Early
Intervention
EARLY INTENSIVE BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTION
Early intervention that is effective means intensive and comprehensive applied behavior analysis programming focused across all critical developmental domains for children at ages as young as 18 months of age. For it to be the most effective, the behavioral treatment needs to be 30-40 hours a week on average for 2-3 years, and in some cases longer. Families are also coached on promoting generalization.
Critical Elements for Effective EIBI
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30-40 hrs/ week on average for 3 or more years
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Begins as early as possible, age 2 or prior if possible
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1:1 delivery by trained Behavior Technicians
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50-100 learning opportunities per hour using discrete trials, incidental teaching, other behavior analytic procedures
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Individualized goals and objectives based on ongoing evaluation and data collected throughout sessions on all skill areas and behaviors addressed to eliminate barriers to learning
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Comprehensive assessment informing goals and objectives
Language
(mands, tacts, intraverbals)
Conceptual skills
(e.g., inferencing, perspective taking)
Communication
(mands, tacts, intraverbals)
Problem behaviors
(e.g., tantrums, stereotypy)
Social Skills
(e.g., greeting, losing graciously)
Emotional
(flexibility, empathy, etc)
Adaptive functioning
(toileting, sleeping through the night, eating properly)
Play
(joining play, following along, turn taking)
Components of EIBI
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Identifying socially important targets for treatment
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Break down complex skills into components and teach each and build up the skill
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Collect and analyze data on all targeted objectives and use to make frequent treatment decisions
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Establish and maintain learning environment to minimize problem behaviors
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All procedures based on principles of behavior (and consistent with 7 dimensions of applied behavior analysis)
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Treatment is written in a protocol and checked for consistency across staff and time
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Train the family to implement behavior analytic procedures throughout the day to promote skill acquisition and generalization
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Domains Covered
Procedures We Use for EIBI
DISCRETE TRIALS
Discrete trials are an efficient and effective way to quickly teach many discriminations such as colors, shapes, names for a wide range of everyday items and animals and people, different emotions, attributes of items and activities, and more complex relations like what functions things serve, comparing parts to the whole, or answering myriad types of WH questions.
NATURALISTIC TEACHING
Naturalistic teaching methods are good for tapping into your child’s motivation for items and activities especially if they are not talking much or at all. Many kids begin talking by making requests for things and actions – what we call mands. We also work on getting kids to comment about things around them to others to create or sustain a social interaction – what we call tacts. We also ask myriad WH questions while moving around and interacting with your child to ensure that any responses they have learned generalize to real world situations and to teach new WH answers during everyday activities.