Our Clinic
Behavior Solutions designed its Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) program to provide children with autism the absolute best opportunity for recovery possible. Our clinic is a full time program in which children receive ABA services 5 days a week in a classroom setting. Full day and half day programs are available.
Our program allows children to learn in a structured environment while providing an increased number of opportunities for learning, an increased rate of responding by the child, and consistent reinforcement for newly learned behaviors. In this way, kids are learning at an accelerated rate and develop increased motivation for future learning as a result of the success they achieve in this format.
Our team works with the children and their families to create a comprehensive treatment package that addresses language, social, cognitive, and daily living skills so that children can better access their community and requires less supports as they grow older.
The strategies used at Behavior Solutions are based on extensive clinical experience and more than 60 years of scientific research. Our program is designed to provide children with autism an accelerated rate of learning and parents with necessary training and support to ensure generalization of new skills learned and sufficient skills to resolve many of the problems occurring at home. The treatment is based on ABA and primarily uses positive reinforcement, prompting, fading, shaping and generalization. Generalization is built into the program and ensured from the very beginning by providing training and support to parents/caregivers/professional support staff that can then prompt and reinforce the use of newly learned skills in the natural environment.
Clinic Services
There are 3 phases of clinic based services: 1) Intensive 1:1 Instruction 2) Small Group Instruction 3) Classroom Inclusion. Although, they generally progress from one to the next it is common for all three to be occurring at the same time.
Intensive 1:1 Instruction
Intensive 1:1 instruction involves the use of structured and systematic teaching techniques in a 1:1 format that provides an accelerated learning format. Although this phase often starts in a distraction free environment sitting at a table (“table time”) as soon as the child develops learning readiness skills (sitting, attending, following instructions, and some receptive language) the 1:1 format is performed in a more incidental and naturalistic manner. BSI staff is trained in the use of a variety of ABA based techniques that are proven to be effective in the literature. Some of these techniques include Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT), Verbal Behavior (VB), Natural Environment Training (NET), Pivotal Response Training (PRT) and incidental teaching (IT). The specific techniques used during 1:1 instruction are those that have the most support for their use and the ones that prove to be effective for each individual child.
Small Group Instruction
Small Group Instruction starts when the child has mastered skills necessary to learn in a group. The size of the group is determined based on a child’s ability level. When children first start group learning the group may consist of only one other child. As a child’s ability to learn with distractions in a small group improves, group sizes are increased to develop this skill further. Group instruction also involves the use of peers to provide accelerated learning opportunities in play and social skills. The purpose of this phase is to prepare children for academic and social success in more traditional classrooms in the educational system.
Classroom Inclusion
Classroom Inclusion starts when the child has learned key behaviors necessary for playing with friends, participation, and success in a classroom environment. The child should have some expressive language, strong receptive skills, be able to learn in small group formats, and not display any significant behavior problems. Integration is progressive and start in periods that offer high levels of structure and reinforcement. During this phase, a child is accompanied by one of their 1:1 instructors that are to serve as a shadow. The purpose of the shadow is to transfer instructional control to the classroom teacher. Once data indicate the child is successful in the classroom and the teacher has established instructional control, the shadow’s services will be systematically faded. During this phase 1:1 and small group instruction are often continued to strengthen academic and social skills
Additional Services
Parent Training
When parents enroll their children in our clinic program, they attend an initial training. The training covers research behind EIBI, basic principles of ABA including reinforcement, prompting, extinction, shaping, and a basic overview of the skills to be learned by their child in the initial stages of the program. The training includes lecture presentation, review of video tapes, and rehearsal with feedback of the techniques covered. Ongoing training occurs during clinic meetings. The purpose of the training is to provide parents a better understanding of how their child best learns as well as the skills necessary to teach and generalize new skills in the natural environment. One of the biggest predictors of outcome is parental involvement. The Behavior Solutions staff provides parents with teaching and behavior management strategies that can be used within the context of their everyday routines making incidental learning the focus of home treatment.
Community Outings
As part of generalization training children will participate in community outings. Community outings provide opportunities for promoting generalization of learned skills and development of new skills needed in the community. The improvements families experience as a result of community outings are repeatedly identified among the most valuable and stress alleviating benefits they experience during treatment (i.e., the ability to go out with their child without repeated and major meltdowns.)