ABA TEACHING STYLES
Why is it important to individualize therapeutic/ teaching styles?
Typically developing children learn skills rapidly through their natural environments. They watch their parents and imitate what they do. They pick up on subtle cues such as facial expressions of approval and disapproval. They learn to point to objects and reference others without being taught these skills. They act out their conflicts through pretend play and through their own social relationships. They learn academics in a large classroom full of distractions and other children without necessitating special equipment, tools or individualized teaching styles.
It has been stated that the ASD diagnosis could be defined as a disconnect between a child’s environment and learning style. Children with autism simply do not learn in the same ways that typically developing children do, and it is an educator’s job to acknowledge this and make accommodations for the child. It complicates things further to understand that even given a diagnosis of ASD does not guarantee that one particular therapeutic/teaching style will provide the key to educating a child successfully. It is a fact that each child is unique, and research continually demonstrates that there is no one right answer for every child with ASD. Research does indicate, however, that the overwhelming majority of children with autism do respond to some type of behavioral approach to learning. NATIONAL AUTISM CENTER »
For this reason, ELCA provides individualized ABA based therapy styles based on the learning style of the child. ELCA acknowledges that children vary in their learning styles, and adapts each child’s teaching environment accordingly. We feel that teaching a child is not about fitting a child to a particular teaching model, but fitting a model to the child’s specific needs.
EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICES.
Each of ELCA’s programs are uniquely suited to the child for whom it was created, yet all are created and evaluated according evidence-based principles. All of ELCA’s therapeutic styles follow the same basic behavioral principles according to best practices of the field of ABA. The application of principles such as reinforcement, prompting, shaping, and generalization are vital to every therapeutic teaching style that ELCA offers. The formulation of all ELCA therapeutic styles are highly structured, regardless of the level of structure that is apparent to the child or to the naive observer. Even apparently “unstructured” programs are actually well-planned and organized in order to maximize effectiveness and rate of skill acquisition.
All ELCA programs include the following:
- EVALUATION OF NEED- Determining if therapy is necessary
- ASSESSMENT OF SKILL LEVEL – Determining where the child is currently functioning in each area of need.
- DOCUMENTATION OF TARGET AREAS – Defining each area of need specifically for the team and documenting each on paper.
- SPECIFICALLY DEFINED AND DOCUMENTED TARGET SHEETS – Documenting every current target on paper in such a way that is descriptive, clear and easy to follow.
- INDIVIDUALIZED THERAPY STYLE SELECTION – Determining the best way to teach the child.
- DATA COLLECTION – Documenting the child’s performance and progress within each target area.
- BEHAVIOR SUPPORT PLANS – Outlining what the team will do when behaviors of concern arise, how to prevent them from happening, and how to teach alternative behaviors.
THERAPY STYLES.
The following outlines examples of the different types of teaching/therapy styles ELCA provides. The therapy style is individually chosen for each child in order to maximize therapeutic effectiveness. An ELCA consultant determines the teaching method appropriate for each client through an evaluation and assessment process. During this time, the child’s learning style and areas of need are defined.
SIDE-BY-SIDE COMPARISON OF THERAPY STYLES »
DISCRETE TRIAL TRAINING / MODIFIED DISCRETE TRIAL TRAINING (DTT)
| METHOD | DISCRETE TRIAL TRAINING (DTT) | ||
| DESCRIPTION | Highly structured teaching style emphasizing rapid-paced learning of small units of information. Generally taught in a 1:1 setting in which skills are broken down into the smallest components and generalization occurs highly systematically. | ||
| LEVEL OF STRUCTURE | High | LEVEL OF INTENSITY | Highly Intensive |
| SUGGESTED POPULATION | Children demonstrating significant delays in compliance, ready to learn skills, and generalization, and for whom this is the least restrictive environment. (More naturalistic teaching methods are not effective for these children because they require a high level of structure and a low level of distractions to learn effectively.) | ||
| METHOD | MODIFIED DISCRETE TRIAL TRAINING (DTT) | ||
| DESCRIPTION | More Similar to DTT, but the structure is loosened and the level of distractions allowed is increased. | ||
| LEVEL OF STRUCTURE | Moderate | LEVEL OF INTENSITY | Highly Intensive |
| SUGGESTED POPULATION | Children at least 3 years old with moderate to severe delays across many domains, but who demonstrate basic “readiness” to break away from the highly structured DTT. | ||
We would choose to create a DTT program only for children for whom this is the least restrictive environment. If children cannot acquire skills effectively and efficiently in a more naturalistic manner, this is the most appropriate teaching method. This type of program is intensive and highly structured. It involves a high level of repetition and a high level of reinforcement. This teaching style was developed in the 1980s by Ivar Lovaas, and continues to be shown to be an effective teaching style for many (but not all) children with ASD.
FUNCTIONAL PROGRAM
| METHOD | FUNCTIONAL PROGRAM / ADAPTIVE SKILLS PROGRAM | ||
| DESCRIPTION | Real-world teaching method emphasizing functional skills and communication in natural environments. | ||
| LEVEL OF STRUCTURE | Moderate or Low | LEVEL OF INTENSITY | Moderate |
| SUGGESTED POPULATION | Children with cognitive or behavioral delays who have difficulty with life skills such as dressing, washing, safety and other self-help tasks. | ||
Functional programs are designed for children who either do not respond well to receptive instruction (thus DTT can be less effective) or whose main areas of deficit are functional skills. These skills are essential to building independence in the home and community, which can improve a child’s quality of life dramatically. These children may have limited verbal abilities. Therefore, teaching functional communication is also generally an important part of this programming. This type of program also focuses a great deal on parent training, self-help skills, independence, leisure skills, communication, and community skills. Task analysis, chaining and shaping can play a big role in these programs.
NATURALISTIC / INCIDENTAL TEACHING
| METHOD | NATURALISTIC / INCIDENTAL TEACHING METHOD | ||
| DESCRIPTION | Functional (meaning-based), naturalistic teaching method utilizing meaningful materials and situations and automatically generalizing skills. | ||
| LEVEL OF STRUCTURE | Low | LEVEL OF INTENSITY | Moderate to Low |
| SUGGESTED POPULATION | Children of any age who are able to comprehend receptive language well and who have established behavioral control in naturalistic settings. | ||
This is generally the most common type of programming we provide. In theory, this is very similar to DTT, in that we have very specific targets we are working on and we follow most of the basic behavioral principles as in DTT programs. We also follow a specific curriculum just as we would with DTT. However, the manner in which we teach and the entire teaching environment is much more naturalized. We use a natural tone of voice (rather than “sing-songy”) we use real or contrived (seemingly real) situations, functional materials, and natural environments (play areas, the community, etc). We specifically differentiate between teaching and testing in a contextually rich manner to ensure that the children truly understand what we are teaching before collecting performance data. We may use this type of program to automatically generalize skills, using what we call the “Sesame Street” approach to learning, which collapses across all levels of generalization simultaneously (rather than generalizing slowly and systematically, as in DTT).
REFLECTIVE TEACHING METHOD
| METHOD | REFLECTIVE TEACHING METHOD | ||
| DESCRIPTION | Reflective, conversational method emphasizing guided problem-solving activities. Very loosely structured model. The therapist may give the appearance of a mentor rather than teacher. | ||
| LEVEL OF STRUCTURE | Moderate or Low | LEVEL OF INTENSITY | Moderate to Low |
| SUGGESTED POPULATION | Older children (more than 5 years old) who have mastered basic skills but still struggle with advanced cognitive processing, such as theory of mind and problem solving. | ||
This is the type of programming we provide for our older clients who have developed more advanced conceptual understanding. More advanced concepts, such as theory of mind, problem solving, advanced social skills, pragmatics, etc. are targeted in these programs. As we teach children to rate their own behavior (perhaps by acting out scenarios and the child rates the interaction as cool or not cool and identifies the reason why), monitor their anxiety (such as by using a feelings thermometer), or understand ways to repair what they have said or done based upon the feedback from others, these children begin to deal with their differences using tools they can carry into adulthood.
We may also choose a reflective program for children who struggle a great deal with rigid thinking. Flexibility programming focuses on helping our clients who struggle with transitions or when things do not “go their way”. We have other clients who have an extraordinary memory that has allowed them to develop an elaborative repertoire of delayed echolalia and playlalia. Upon extensive observation it becomes apparent that although they have acquired many skills, they do not have a true understanding of them. They are often delayed in creativity and flexibility in thought. We developed flexibility programming to assist with all of these types of children. On a basic level we may work on this in symbolic play, taking turns pretending objects and pictures are other things. Later we might work on this through improvisational games, such as “Genres,” in which we play out a simple action in different ways (such as buying groceries like a western, an opera, a cartoon, etc.).
This program teaches children how to cope with changes and helps build flexible thinking. As a residual benefit, we find that children who become more flexible develop a greater sense of humor! (Note: the type of programming used in reflective programming is often used in our advanced social skills groups as well.)
PLAY-BASED TEACHING METHOD
| METHOD | PLAY-BASED TEACHING METHOD | ||
| DESCRIPTION | Teaching basic skills through the utilization of toys and social games. | ||
| LEVEL OF STRUCTURE | High, Moderate or Low | LEVEL OF INTENSITY | Low |
| SUGGESTED POPULATION | Very young children (usually less than 3) who exhibit some basic understanding of compliance, but may lack fundamental ready to learn skills. These children are more responsive to a playful approach to learning. | ||
For very young children, we teach the basics of social and play behavior, such as pointing, basic referencing/joint attention, eye contact, imitation, turn taking, representational play, symbolic play and social games. We develop play-based programs in which the child is pressed to communicate and engage in such highly motivating ways that they often are unaware that they are working at all! We train the family members on how to play and expand the communicative opportunities (both natural and contrived).