Curriculum for RBTs

Understanding Curriculum

• Curriculum is not on the RBT task list.
• BCBAs usually develop the curriculum.
• RBTs are not responsible for developing curriculum.

Importance of Learning Curriculum

• Knowing the thought process and objectives helps RBTs implement interventions better.
• Understanding the purpose improves intervention.
• It helps RBTs break down the curriculum when needed.
• Example: If a child struggles with expressive labeling, go back to receptive labeling or matching tasks.
• The Autism Partnership method aims for widely competent technicians who understand ABA, curriculum, child development, and autism.

Caveats

• Curriculum is not limited to individuals diagnosed with autism; it can be used for typically developing children, children with developmental disabilities, and children with intellectual disabilities.
• Autism Partnership members have written books like "A Work in Progress" and "Crafting Connections".
• None of the colleagues presenting this 40 hours make any money from these books.
• Royalties from book sales help fund Autism Partnership Foundation and research studies or children's programs.

Curriculum Assessments

• Autism Partnership's method doesn't use a cookbook approach or only one assessment.
• They don't limit themselves to a singular curriculum.
• They do not pigeonhole themselves into only one assessment.
• They don't just use "A Work in Progress," VB-MAPP, ABLLS, or the PEAK assessment.

Comprehensive Approach

• One curriculum book isn't comprehensive enough to teach all necessary skills.
• One assessment isn't comprehensive enough to assess all learner needs.
• Curriculum is not followed rigidly.
• Curriculum books should be seen as guidelines.
• Example: In matching programs (2D to 2D, 3D to 3D, 2D to 3D, non-identical), the implementation isn't always linear.
• Sometimes, you might start with phase one, skip phase two, and go to phase three based on the individual's needs.
• Technicians should have the freedom to think critically and creatively.
• Examples of thinking outside the box curriculum include fruit salad, the sleeping game, and "I like you, but I just can't smile."

Individualized Curriculum

• Curriculum needs to be individualized to meet the needs of each child.
• Goals should not be the same for every child.
• Programs should be tailored to individual needs, whether in a clinic, home, or school setting.

Current Priorities

• BCBAs determine the priorities, figuring out what's most important to teach now.
• RBTs inform the BCBA about deficits or strengths they observe.
• It is the BCBA's job to talk to parents to get their input to provide meaningful and functional skills.
• Parents' input is imperative because they see their child at home, in the community, and with their family.
• Example: Parents filled out the SSIS to determine what they read as critical or not critical to work on. When one parent said everything was critical, they knew that they had to be objective when they couldn't work on everything right away.
• Example: A parent said answering the phone was a priority but not sharing. Sharing may be the bigger priority when the child is three years old.
• The goal is to realize what you’re teaching now, both in the short-term and what big effect it’s going to have in the long term.
• Inform and educate technicians so they can be better.

Functionality

• Teach meaningful, socially valid, and functional skills.
• Example: Teaching adolescents how to purchase with a credit card, bathe, or take care of themselves instead of teaching pictures of dogs and learning dog breeds.
• Example: Prioritize sharing, joining in, playing appropriately, and winning/losing graciously over teaching a six-year-old to say "thank you," "excuse me," and "please."
• RBTs should inform supervisors if they're unsure about the functionality of a task.

Curriculum Books

• Curriculum books are guides.
• Some curriculum books are outdated.
• Example: "The Me Book" by Lovaas (1981 version and 2003 version) is outdated.
• "A Work in Progress" is a great book but should be used as a guide.
• Encourage any RBT to look at curriculum, become really familiar with the different curriculum books, understand where curriculum comes from, and understand those books.

Number of Programs

• Teach a variety of behaviors but not loads of programs at any one time.
• There might be times when a child might be only working on five things and just having five goals.
• There might be other children that might have 20 goals because those are what's functional.

Reinforcement

• Everything starts with reinforcement and functional reinforcers.
• If there aren't a lot of reinforcers, there's no way to effectively implement the behavioral intervention or change behavior.
• Spend a lot of programming time creating and developing reinforcers, especially in early programs.
• Having reinforcers is an investment in the child's future.
• Conditioning reinforcers can be embedded within other programs.

Conditioning Example

*Jeremy is working on conditioning a book with a child.
*He goes with the child's lead a lot of the time.

• Gives choices
• The teacher is working hard to make that book really reinforcing to the student.
• Its just not just playing throughout the whole time.
• Having the student work on those conditional instructions, work on only responding his name is called.

Learning How to Learn Skills

• Learning about the process of teaching.
• Learning how to be a good learner.
• Learning how to be a good student.
• Critical skills for all students to display.
• When they display these skills, they do better on learning language programs.
• Critical skills for all skills to display.
• They do better on social programs.
• Focus on learning how to learn skills whenever we get a student, whenever we get a student who’s lacking these behaviors.
• Those skills expedite behavior or language behavior.
• Learning how to learn behaviors have to be made a priority for any individual you're working with.

Examples of Learning How to Learn Skills

• Sitting appropriately
  *Waiting for a reinforcer, instruction, or preferred item
• Attending to the instruction or materials (not just eye contact)
• Observational learning (learn from their environment)
  *Giving back reinforcers
• Not fidgeting or grabbing instructional materials
  *Remaining calm
  *Responding to instructions
  *Learning from feedback
  *Learning from prompts
  *Deductive reasoning
  *Joint attention

Sitting and Attending

*If they're not sitting well, they're not really attending well.
*Attending is a critical skill.
*Doesn't mean eye contact.
*Sometimes, you need to be attending to the person providing instruction.
*Sometimes, you need to be attending to other materials.

Observational Learning

• One of the more important programs to implement/work on.
• They can better learn from their environment.
• They can pick up things that are occurring in their environment.
• Student can pick up language and social behavior.
• Student can pick up academic skills throughout their environment.
• So they can really pick up behaviors by just simply observing what's going on in their natural environment.
  *Focus is on early intervention so that they can pick up language and social behavior.

Giving Back Reinforcers

*Children don't know why they got the reinforcer, and they have trouble giving it back.
*If they refuse to give it back, it's going to hurt the learning process.
*You now have to take time of grabbing it away, which might lead to a tantrum or other behavior.
*Relinquishing reinforcers is a pivotal skill to learn in terms of learning how to learn.

Not Fidgeting or Grabbing

*We don't want our kids constantly in motion, constantly moving.
*When you're constantly fidgeting and you're just moving all around, you're not paying attention to the instructions.
*So we have to work on not fidgeting
*Grabbing, we don't know if they have the right engaging the right behavior. If they're responding correctly.

Remaining Calm

• We have a whole procedure on frustration tolerance and making sure that the child stays calm and teaching him an appropriate alternative behavior when the child's upset, whether that's deep breathing or counting or squeezing a stress ball.
• We're going to create a stress hierarchy.
• We're going to target that low end of the stress hierarchy and then move to that moderate end and then move to the high end.

Responding to Instructions, Learning from Feedback, and Learning from Prompts

• Learners give instructions, they're just sitting there.
  *Want to teach them and think it's imperative to teach them how to respond to the instruction.
  *Specific program that has to be worked on.
  *Learning from various prompts so that the learner knows when the teacher's trying to help.
  *Teaching those two choice discriminations for them to determine if it's not if if they touch something that's wrong, then they should switch their response.
  Joint attention- increases language and social opportunities

Observation Learning Video

*Worked with another therapist

Videos on Gestures and Responding

*This can really help the teaching process.
*Gestures can really inform the student of where to go.
*Environmental awareness program- the child has to be aware so that he can be paying attention to his environment

Analysis of Learning How to Learn

*Division in the priority program
*Learning how to learn is one of the most important skills that they taught, as well as obviously the reduction of average behavior.
*Children who are going to that place where they don't need behavior intervention anymore, it becomes less and less the priority.
*Even after a couple of years, learning how to learn skills, it's imperative we do this with children.
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