The focus learner presents fine motors difficulties and using PECS symbols will help him work on these skills.
Student’s strengths and challenges The focus learner is a very enthusiastic boy. He is a visual learner with a great memory capacity. At the time, the student is non-verbal and unable to communicate his needs, which causes him a great deal of frustration, which he demonstrates by crying, throwing his body on the floor and even hitting teachers.
Intervention • The intervention will consist in guiding the student through the first 3 phases of the PECS program. Each lesson will teach the student a different phase. The lessons will be connected, because each phase is scaffold upon another. All lessons will be generalized by having different staff members conduct the same lessons with the focus learner. The new communication skills acquired by the use of PECS will be extended to other food items, classroom materials and any other item that the student needs daily in the classroom. These skills will be practiced and maintained during lunch time, during school trips and during snack time and eventually a PECS book will be sent home, so that he can use the system at home. Before sending the PECS book home, the parents will be trained on the use of PECS.
Lesson Objectives: • Communication objective:student will be able to request a food item (chip) using a Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) symbol with a 90% or more accuracy during daily discrete trial. • Cognitive objective: student will demonstrate persistence by retrieving the PECS symbol across distance with a 90% or more accuracy during daily discrete trial. • Cognitive objective:student will be able to discriminate between two different symbols with a 90% or more accuracy during daily discrete trial. • Fine Motor objective: student will use hand-eye coordination to pick up a PECS symbol and release the picture into the hand of the teacher with a 90% or more accuracy during daily discrete trial.
