Association for Behavior Analysis International

While the concept of "including" students with disabilities has only recently entered the collective consciousness of educational reformers nationwide, it is far from being a new fad or trend. The Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) component of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has been a cornerstone of special education policy for nearly 40 years now. Mandating that, "to the maximum extent appropriate," children with disabilities be educated alongside children who are not disabled, while still receiving the supports and services they need to be successful, LRE has not, since it became law in 1975, been amended and is one of the few pieces of education policy that has remained relatively uncontroversial over the years, at least in theory. Despite this consistency, meeting the requirements of LRE, creating a culture of inclusion, and ensuring staff and student success in this model of education continues to be a struggle for many schools and service providers. This presentation will review some of the quantifiable benefits of including students with disabilities in general education, and highlight both specific practices for implementing behaviorally-based teaching in group settings and an online curriculum model for supporting implementation fidelity. Promising avenues for
"scaling" inclusive practices through technology will also be discussed.

Social skills deficits often preclude a child from reaping the benefits of, or even participating in, inclusive settings. Social skills groups can be effective in teaching children with autism social competence skills (e.g., Cotunga, 2009; Barry et al., 2003; Solomon, Goodlin-Jones, & Anders, 2004). However, working with children to develop social skills in a group setting can present significant challenges to clinicians and educators trained in highly individualized teaching strategies, such as discrete trial teaching, shaping and chaining procedures, and incidental teaching. This presentation will describe the process of developing social skills groups for children with a wide range of abilities, in a structure that works across age groups. The essential features of the social skills group model - structure, curricula, data collection, and communication- will be reviewed. Common obstacles and strategies for generalizing individualized teaching strategies to a group format will also be discussed. Finally, several case studies will be used to illustrate how participation in these types of group instructional settings can lead to more meaningful and successful outcomes in a variety of inclusive settings.

This presentation looks at the research basis and process behind creating an online training curriculum for teachers, therapists and paraprofessional staff working with students in an inclusive environment, utilizing the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis. The main considerations are how to present research-based teaching strategies in video modeling format, providing practical strategies for educators of students at various levels of inclusion and creating written and technical support to ensure fidelity and facilitate data tracking. Response to Intervention (RTI) and Positive Behavior Support (PBS) frameworks will also be discussed, providing a contextual basis for introducing the curriculum model in public school districts and large systems that provide support to both general and special education students. Literature and research around best practice teaching strategies for the classroom, such as choral responding (Heward et al, 1996), giving clear directions (Gettinger & Seibert, 2002; Gettinger, 1988) and class participation (Heward, 1994) will also be reviewed.