School or ABA:
Top Seven Things to Consider by Angelica N. Gray, MA, BCBA, LBA
The decision to place your child in full-time ABA or in school can be a difficult decision for many families. Each child presents with a unique personality, areas of strengths, and goals to work toward. Classroom structures and teachers vary within the same school or across the same district and the educational setting can have pros and cons for each child’s unique educational needs. Many areas that are important to assess when making this decision may not seem as important and are often overlooked by more pressing and urgent considerations (problem behaviors, sensory seeking, stereotype behaviors). Below, I’ll offer an overview of the areas that you want to discuss with your child’s team when deciding their learning environment. 1. Problem Behavior is the most significant barrier to a child not
being able to learn and maintain placement in a public school setting. Behavior that impedes the learning of the child and of others is the first barrier to consider when discussing placement. If behaviors pose harm to the safety of the child and/or other children or adults (self-injurious behavior, aggressive behavior, property destruction, or elopement) ABA placement is recommended. ABA Therapy can help to determine the behavior function and develop a plan that can decrease problem behavior. As behavior severity and frequency decrease, the plan can be generalized to home and school settings. Schools often address problem behavior through conducting assessments and developing plans, but it is often difficult to adhere to those plans and intervene effectively due to classroom size, lack of crisis management training, or lack of individuals who are trained to assist in the school’s established crisis management protocols. Children who engage in maladaptive behaviors and are not a danger to themselves and can be easily redirected, have low frequency and low severity target behaviors, or who may need minimal supports with getting their needs met within the school environment, would be ideal for a school placement. 2. Schedule of Reinforcement. School placement would be recommended for children who are able to work independently for an average of 20 minutes intervals throughout the day without requiring a break (ie, reinforcement). Children who require more frequent breaks may need a 1:1 setting that an ABA placement could offer and allows for additional breaks.
24 Special Needs Living • June 2021
Schools often attempt to increase “time on task” for children, however, if there are no additional support staff to monitor, provide reinforcement, and systematically increase, these goals will often go unmet. Children who are able to work independently for an average of 20 minutes and are able to request for their needs to be met or have the ability to access needed reinforcement without adult intervention would perform well in a school environment. 3. Rate of skill acquisition. A child who can model or imitate the positive behaviors of peers, follow a teacher’s instructions within a group setting, and who can acquire skills without requiring a lot of repeated practice, would be recommended for school placement. The children we work with in our center sometimes require 200–500 opportunities to work on a skill before they become fluent in it. When a child is able to attend school but falls significantly behind classmates, it is a sign that more practice is needed with the material in order for them to know the material fluently. They often need more than a few examples and practice problems before they are able to complete the task independently. Some children may benefit from a split schedule of school and ABA in order to practice skills 1:1 and become fluent. 4. Requesting. One of the most common ignored barriers that
we see are children who do not make their needs known within the school setting. Examples of this are when a child doesn’t ask for help, clarification of assignments, or assistance when work is too hard. These students may not request bathroom breaks or let the teacher know if they are hot/cold, thirsty/hungry, in pain, or other needs. Additionally, they will not ask for the removal of aversive stimuli (ie, someone is bullying them, lights are too bright, etc.). In these instances, a partial or half-day ABA placement would be recommended in order to teach the child self-advocacy skills so that they can become more successful in requesting help to meet their academic and social needs within the educational setting and to reduce the likelihood that they will become victims of bullying. A second issue that is seen with the lack of requesting is that it can be closely tied to high-severity and high-frequency problem behaviors. When a child does not request, an ABA program can be beneficial in establishing a mode of communication for non-vocal children to begin communicating using single words either through the use of sign language, vocalization, pictures, or a speech communication device. Children who are assertive and will request (using phrases or full sentences) what they need and want as well as their likes and dislikes will most likely benefit in a school placement. 5. Labeling. The ability to label items plays a critical role in
conversation and language arts (reading, writing, and comprehension) skills. Children with a fluent foundation in labeling (including naming the parts of items, categorizing and naming the function of items will have a stronger foundation to build on
