1. Effective Preschool Programs (Handlemann & Harris, 2001) ED 571 070 School and Home Based Programs for Children with Autism

2. PCDI Founded in 1970 Curriculum  More than 600 individualized programs in community participation; expressive.receptive language, handwriting, leisure skills, motor/verbal imitation; peer interaction, physical education, reading, self care, social skills.  Some are based on commercially available curricula: Edmark, Sensible Pencil, other are based on their own published research.  Children rotate across all staff members in the classroom and across activity areas and rooms  Teaching procedures: discrete trial, incidental teaching, activity schedules, script/script fading, video/audio modeling, peer interaction, small group  30 individualized program per year per child  All children are taught vocal language; only 1-2 students in their 30 years of operation needed an augmentative communication system  No related services –all skills are taught by behavior analysts  @weekly data collection on skill acquisition and generalization

3. PCDI-Founded in 1970 Integration  Prerequisites for transition include:  1. exhibiting sustained engagement with learning and leisure materials  2. systematically following adults instructions  3. responding favorably to delayed reinforcement  4. displaying generalized responses  5. low levels of disruptive behavior  When these pre-requisites are met, children are systematically transitioned to regular ed settings; always attending both programs at once and gradually transitioning from PCDI to the regular ed setting.  Follow up services are offered  Community integration and peer modeling are used with all children Use of Aversives  Disruptive behavior is addressed through differential reinforcing more productive behavior  Severe problems that do not respond to positive reinforcement procedures are treated with other procedures such as response cost, time out and facial screens may be used

4. PCDI-Founded in 1970 Family Involvement  Weekly home visits  Goals are set for home  Parents are taught to teach children in school setting first and then at home -Parents collect data  Parents also have monthly school visits in which they spend the entire day at PCDI with their child Outcome  Out of 41 children who entered the program before 60 months of age, 8 are enrolled in preschool or early intervention programs, 14 have made transitions to publish schools and 19 are enrolled at PCDI  Most students did not achieve basal scores on PPVT  Percentage of students who make successful transitions varies from 42%-62%. Extensive Program Assessment  Written protocol for assessing training and staff  Notebook reviews by outside consultant  All consumers are surveyed on quality of service e.g., child study teams, parents, staff members

5. The Douglas School -1989 Structure and Context  DDDC founded 28 years ago has 4 divisions: the original Douglass School, Douglass Outreach, the Division of Adult and Transitions Services, and the Division of Research and Training.  Preschool has 3 classes, proper class (1:1, 25 hrs per week 10-15 at home with parent); small group preschool (2:1) small wonders class (integrated class) Diagnosis and Assessment  Diagnosis of autism or PDD-NOS by DSM IV and CARS Staffing and Administration  Executive director, director, division director, Supervisor of education, coordinator of speech and language, Special ed teachers, aides, ST, OT, PT, APE, home programmers, grad students  Yearly in-services, ongoing-hands-on training, attendance at COSAC, yearly conference

6. The Douglas School -1989 Curriculum  Individualized teaching procedures  Speech-language services  Teacher made curriculum materials  Commercially made curriculum; Levine’s Great beginning for early language training, ploudre’s CLAS preschool, Earlly’s AIMS pre-reading, Edmark Reading, PACE-Match program, Sensible Pencils, PECS, First Words, IGS curriculum by ROmanczyk  Trial by trial data collection

7. The Douglas School -1989 Integration  Careful progression of skills from basic compliance, self control, attention to task, learning senility to others, ability to maintain oneself in a group  transition process consists of sometimes having the child attend both programs; other they prepare the student by simulating the transition environment at school  follow up services are offered Use of Aversives  Rich schedules of reinforcement for productive behavior  Functional alternate response training  For severe behavior problems, other procedures are used such as removal of attention,brief exclusionary, time out, overcorrection

8. The Douglas School -1989 Family Involvement  Twice a month home visits  Parents are taught to teach children at home  Parents have monthly clinics in which they can observe their child in class for 30 minutes and then discuss the observation with team members  Discussion groups for parents and siblings  Parent meetings four times a year Outcome  13 children who began teacher at 48 months 10 were in regular ed classes. These children had a mean IQ of 78at intake  14 started at 50 months 13 were in special ed classes  Children who entered the program with Iqs in the normal range (80) were more likely to transition than those with lower IQ (48)

9. Alpine Learning Group - 1989 Structure and Context  Provides services for 25039 learner4s ages 3-21. Diagnosis and Assessment  Diagnosis of autism, Vineland, PPVT, IQ Staffing and Administration  3 directors, 1 head teacher, Teacher (certified), instructor (bachelor’s)  1:1 in preschool  No related service providers  40 hour yearly pre-service  Research meetings are held twice a month  Comprehensive annual employee performance evaluation is conducted with all staff –use PCDI’s evaluation protocol

10. Alpine Learning Group - 1989 Curriculum  600 individualized programs in the areas of attending, community, expressive language, fine/gross motor, handwriting, imitation, leisure, pre-academic, reading, receptive language, science, self-care, socialization, social studies, work studies  Classes of 2-4 children; learning periods are 30-45 minutes, most preschool programs are taught by all instructors  Use some published curriculum such as Edmark, explode the code, starting comprehension, manual of exercises for expressive reasoning, Continental press mathematics, Reader Rabbit, Words and Concepts II.  Trial by trial data collection  Monthly clinics with director of educational programming

11. Alpine Learning Group - 1989 Integration  Pre-requisites: receptive and expressive language skills, minimal disruptive behavior.  Supported inclusion program after pre-requisites have been met –gradually transition for Alpine to general education –follow up services are provided  Peer modeling for all children Use of Aversives  Functional assessment and alternate behaviors are taught  Extinction, DRO, DRL, response cost

12. Alpine Learning Group - 1989 Family Involvement  Weekly home visits during first 6 months of enrollment –doctoral level clinical director  Twice per month thereafter by home programmer  Participation in didactic parent training course  Parents are required to teach their children at home and collect data  Lecture series is offered to extended family members  Sibling education and support group  3 hours of observation per month –open door policy  Mandatory monthly meetings Outcome  26 preschoolers -7 transitioned to public school (27%)  Average age of enrollment was 3.11 and remained for at least 24 months