VBI's Mission is: Supporting the "Best Practice" of ABA - Verbal Behavior method, in a sustainable, fiscally responsible manner for children with Autism and their families. 

Poor Practice serves no one, and harms everyone...  

What are "best practices" of ABA - Verbal Behavior method? How do we know?. ANSWER: There is sufficient experience to know what good ABA - Verbal Behavior methodology programs ought to look like. Guess work is not an option and neither are baskets of unfulfilled promises. Best Practices are an objective; a place to end up, or goal to move towards. We recognize all programs start where they are - but also recognize that "less than optimal" remains less than optimal, unless improvement is PLANNED, MONITORED and HELD ACCOUNTABLE. Where to begin?

There must be Commitment to Supports across the entire system (administration, community, parents, professional, etc.) Too often programs fail, because they are isolated from administrative supports.

The superintendent and/or Dir. of Special Ed need to be involved up front in training and program development. Developing a program for ABA-VB is a time consuming, and often costly venture. Administration needs to be part of the commitment to excellence, to ensure that "best practice" targets are met.

Programs need an internal “Champion” who is knowledgeable and pro-active on behalf of the needs of learners with PDD/Autism and their families.

A Case manager needs to be assigned with a REASONABLE case load. They should be involved throughout the entire process of a student's training in the ABA program.

Include the Teacher's Union in development of job descriptions Failure to plan for this aspect in the design of your program is sure to cost you in the long term viability of the model. ABA-VB is HARD work, and the level of effort is often challenging to maintain without recognition and reinforcement for a job well done.

Encourage staff to pursue BCaBA and BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analysts). If you are not familiar with these credentials - you should be! review same @ http://www.bacb.com Though the BCBA and BCaBA are not a guarantee of excellence in and of themselves, it is a rigorous training process that helps screen the wheat from the chaff.

Contract for, and obtain regularly scheduled external Quality Assurance oversight - and feedback for improving the quality of the program.

Hold staff and administrators accountable through performance reviews that include incentives and contingencies based on progress of the student learners in their charge.

Anticipate obstacles and build in back up systems. E.g., if you have only 1 teacher trained, what do you do if/when that person leaves? Build programs that...

Generalize! and carry over outside the classroom. What good does it do to teach a child to label "fork" if s/he can't ask for it when the family goes out for dinner? If the education program doesn't consider "toileting" an educational need - is that really a program your child will be well served in? Just a question, but focus on academics and FAPE (free and appropriate education) may require a meeting of the minds on what instruction best suits the long term needs of the child and family as opposed to some obscure state standard of learning competencies.

Create a program that is progress driven and data reviewed. We are not speaking to production of data requiring reams of paper for the sake of producing massive records. What we reference is the need to measure where you begin (baseline) the impact of treatment and the acquisition of skills. That data must be kept. Progress not measured, all too often evaporates quickly once the reporter of that progress walks out the door. All programs need to be accountable for data on objectives for progress. Weekly graphing of data towards progress is a reasonable expectation.