Does the difficulty of the training tasks in an EIBI program for children with autism match the learning abilities of the children?
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Date
2015
Authors
Roy-Wsiaki, Genevieve
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Abstract
In many early intensive behavioural intervention (EIBI) programs, such as the St.Amant Autism Programs in Manitoba, the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills-Revised (ABLLS-R) is used as an assessment guide, a curriculum guide, and a skills tracking system. The ABLLS-R lists a total of 544 potential training tasks. In the St.Amant Autism Programs, the Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities-Revised (ABLA-R) is also used to assess a child’s ability to learn to perform 6 tasks, called levels, which are hierarchical in difficulty. Research has demonstrated that training tasks comparable to failed ABLA-R levels are very difficult to teach using standard prompting and reinforcement procedures, and training tasks that are mismatched to a client’s highest-passed ABLA-R level result in more aberrant behaviours than matched tasks.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the difficulty of the training tasks taught to children enrolled in the St.Amant Autism Early Learning Program matched the learning abilities of the children. In order to do so, five questions were examined based on the ABLLS-R, the ABLA-R, and archival data from the St.Amant Autism Programs. The results reveal several potentially important findings. First, observers who were knowledgeable about the ABLA-R reliably categorized 99 of the 544 ABLLS-R tasks into individual ABLA-R levels. Second, for a random sample of those 99 ABLLS-R tasks, Autism Consultants from the St.Amant Autism Programs averaged 90.5% agreement that those tasks were taught at the categorized ABLA-R levels. Third, across a sample of 14 children, 81% of their training tasks were mismatched to each child’s highest-passed ABLA-R level. Fourth, for that sample of 14 children and across their 31 maladaptive behaviour assessments, 61% of the assessments had a score representative of maladaptive behaviours. Fifth, for that same sample of children, their rates of acquisition of new training tasks were lower for mismatched tasks than for matched tasks.
These findings have important implications for potentially improving the services that children with ASD are receiving from the St.Amant Autism Programs and other EIBI programs.
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Keywords
Autism, EIBI, ABA, Training tasks, Learning abilities, ABLA-R, ABLLS-R