Key Components of Effective School-Based Autism Programs

I attended a webinar over the summer in August, 2011, by Rethink Autism:
Key Components of Effective School-Based Autism Programs

http://www.rethinkautism.com/



Needed Curriculum Areas:
Functional Communication
Social Instruction
Play and Leisure
Cognitive and Academic Skills
Challenging Behavior
Generalization and Maintenance


Best Practices:
+Applied Behavior Analysis: Discrete Trial, Chaining
+Incidental Teaching

7 Key Components:
1.) Individualized Assessment: skills address core symptoms of autism:
language/communication, social skills, skills that replace challenging behavior, adaptive behavior
2.) Functional Curriculum: individual skills acquisition, with what level prompt
3.) Research Based Teaching Strategies
4.) Low Staffing Ratios: 1/1, small group: make the most of it when students need it, try peer mentoring, students will likely learn more quickly 1/1 and then try to generalize in group, 1/1 can be 1/1 with a different teacher and/or setting each time which will likely help student generalize
5.) Family Involvement: communicate with parents, because strategies can be shared to work for student in both situations
6.) Data Tracking: quantitative, easily observable, try to determine when behavior is happening/not happening most/least, by measuring behavior it will be obvious if strategies are working
7.) Training and Supervision: verbal/written, model skills/strategy in practice: hands on, video, provide verbal performance feedback

-Don't be afraid as a teacher to take a time out to stop and probe for data, and ensure that current strategies are working as they should, or have another professional look over data and practices for feedback.