Interventions
There are many different types of interventions that professionals
use when teaching children with developmental disabilities.
S.E.E.K. Arizona’s philosophy is that each child
has different needs, thus we pull from different types
of interventions as is helpful for each individual child.
Some of the interventions that our providers and therapists
currently use are outlined below. For more information
and resources, click on the intervention name.
Applied Behavior
Analysis
Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA applies the principles
of behavior and motivation, to teaching new skills. By
looking at behaviors and analyzing them, we can determine
what will make them increase or decrease, allowing us
to teach new behaviors. The teaching of new behaviors
is done through specific techniques, one of which is Discrete
Trial Training. Applied Verbal Behavior or AVB is the
language component of ABA. It takes the same principles
of learning and motivation and applies them to language
acquisition.
Floortime (DIR)
The Greenspan Method often referred to, as “Floortime”
is an approach that focuses on educating a child while
interacting through play. Greenspan addresses how the
child relates to people and the world around him. This
intervention is child-lead, so the therapist must create
opportunities through play to encourage attention and
intimacy, participate in two-way communication, encourage
the expression and use of feelings, and to connect thoughts
in logical ways.
TEACCH
Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication-Handicapped
Children (TEACCH) started as a federally funded research
project that set out to create a system for educating
children with autism. The model focuses on educating
while accommodating for the individual’s skills,
interests and needs. Educating is done through structured
teaching in a structured learning environment (home
or school). Visual materials are used to modify learning
and transitioning processes. This structured environment
reduces anxiety and uncertainties and increases independent
task completion.
Relationship
Development Intervention
RDI is an intervention that encourages the child to
attune themselves to social cues, facial expressions,
and non-verbal language to direct and engage in social
interactions and to learn about their environment. It
teaches them to understand non-verbal communication,
such as facial expressions, body language, and implied
meaning. The teacher over-emphasizes these methods of
communication while engaged in an activity that the
child is interested in so that the child begins to understand
non-verbal language and seeks that method of communication
across different
Pivotal Response
Training
Children with developmental disabilities often receive
interventions treating many different behaviors. The
goal of pivotal response training is to target and treat
pivotal behaviors that will produce simultaneous changes
across many behaviors, instead of trying to tackle each
individual behavior one at a time. This intervention
focuses on efficiency when teaching skill acquisition,
by identifying and teaching a child ‘pivotal behaviors,’
or behaviors that can be seen in multiple areas of functioning.
By teaching pivotal behaviors in children, we are greatly
increasing the child’s functioning level because
we are teaching a skill that directly effects the acquisition
of multiple other skills.
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