Behavior Analysis Center for Autism - BACA

BACA provides ABA therapy to help children with autism.

Karen Callahan

Alphabet Soup: Understanding ABA & AVB

by

Chances are you’ve heard the terms Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) and Applied Verbal Behavior (AVB) more times than you can count. So what do they really mean? And are they the miracle intervention for your child?

ABA, in the most complex terms is “the application of the principles of learning and motivation from Behavior Analysis, and the procedures and technology derived from those principles, to the solution of problems of social significance.”

In the simplest terms?  It’s using learning to change behavior. And AVB?  Basically the same thing except it’s all about language.

At Trellis, we use the principals of ABA and an AVB methodology to lay the foundation for success in school and life. We integrate ABA principles into all the work we do at Trellis and we primarily focus on using AVB in our Trellis School and Love2Learn programs.

How we use the principals of ABA

The goal of most families is to have children develop the basic communication, social and life skills they need to be successful. That’s what we focus on. Using ABA, we’re able to help teach new behaviors by breaking skills down into small, understandable steps that are taught separately. Once each step is learned separately they are strung together into a targeted behavior or task. For example, a child working on building a pre-requisite skill of sitting at a table might start with short intervals, gradually increasing the time and the seatmates. The goal isn’t just to have the child sit at a table during a group session, but to be an engaged participating member at the end.

How we use AVB

Using words, having conversations, reading and writing. We know that’s what you want for your child. AVB is a natural next step as children and students at Trellis slowly begin to trust staff and beginning developing activities. As activities are established, instructors are providing learners with all the language needed to talk about the items, what the items do, the parts of the items, etc. This is what facilitates communication. Motivation is key in this process. When a learner is motivated by an item or something fun that an instructor can do with the item, they will be motivated to “demand” or request that item or activity again. Multiple opportunities for the learner to communicate those “wants” are contrived throughout an activity, evoking the learner’s communication and repeated opportunities to practice that communication.

At Trellis, we emphasize the AVB methodology because aside from the scientific evidence, we believe that communication is the foundation for learning, and by rigorously focusing on communication we can better support a child functioning in school and the community.

AVB gives children the language they need to engage in social situations within the school and community. They are able to participate in those situations because of their increased ability to communicate their wants and needs. Also, for some, an increase in communication can contribute to reductions in interfering or challenging behavior.  Trellis understands that children need various ways to communicate too, that’s why we teach using a variety of modalities, such as vocal communication, sign language, through the use of pictures, or using an augmentative communication system (e.g., software on an iPad or another voice output device).

These are very simple explanations of what ABA and AVB are and how we try to integrate the principles into our work at Trellis. We invite you to read more on our website or contact us to find out more about how and why we use these interventions to create fun, motivating and individualized programs for each of our learners.

What is the NET? And Why Is It Important?

by

NET is code name for Natural Environment Teaching.

Research has shown that children with Autism learn better in a natural learning environment because they are not typically motivated to learn new things.

At Trellis the NET is set up in areas mimicking typical playrooms and in thematic centers (e.g., Housekeeping/Dress up, Vehicles and Blocks, Art Room, Sensory Room, Gross Motor Room, Library, Game Room, etc.).  Throughout the NET, toys are strategically placed in bins and/or on shelves, out of the learners’ reach to facilitate opportunities for communication.  When children are motivated to get something, they will attempt to communicate their desire for that item.  At that time, appropriate language is taught so the learners are more readily and easily able to communicate what they want the next time they want that item.

In the Trellis School, young learners at Trellis spend up to 90% of their day in the NET

Trellis Hosts LAMP Training at Trellis Learning Center

by

Members of the autism community and staff of Trellis participated in LAMP training at the new Trellis Learning Center.

The Language Acquisition through Motor Planning (LAMP) is a therapeutic approach that teaches nonverbal or limited verbal learners a way to communicate – through a very specific methodology using a speech generating device. It is an approach that is well known and loved by Trellis therapists, instructors and families.

LAMP gives individuals who are nonverbal or have limited verbal abilities a method of independently and spontaneously communicate.

Trellis collaborated with The Center for AAC and Autism and the Prentke Romich Company on the program.

Twelve Trellis staff members and more than 50 people from the Baltimore community attended the training at the Trellis Learning Center in Sparks, Maryland.

Learn more about LAMP from the Center for AAC and Autism.

Trellis Moves Into New Learning Center

by

Today Trellis Services moved into its new state-of-the-art learning center in Sparks, Maryland in Baltimore County.

Located just a couple miles north of the Hunt Valley Town Center with easy access from Interstate 83, the new facility include over 30,000 square feet of learning space for children with autism.

The new facility will be home to the Trellis School, Trellis’s afterschool program for Baltimore County, and all of Trellis’s clinic-based programs for children with autism including the Love 2 Learn early intervention program. The center includes 6 classrooms, a sensory gym and thousands of square feet of natural learning environment.

The additional space will allow Trellis to serve more families in the region. Many families can now obtain insurance coverage for many of the services that Trells provides. Earlier this year, Maryland became the 37th state to pass autism insurance reform. Many more families in the state now have insurance coverage for habilitative services, including ABA.

 

Another Study Supports ABA & Early Intervention

by

A new literature review from Vanderbilt finds more evidence backing behavioral intervention for kids with autism.

In research supported federal government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, researchers at Vanderbilt University reviewed 65 research studies on behavior interventions. They concluded that intensive early intervention  based on the principles of applied behavior analysis “can significantly affect the development of some children with ASD.”

h Read the Report

Maryland Passes Autism Insurance Reform

by

Maryland Families Get Insurance Coverage for Autism

Through the tremendous work of organizations such as Pathfinders for Autism and Autism Speaks many more families in Maryland now have access to insurance coverage for autism as a result of legislation and regulation recently enacted.

The new requirements apply to individual, fully funded small and large group plans, the state employee health plan and coverage purchased through Maryland’s health insurance marketplace created under the Affordable Care Act. The coverage includes a minimum of 25 hours weekly of ABA up to age six, and then 10 hours weekly through age 18.

Have questions? Trellis can help you navigate the insurance maze.

j Contact Us.

What is the VB-MAPP?

by

Put simply, the VB-MAPP is a tool that we use at Trellis to assess and develop learning plans for young learners with autism.

Based on the work of renowned behaviorist B.F. Skinner, the VB-MAPP or Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program is a criterion-referenced assessment tool, curriculum guide, and skill tracking system that is designed for children with autism, and other individuals who demonstrate language delays. There are three core components to the VB-MAPP:

  1. The Milestones Assessment includes 170 measurable learning and language milestones which are designed to assess a learners existing verbal and related skills. We use this tool to help us design a individualized intervention strategy for our learners.
  2. The Barriers Assessments helps identify the specific challenges a learner is having with learning and language acquisitions.
  3. The Transition Assessment helps assess whether a learner is ready to move to a less restrictive learning environment. We use it to understand how our learners are progressing toward their goals.
  4. The Task Analysis and Skills Tracking forms the basis for daily skill building. There are over 900 skills in this tool.

Collectively, these four components of the VB-MAPP represent over 30 years of research, clinical work, field-testing, and revisions (Partington & Sundberg, 1998; Sundberg, 1980, 1983, 1987, 1990; Sundberg & Michael, 2001; Sundberg & Partington, 1998; Sundberg, Ray, Braam, Stafford, Rueber, & Braam, 1979).

At Trellis, we often use the VB-MAPP to determine where a young learner is functioning in comparison to neurotypical children at the same chronological age.  Skills and goals are then chosen based on that assessment and implemented throughout each session.  In the Trellis School, additional goals from the child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) and the Maryland College and Career Ready Standards are selected and taught.  Data on all skills, goals/ and ehaviors are tracked on the students’ weekly data sheets.

Trellis Hosts Annual Autism Awareness Fundraiser

by

Over 350 people attended Trellis’s annual fundraiser in support of Pathfinders for Autism.

The event was a tremendous success raising over $10,000 for Maryland’s leading autism advocacy group. The highlight of the event was the keynote speech from Towson Univeristy Men’s Basketball Coach, Pat Skerry. Coach Skerry, who is a member of the Trellis community, has been a tremendous advocate for raising awareness about autism across the country.

You can learn more about Pat’s efforts in this Washington Post article.

New Wave of Speech-Language Therapy

by

The story of Isaac, a bright-eyed and energetic four-year- old, brings to life the power of blended speech-language therapy.

All things considered, everything was going as you would expect with a boy his age. He loved superheroes, video games, and trying to learn to skateboard. But early on his mother noticed she was having trouble understanding him when he spoke. She had gone through a similar situation with Isaac’s older sister. So, she had him tested.

Isaac lives in Nye County, Nevada. This rural county is home to several environmentally sensitive areas, including a portion of Death Valley National Park and is remarkable in the fact that it is the third largest county in the contiguous U.S., larger than the combined total area of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Delaware. While those four states hold a total population of more than 17 million, Nye County’s residents are estimated to be less than 44,000. Yet, the needs of a young child, such as Isaac, don’t change with the size of a county’s population.

As his mother suspected, Isaac was having articulation problems. So, the county provided the services Isaac needed, until Joe Gent, the Special Education Coordinator in Nye County, Nevada, found himself shorthanded. The therapist working with Isaac moved away in the middle of the school year. Mr. Gent wanted to ensure there was continuity in the services Isaac received.

The situation marked the start of a relationship between Learn It, a national provider of special education services, and Nye County.

Creating New Possibilities With Blended Therapy

Telepractice redefines the delivery of Speech-Language services. It enables the creation of a new blended therapy model that is more flexible, more customized and more in tune with challenges facing both the administrators who have to address the needs of their students and the ability of the therapists to fulfill their obligations.

For Learn It, telepractice has enabled the creation of a wide range of services for both individual students and small groups of students. These services have proven ideal for school districts where there are larger caseloads, high indirect costs, difficult to staff locations, and significant travel time between schools. Learn It has also been able to work with schools just to cover their response to intervention services. In sum, telepractice has proven to be an excellent resource offering the flexibility to be utilized in many different ways to address the needs of school districts.

To facilitate a blended approach, Learn It can provide a full or part-time, on-site or telepractice solution that allows for in-person therapy combined with the on-demand benefits of telepractice. This also allows for the greatest short-term and long-term flexibility in caseload management. Learn It can also provide blended on-site/telepractice services in combination with a district’s on-site SLPs, allowing schools to extend services to more students while managing special education costs. This blended solution helps eliminate gaps in therapy and maintain compliance.