Incidental Teaching (ABA)

Anyone with questions about Incidental Teaching (a form of ABA), please post here.

This method of ABA is used by the Emory Autism Center in their Walden Early Childhood Center on he Clairmont Campus of Emory University. The program has been in existence for the past 20 years. Using Incidental Teaching in an inclusive setting (a ratio of 3:1 NT to autistic) in their preschool has resulted in a 92% success rate of getting toddlers with autism functional verbal language (defined as "regularly using at least 5 words to communicate needs"). 95% of children with autism who graduate from the Walden program go on to regular kindergarten classrooms with various levels of assistance.

The Walden program has been mirrored in other locations across the country including West Virginia and Texas.

I am the mother of a 3 1/2 year old boy who has been in their program since February, 2006, and I can attest to its efficacy. I can answer questions for anyone who may be interested in this form of intervention.

Thanks for your post! As this is the Research Classroom forum, I would like to take this opportunity to repeat for all our users that the IAN Discussion Forums are research-focused. It's a place to learn and use your knowledge about research, hopefully to become ever more able to speak the researchers' language to advocate for the kind of studies you want to see done, and to critique and praise studies already done.

In the present circumstance, I would encourage our posters to always provide more research-based information...and for readers to question! IAN is a place to really challenge yourselves and each other to dig deep and explain and debate. For example, if a poster say "there was a 92% success rate for this therapy", they should try to let us know things like:

Who says so?

Based on how many kids' experience?

Which kids? (Kids with autism, PDD-NOS, Aspergers? How old?)

What was the definition of "success"? How did they come up with that number?

(Let me make clear that I am not criticizing the therapy posted about above; I am using this post as an opportunity to make clear to all our members the purpose of the IAN forums.)

As for readers of such posts, I hope you will question, detail evidence for or against, and help us all to gain a better understanding of the issue at hand. For a good introduction to the research process --the better to understand, critique, or support-- go to http://www.iancommunity.org/cs/understanding_research/randomized_controlled_trials

Thank you for responding, Connie. To assist anyone who is curious about the subject of this post, let me offer the following information:

From http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10017&page=145:

Walden Early Childhood Programs at the Emory University School of Medicine

The Walden program was developed in 1985 at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where the primary function was as a laboratory preschool to accommodate research in incidental teaching.
Following relocation to Emory University in Atlanta, toddler and prekindergarten programs were added to complete an early intervention continuum. The classrooms include children with autism with a majority of typical peers. The incidental teaching approach is based on behavioral research, although there are developmental influences on goal selection. There is a toddler program with both center- and home-based components, and initial goals include establishment of sustained engagement, functional verbal language, responsiveness to adults, tolerance and participation with typical peers, and independence in daily living (e.g., toilet training). The preschool is aimed at language expansions and beginning peer interaction training. The prekindergarten emphasizes elaborated peer interactions, academic skills, and conventional school behaviors (McGee et al., 2000).

Also:

From http://www.psychiatry.emory.edu/clinicalsitesemoryuniversityautismcenter.htm:

The Walden Programs

The EARC?s nationally acclaimed Walden Lab Schools provide early intervention in toddler, preschool, and pre-kindergarten classrooms. This continuum of highly specialized treatment help children with autism learn from the behavior of their normally developing classmates. The incidental teaching procedures used at Walden have produced significant outcomes of nearly all children enrolled. Annually approximately 25,000 hours of state-of-the-art intervention are provided to 30-35 children with autism in Walden?s toddler, preschool, and pre-kindergarten classrooms and 40-48 typical children benefit from enriched education and day care in Walden?s inclusive classrooms. More than 95% of graduates with autism have been included in their neighborhood regular education kindergarten classrooms (with various levels of support), and more than 92 % of children leave the program with functional verbal language. Walden serves as a model for replication programs in Savannah, GA, San Diego, CA, and Auburn, AL, with new replication programs in West Virginia and replication assistance in Maryland this year. Professionals come from across the country and around the world to observe these demonstration lab schools, and Dr. McGee and her staff are invited regularly to present at regional, national, and international venues. All Walden programs function as lab schools for ongoing funded research. Contracts from local educational agencies, Babies Can?t Wait and private donors provide scholarships for eligible recipients.

The Walden Programs include:

1. The Walden Toddler Program: Clinical services provided are center and home based early intervention and family support for children with autism along with child care for typical children aged 1 to 3 years. This program was initially funded by a 5 year model development grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Early Education Programs for Children with Disabilities ?A Model for Early Treatment of Children with Autism.? In addition the program has received funding through a field-initiated research grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, ?Rethinking Social Interventions for Children with Autism.?

2. The Walden Preschool Program: Clinical services provided include language and social intervention for children with autism and enriched early education for typical children aged 3 to 4½ years. Family support is integral to this program. This program represents the centerpiece of the lab school. Additional research activities have included a grant from the MacMillan Foundation, ?Incidental Teaching of Literacy.?

3. The Walden Pre-Kindergarten Program: The clinical services provided include school readiness preparation for children with autism and typical children aged 4 ½ to 6 years and their families. This program continues the lab school research. Additional research support has been provided by the Georgia Trust for Children and the Elderly.

4. The Walden Outcome Project: Clinical services provided include follow-up observational assessment and consultation for children with autism who have graduated from Walden demonstration programs (ages 5-16 years). This program has received support from a grant from the Ford Motor Foundation, ?Pilot Follow-up Assessment of Residual Characteristics of Autism in Children who received Intensive Early Intervention.?

The program only enrolls children with a diagnosis of "autism", not PDD-NOS or Asperger's.

My son was enrolled in the Walden Toddler Program in February, 2006 at the age of 2 1/2. Rather than just anecdotal evidence, we have documented statistics that have been taken by the Emory Autism Center staff on my son's progress. As Walden is a research-based program, the progress of all of the children is tracked constantly and used as data to determine both the efficacy of the method on individual children as well as to determine what ways the method can be improved upon to increase its effectiveness in a wider range of children with autism.

For example:

My son Bryce started the program at age 2 1/2. At that time had a vocabulary of 18 words as we had been using the incidental teaching methods at home after receiving family training a month before he began the program. He attends the program 5 days a week, 7 hours per day (35 hours) in their inclusive setting surrounded by 5 other autistic children and 12 typically-developing peers. We also work with him at home so he regularly gets at least 50 hours of intervention every week.

After two 35-hour weeks in the Walden program, Bryce had a vocabulary of 175 words and could read 4 letters of the alphabet.

In 3 months, he had a vocabulary of over 300 words and was using 2 word sentences at least 98% of the time, could count objects to 20, and could read all 26 letters of the alphabet and could read the numbers 1-10.

At the age of 35 months (July, 2006), the staff at Walden used their intensive potty training methods to toilet train Bryce. He was potty-trained in two weeks with self-initiation at least 75% of the time.

Now, at 3 years and 8 months of age, Bryce is now working on pronouns. He speaks full sentences of 5-6 words at least 98% of the time. He requests objects from peers with sentences of 3-4 words at least 98% of the time. His use of correct pronouns ("I have the red block.") without prompting during their one-on-one sessions with him is around 75%. His eye contact is improving, though I don't have the actual percentage documented by Emory at this time.

I am an educator and provide instruction using Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) with students (EI and pre-K) diagnosed with ASD (along the spectrum) as well as other delays, learning difficulties and diagnosed disabilities, it is great to learn of this school. There are many programs available, yet limited access, exposure and sometimes flexability. That limits access for families in need of this service. More disturbing is the limited knowledge and information provided by districts, and local education providers/agencies to these parents. This includes rights, mandates and eligibility under special education laws. Please continue to keep the public informed.