Association for Behavior Analysis International

Autism intervention programs have a number of responsibilities; however, the most important responsibility is to provide effective intervention to the individuals served to produce meaningful outcomes for them and their families. Programs that operate from the science of behavior analysis, and consistently implement systems that ensure the organization operates successfully at every level, are far more effective in producing positive outcomes under varied conditions. The pandemic, that we all faced over the last two years, provided an opportunity to test and analyze the efficacy, and strength, of the systems proposed by McClannahan and Krantz (1993). The papers in this symposium will focus on system variables that promoted continued student skill acquisition, staff development, and parent support and mentorship through a number of unexpected and unusual conditions. Each presenter will share relevant data that have been collected across a number of agencies, nationally and internationally, to support the value of systems and their role in ensuring generalized outcomes under novel conditions. The data obtained during the pandemic period provide us with an opportunity to analyze those system variables and promote the continued use of organizational systems in autism intervention programs.

This symposium is intended for individuals who are responsible for the development and implementation of behavior analytic programs for individuals with autism. Attendees should have a minimum of a MA level education in behavior analysis and experience developing administrative systems for the effective implementation of intervention programs for those diagnosed with autism.

Ensuring continued student progress under a wide variety of, and unexpected, conditions is a critical guarantee that any intervention program should provide for students who they serve. The pandemic left many programs scrambling to define and develop methods of ensuring continued student progress and advancement of critical goals and objectives when teachers were no longer able to provide in-person instruction. This presentation will focus on the critical role systems played in ensuring a seamless transition from in-person instruction to virtual instruction. Data on student progress and skill acquisition, collected across sites both nationally and internationally, will be presented for periods of both in-person and virtual instruction to support the value of systems in ensuring effective intervention to individuals with autism under any set of conditions. In addition, the presenters will discuss how virtual instruction led to the development of additional systems and teaching strategies that will be incorporated into the programs in the future.

The pandemic left parents of individuals with autism in a highly vulnerable position. Within days, parents found themselves at home with their children all day long, in the absence of the highly structured teaching conditions that typically surrounded their children, and that they depended on. During this time, the important role that parents play on the intervention team was highlighted more than ever. Evidence quickly mounted during this period that emphasize the very important role that parent support, mentorship, and training play in ensuring effective home programming efforts and preparing parents for situations in which the support system they rely on is not available. During this presentation, data will be shared on the home programming efforts of educational programs, both here in the US and abroad, during the pandemic and the critical effect that they had on ensuring continued effective outcomes for students with autism. In addition, the presentation will discuss the importance of modifying parent support programs, and the system variables associated with such, to ensure an individualized and effective experience for all.