Skills® Launches Tool to Combat Challenging Behavior in Children with Autism
Skills® releases a one-of-a-kind positive behavior support planning tool that allows professionals and families of children with autism to create a comprehensive, online behavior intervention plan (BIP) for challenging behaviors.
NATIONWIDE – APRIL 23, 2012 The Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) announced today that Skills®, its online autism solution, now includes a feature for challenging behavior called the Behavior Intervention Plan Builder. This new feature is designed to give professionals and families of children with autism access to tools for creating comprehensive, evidence-based BIPs for challenging behaviors.
“We are proud to add this new feature to the Skills program because it gives users an even greater resource for autism intervention and it focuses on improving efficiency and effectiveness. Users are led to choose evidence-based and least-intrusive interventions and can create a BIP in minutes!”, says Skills Director, Adel Najdowski, PhD, BCBA-D. “Skills coupled with the Behavior Intervention Plan Builder truly offers global access to tools for designing comprehensive, top-quality ABA-based intervention programs.”
Users of the Behavior Intervention Plan Builder can create a BIP in two simple steps. The first step is answer a short series of questions which leads to the creation of a BIP. The second step is to review and customize the BIP and begin implementing its strategies.
Skills is based on the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA), which has been empirically proven to be the most effective autism treatment and is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Surgeon General. It is designed to give users access to the most comprehensive assessment of a child’s development ever created. The results of the assessment are linked directly to a set of eight developmental areas that provide individualized lesson plans with step-by-step instructions for teaching children the skills they need. Skills also serves as an effective management tool by supplying a clinical timeline, charts, and graphs for tracking treatment progress and the impact of various events (including other treatments and life events) on the child’s progress.
“Unlike other ABA-based assessment and curriculum tools for the treatment of autism, Skills provides users with developmental milestones for every skill and offers assessment and curriculum for nearly 4,000 skills including highlevel complex skills such as executive functioning (planning, problem solving, memory, attention, self-regulation, etc.) and social cognition (perspective taking),” adds Najdowski. “Each lesson comes with supplemental worksheets, visual aids, and other teaching guides to ensure that what the child learns applies to his or her real life. In addition, users are provided with IEP goals and progress charts to help guide treatment planning.” Skills was created as a tool for any individual involved in the assessment and treatment planning of a child with autism. This could include professionals (ABA providers, speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, etc.), school teachers, and parents. Skills was created with the aim of promoting a multidisciplinary approach in that everyone on a child’s treatment team is able to input data on the interventions they are implementing with the child and view their effects on learning all at once. It is highly recommended that at least one person on a child’s treatment team using Skills is a board certified behavior analyst (BCBA). The role of this individual is to design and direct the child’s curriculum program within Skills.
For more information about Skills, visit:
- www.skillsforautism.com
- www.facebook.com/skillsforautism
- www.twitter.com/#!/skillsforautism
About the Center for Autism and Related Disorders:
The Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) is one of the world’s largest and most successful organizations treating children with autism, Asperger’s syndrome, PDD-NOS, and related disorders using state-of-the-art therapy. CARD® treats autism using the principles and procedures of applied behavior analysis which has been empirically proven to be the most effective method for treating individuals with autism and is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the US Surgeon General. For more information about the Center for Autism and Related Disorders, visit: www.centerforautism.com.