Part 2 of 2, Mia and Applied Behavioral Analysis

Mia, ABA, and School

With Kari Porter, MS, BCBA

By Alford Kerry Hardy

In Part 1, Kari Porter talks about Applied Behavioral Analysis, ABA.  Kari describes ABA as, “… looking at the behaviors in which people are engaged.  Some may be problematic. Others may be a skill we want to increase such as communication.  The objective is to maximize opportunities for positive growth.”

She goes further to describe how ABA helped Mia Smith adopt a behavior necessary for her safety and social development. “We designed a program to help Mia recognize and respond to a voice.  She was interested in several things.  But, if she was engaged in something, a movie or some other media on her mobile tablet, even if one of her favorite people said her name, she didn’t turn to look at them."

Part 2:  Kari’s shares her experiences in public schools.  Now, she uses these insights to aid parents and their kids with IEP meetings and other discussions with educators.  

Though Kari has moved to another company that doesn’t work with Mia day to day, she remains close to the Smiths.  Her experience with autistic kids allows her to be a friend and a resource, especially now that Mia is in school.   Any parent facing a meeting regarding an Individualized Educational Program, IEP, knows that it can be a stressful experience both for the parents and school.  Kari has worked on both sides of the table.  She often accompanies parents to the IEP meeting; however, she has experience working the in public school systems as well.   

“There are big challenges.  My role was organizational behavioral management, doing staff training in two school districts.  We worked closely with the special education director.  The school systems paid for contracted Behavioral Analysts to be deployed in schools.  Working in classrooms with teachers and para-professionals was a rewarding experience.  I performed staff development especially on autism.  I taught teaching strategies that are most effective to support teaching kids with autism, wrote behavioral plans, and implemented behavioral plans. 

"From my experience, most times the staff that is hired to work with these kids have limited experience and training in providing effective teaching methods.  Parents are typically frustrated with the lack of progress and lack of needs being met.  ABA is the number-one evidence-based process, but the presence in public schools is small.  Insurance pushes for children to be integrated into public schools instead of one-on-one therapy.  It’s not the fault of the staff.  The resources for them just aren’t there.  This means that kids who have ABA get their hours cut and progress slows in social, communicative, and behavioral skills.  So, it gets frustrating for everyone: the parents, the kids, the educators, communication breaks down into a cycle that’s not good for anyone involved.

"The really great results of having a partnership with public schools, which is rare in the U.S., pre-kindergarten through high school teachers were inspired to get a Master’s Degree in Behavioral Analysis.  A lead teacher with an advanced Behavioral Analysis degree will be able to program treatments for kids in more effective ways.  They can become better at modifying instructional design to be more effective. 

“Multicultural training is important for us as well.  Not being aware of cultural differences for something as simple as eye contact may lead to false impressions.  It requires having as much communication as possible.  An immigrant may speak English but not understand to the level needed to communicate effectively on these types of issues.  We try to accommodate for that and get an interpreter to really work out the details of therapy and differences in what we would normally see as a target.  So, cultural difference, we program for that.  We respect the differences in behaviors in which a parent may or may not choose to encourage."

Our last discussion was about the recent law, Ava’s Law, passed as Georgia SB1, requiring insurers to cover some ABA expenses; “The policy or contract may limit coverage for applied behavior analysis to $35,000.00 per year.”  This is a significant accomplishment for many kids that need the therapy.  Hopefully, there is more in the works.

Kari commented, “If you are going to spread ABA therapies out for a year, it probably covers ten hours a week.  The recommended intervention for most early learners is forty hours per week.  For education, whether it is the first IEP or the tenth IEP a parent walks into, I plan to continue to advocate for kids with autism and other special needs kids in that environment.  When a school may push for one thing in which the data show that something else or something more stands to be a better outcome, that’s how I can help.  However, ABA can help all individuals with disabilities or without disabilities alike.  ABA is such a useful scientific tool and I would like to lead efforts to expand it uses.”