What are Visual Supports and How do They Work

We all use schedules to keep up with our lives and keep up on track. For a child with a developmental disability there is no difference.  An activity schedule is a set of pictures or words that cues someone to follow a sequence of activities. These activities can take many things and encompass any part of the day. When a schedule needs to be broken down even smaller a task analysis can be used. An activity scheduled can be very detailed or general depending on the needs of the individual.

The goal of using a schedule board is to promote independent, reduce anxiety and allow the individual to understand what is expected of them. Many special needs individuals do not understand time in space, an activity schedule can help them learn a sequence of events that must be finished to get to an item on their board. This helps them learn to transition as well as wait for things going on in their life.

Schedule boards can be set up many ways. They can use check marks to let the person known when he has completed a task. A symbol can be taken to the desired area so they know where they are supposed to go at a certain time, likes stations in a classroom. They can also be put in an envelope when they are done so it is out of the way and the next item can be focused on.

Any way you do it, an activity schedule helps promote independence, decrease stress from transitions and helps the student understand what is expected of them.

What is a Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)

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The Picture Exchange Communication System or PECS approach is a modified applied behavior analysis program designed for early nonverbal symbolic communication training. Although not created to promote speech many found that indirectly some children began to spontaneously begin to use speech.  PECS begins by teaching individuals through discrete trials to initiate communication in to obtain desired items and then generalize what they have learned to other areas using naturalistic teaching.  PECS’s training occurs during typical activities within the natural settings of the classroom home and in the community. Through a series of phases students are taught to communicate using the PECS system within a broader positive behavioral support using ABA strategies that include chaining, shaping, prompting/cuing, modeling, and environmental engineering. The ultimate goal is to teach the student to spontaneously initiate communicative exchanges.

Understanding Functional Communication Training (FCT)

Functional communication training (FCT) looks to establish an appropriate communicative behavior as a replacement to a challenging behavior the individual uses to attain what they want. Through the use of reinforcing appropriate communicative interactions such as asking for a break when they feel overwhelmed and need to escape to a more effective socially accepted wanted behavior, over time the reduction or elimination of the challenging behavior can be obtained.   FCT can involve the use of Picture Exchange Communication Systems (PECS), Visual supports, and communicative aids, etc to promote more appropriate ways of communication their needs.  The overall goal of FCT is to teach the individual more appropriate alternative ways of expressing themselves as well as providing them better social and coping skills that promote choice, independence and community integration and lead to lasting change they can use throughout their life.

What are Functional Life Skills

Functional curriculum are those skills that significantly affect quality of life of an individual in the community around them.  Individuals with developmental disabilities have significant delays in learning life skills and extra care is needed to address these areas to ensure each individual reaches their full potential as active participants in home, school and community environments.

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Functional life skills include but are not limited to:

• Personal care skills like dressing, bathing and toileting.
• Domestic skills like shopping and managing a home.
• Recreational skills like entertaining friends, going bowling or a party in the neighborhood.
• Community skills like crossing the street, using sidewalks and using public transportation.
• Employment which includes knowing how to apply for and maintain a job.
• Behavior management such as knowing how to regulate your feelings and appropriate ways to engage others around you.
• Academic skills which may need to be modified or extra instruction provided for the student to participate within an inclusive setting while still receiving the necessary support in functional life skills they need.

Pivotal Response Training (PRT)

Pivotal Response Training (PRT) is a loosely structured form of ABA which relies on naturalistic opportunities and naturally occurring consequences to increase generalization, increase spontaneity, increase motivation while reducing prompt dependence often seen in more contrived teaching modalities.  Research has shown that naturalistic teaching formats increase motivation because they promote child choice, turn-taking, and reinforcing initiation of learning events.  PRT also works to target deficit areas often seen in children with autism such as increasing language skills, play skills and social behavior.

Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT)

Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) is a specific format of teaching using the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis. DTT breaks down skills into clear beginnings and endings sequences that can then provide multiple opportunities to practice each part of the skill until mastery is obtained. Through the use of prompting and reinforcement, children learn individual skills which are then combined into more complex repertoires such as brushing teeth, making their bed or any number of functional or academic skills. Research has proven that DTT is an effective method in teaching new or emerging skills to children with autism and related disorders that can later be generalized in all areas of their lives.

What is a Positive Behavior Support

Positive behavior supports work in unison with functional behavior analysis.  The goal is to bring about positive behavior change while reducing unwanted behaviors.

• Strategies for formulating a positive behavior support plan
• Look to modifying the environment, curriculum or activity to help the individual be successful and reduce the need for the unwanted behavior.
• Teach a new skill to replace the unwanted behavior such as asking for a break instead of hitting.
• Remember that positive behavior supports are a team effort.  Everyone is a team and must work together to meet the persons needs.
• Be consistent.  Consistency is the key to remediation of unwanted behaviors and the promotion of more appropriate behaviors.  If the child learns he will not get what he wants with the unwanted behavior and received the desired item with the desired behavior they will learn to use the appropriate interaction.  If they are able to get what they want occasionally using the unwanted behavior they will continue to use what they know in the past has worked for them.

All Behaviors Serve a Function

It is important to understand the intent of the behavior before applying the appropriate intervention.

In determining the function you need to understand the antecedent (what precedes the behavior), the behavior (the actual behavior itself), and the consequence (what they get or avoid from the behavior).  This is the best way to reduce or increase the behavior in question.

Behaviors do not develop in a vacuum nor do they maintain themselves without underlying causes that continue to reinforce their usefulness.  Behaviors occur for four reasons:

Sensory/Neurological:   The individual is looking for sensory feed through their behavior.	Escape:   To get out of or away from a situation, person or activity.
Attention:   To gain the attention of another.	Tangible:   To get something they want or feel they need.

Using research based proven technologies, a FBA looks beyond the behavior itself to identify possible antecedents or consequences that directly relate to the behavior itself.  Once the reason for a behavior is identified interventions can be implemented to either reduce or increase the behavior in question.

Functional (Behavior) Assessment

A Functional behavioral assessment (FBA/FAA) is a problem solving tool used to identify the purposes of specific behaviors and possible interventions to directly address that behavior.  A behavior can either be either positive or negative and the intervention can be to either increase of decrease a targeted behavior.

Steps to a good Functional Assessment

• Determine the target behavior to be changed.  Define it in measureable, observable terms.
• Identify the antecedents and the consequences to the behavior.
• Teach a new skill to replace the undesired behavior such as communicating they would like a break as opposed to running from the room.
• Identify what strengthens or weakens the behavior and use it to remediate the behavior in question.
• Keep apprised as to whether the program implemented is having the desired effect or needs to be revised.
• View behaviors as a means of communicating.

 

 

Why is Social Skills Training so Important

For individuals with developmental disabilities, social skills can be a challenge. Understanding social skills which are normally learned through general life experiences do not come naturally and require training to help individuals on the autism spectrum understand what to do.  Using social stories, activity schedules as well as group and community interaction are keys to help individuals understand appropriate ways to interact.   Social skills is not just know when and how to say hello there a many areas that need to be addressed to truly teach appropriate social interactions.  They include but are not limited to:

 

• Looking and maintaining appropriate eye contract.
• Maintaining appropriate body space such as knowing when and when not to touch, hug or enter others personal space.
• Developing a sense of empathy for other people and understanding their needs as well as your own.
• Giving and receiving compliments.
• Sharing interest, making friends and maintaining friendships.
• Understanding facial expressions and body language.
• Determining appropriate topics for discussion.
• Learning conversational skills such as greetings, goodbyes and condolences.
• Appropriate table manners.
• Understanding community activities, laws, and services.
• Appropriate grooming and expectations.
• Understanding dating and sexual etiquette.
• Interacting with authority figures.
• Learning to judge social situations and the interactions that are needed to maintain appropriate acceptable behavior within the environment in question.