Curriculum
We strive to ensure our curriculum is comprehensive, individualized, and collaborative to provide services that allow for the best outcome for all of our clients.
Comprehensive
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As many individuals with ASD have impairments across multiple skill areas and demonstrate significant lack of generalization abilities, it is necessary to teach skills across all developmental domains (e.g., communication, language, social skills, play and leisure, motor skills, self-help, etc.) to allow for balanced gains and to program proactively for generalization of skills.
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Examples by domain (this is not an exhaustive list)
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Communication and Language: Teaching the client to ask for their wants and needs or relay information to others, including conversation skills.
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Learning to learn skills: Teaching attending and engagement, imitation skills, matching skills, and instruction following.
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Social skills: Teaching cooperative play, personal space, and social reciprocity.
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Play and leisure: Teaching independent play and expanding on restricted play activities.
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Motor skills: Teaching gross, fine, and oral motor skills.
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Self-help: Teaching dressing skills, appropriate hygiene, toilet training, and expanding food preferences.
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Challenging behavior: Teaching replacement skills, such as to ask for a break instead of engaging in aggression to escape a task.
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Individualized
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There are many established procedures derived from ABA that have been shown to be effective. We use a combination of different formats to tailor each program specifically to the client. This allows for individualization to maximize learning.
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Additionally, all targeted goals are established based on the individual client’s needs, as determined through frequent skill assessment and observation. Progress is also continuously monitored and programs modified as needed to ensure maximum learning is taking place.
Collaborative
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It is important to get a complete picture of each client's abilities when developing a treatment program. Thus, other individuals who know the client (e.g., parents, caregivers, teachers, other service providers, etc.) have valuable input as to what skills are necessary for the client to learn to allow him or her to better access the resources in his or her environment.
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We take collaboration with these other individuals very seriously and constantly strive to ensure that open and clear communication occurs frequently.
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We especially try to be considerate of parents’ input and the role they play in intervention. Given that our Executive Director is also a parent herself, she has a lot of respect and admiration for other parents and parents with children with developmental disabilities. She understands what it means for parents to open their home to others and the frustration and vulnerability entailed in sharing the “upbringing” of their child. She understands how hard it is to not feel judged, evaluated, and under a microscope.
We, here at JBA Institute, are deeply appreciative of the strength and bravery demonstrated by our parents and we cannot thank them enough for sharing their children with us. We are so grateful!
