Relias: Assessment for Program Building for Individuals with Autism ABA Program building Analysis, time and care • Assessment is the foundation for every aspect of the development and implementation of ABA programs • Ongoing activity that takes place thro

Relias: Assessment for Program Building for Individuals with Autism ABA Program building Analysis, time and care • Assessment is the foundation for every aspect of the development and implementation of ABA programs • Ongoing activity that takes place throughout the entire cycle of intervention • To create a successful program and an accelerated path to progress, BCBAs must understand several things about the client o What motivates the client? o Are there any behaviors that significantly interfere with learning? o What is the clients level of language and joint attention? o Where do the clients strengths lie? o What areas need improvement? • A bigger question at beginning stage of ABA intervention: whether programming should go deeper or wider for that particular client • Deep programming: settings vary few goals and targets at a time and providing numerous opportunities and trials. Intake • Starts here • Start assessing the needs of client right on this initial meeting • Appointments can vary depending on the needs of the client and their family • Successful intake appointment helps to guide where assessment efforts should lie. It is successful when: o The family’s expectation for the client as a result of ABA intervention o A general idea of how the client communicates and interacts with those closest to them o An idea of the depth of programming needed in the initial stages of ABA o An assessment strategy based on the needs of the client • Preference assessment: perform for every client upon intake and other times throughout the process. Get the information through: o Informational interview: as the individual what they like o Caregiver/family interview: as the people closest to client o Free operant: observe the client in an environment with many different reinforcing items or activities o Multiple stimulus without replacement (MSWO): Place array of items in front of client, note the one they chose first and allow them time to engage with the item o Multiple stimulus with replacement (MSW): use fewer items then MSWO and the item the client selected is placed back in the array o Paired stimulus: Place highly preferred item besides a less preferred one in an array of 2. Replace the item selected on the first trial with a different one o Single Stimulus: Allow the client to engage with the item until they stop, note the length of time and quality of engagement of each item to determine its effectiveness as a reinforcer Functional behavior assessment (FBA) • First assessment tasks to embark upon after intake • Data gathering process is in 3 broad categories: o Indirect assessment data ▪ Interviewing familiar with the clients problem behavior. ▪ Open-ended assessments are largely built upon questions that do not have a specific set of answers o Descriptive analysis data ▪ Collecting observational data using various methods. ▪ Do not always reveal the intended results o Functional analysis data ▪ The experimental manipulation of variables with the goal of eliciting a behavior. ▪ Used frequently in situations where the function of the behavior is unclear or the variables that trigger or maintain the beahvior cannot be reliable derived from descriptive analysis or indirect assessment ▪ Have been around since the earliest days of ABA Ethical Decision-making Regarding Professional Boundaries • Some of the major changes: o Need clear criteria for procedures to determine why aberrant behavior is displayed or maintained was established o Seminal paper published “toward a functional assessment of self-injurious beahvior” o Expansion to other populations o Expansion to other behaviors o Expansion to other settings o Identification of “other” variables o Interview informed synthesized contingency analysis (IISCA) Assessment for Skill Acquisition Programs • Core of the program building cycle is actually building skill acquisition plans. Skill acquisition plans are the blueprint for what the client needs to learn and what needs to take place so the client can learn. Skill areas, goals, program targets, prompt levels, and procedures for implementation are all critical to the program being carried out effectively. • Criterion-references assessments. Reasons they are administered: o Many assessments are criterion referenced o Many payer sources require the use of commercially produced assessment tools to help establish medical necessity and as a way to follow the clients progress. • Valuable tool in the creation of skill acquisition programs. • Structured observation is necessary component of many assessment tools • What to look for during structured clinical observation? o Initiating and responding joint attention o Responding to name o Response to reinforcing conditions o Imitation o Vocalizations o Stereotypy o Level of compliance o Response to redirection o Response to limit setting o Length of time engage in a reinforcing solitary activity o Length of time engaged with a highly reinforcing adult o Quality of play Establishing Long/short term goals • Long-term goals should be developed to address the common characteristics of ASD. These goals keep intervention efforts focused on the ultimate goal of functioning better in their respective environments. • Short-term goals should address components or aspects of long term goals o Also address prompt level for expected behavior • Observable and measurable and must contain certain components: o Conditions under which the expected behavior will be performed o The expected behavior o The criterion to identify the standard of behavior, by identifying how much or how often the beahvior must be displayed to consider the goal to be met Staff and parent collaboration and training • Critical • Parents also need to know what is covered by the program and the results of the assessments performed • Collaborative workshops o they trained families and team members to carry out interventions o involved presenting some discriminative stimuli and some semi-structured activities to the client and determining how best to prompt, reinforce and structure programming with the entire team present o ensure several important things: ▪ skill acquisition programs are individualized to the needs of the specific child rather than lifted from the items on a commercialized assessment