Behavior versus Social Interventions

Behavior and Social Intervention: Compare and contrast behavioral versus social interventions. What would a decision making protocol be for a team when selecting an intervention for a student?

The overall goal of the behavioral interventions is to increase appropriate behaviors or skills and decrease inappropriate behaviors. In turn, the child will gain independence in functional activities, will obtain the skills needed for functioning, and will engage in meaningful social interactions. Behavioral interventions teach children to sit, attend, and follow commands and then progress with their abilities as they are built upon those basic skills. The teachers of behavioral interventions receive their training from seminars, workshops, and clinical practice opportunities. There are some ABA certifications that one can receive (New Jersey Early Intervention System, 2004). As was stated in one of my previous blogs, CLM, which is under the umbrella of ABA, requires all professionals, paraprofessionals, support staff, etc. to be trained in CLM to work in a CLM classroom.

 In social interventions, the goals are more for encouraging attention and intimacy (building relationships), improving social communication, improving self-awareness, and then expanding on the logical thought processes. For example, in Floortime, it is hoped that an engaging child will emerge and will, in turn, be an active participant in different environments. Floortime and RDI emphasize the roles of families in treatment. Finding certified professionals for Floortime and RDI can be difficult (New Jersey Early Intervention System, 2004).

Because there are so many different strategies available as interventions for autism, the question then becomes:

What strategy or strategies to use with a particular student?

PaTTAN (visit them at http://www.pattan.net/) has a list of 10 effective teaching principles that should be applied in all interventions for children with autism, which can be found at: http://www.pattan.net/files/bookmarks/research-based2.pdf

PaTTAN also posted this frequently asked question:

Q: What is the best method for teaching students with Autism Spectrum Disorders?

A: This is a very complicated question that does not have an easy answer. By virtue of the spectrum nature of ASDs, it does not make sense that there would be one way of working with all these students. Research has also not provided us with strong comparison studies of methodologies. There is, however, strong evidence that good instruction includes strategies based on the principles of applied behavior analysis. Most effective educators are using these strategies even if they do not call it ABA. Some of these strategies include: reinforcement, task analysis, errorless teaching/learning, error correction/transfer techniques, discrete trials, prompting/fading, shaping, chaining, extinction, mixing and varying tasks, and interspersing easy and difficult tasks. In addition, strategies from different methodologies are not necessarily incompatible. It is most important to assess a students needs, implement an instructional strategy to address those needs, monitor progress related to this instructional strategy, and adjust instruction if it is not effective.

Retrieved from: http://www.pattan.net/FAQs.aspx?ContentLocation=/teachlead/EffectiveInstruction1.aspx

Given the statement above and the knowledge we have gained through this course, it is easy to determine that there is no true answer of what is the best intervention strategy. Each child is unique and what may work for one student may not work for another. As far as a protocol to determine which approach would be considered best, good use of assessment tools and clinical observations would be the key. I think age of the child and previous background would play a factor in determining a treatment intervention.  The weaknesses and strengths of the student will need to be weighed.  One would also need to factor in the input given from all members of the team and provide non-biased, but informative references to the parents for their review. As PaTTAN has stated above, it will then be imperative that progress is monitored closely and the interventions or instruction methods be adjusted as needed.

Reference:

New Jersey Early Intervention System (2004). Service Guidelines for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Retrieved from: http://www.njeis.org/familylink/autism/auguide.pdf