Best Practices: Ensuring Quality Intervention
It is important to ensure your child is receiving high quality intervention. The following are best practices for implementing autism services and treatments:
- Development of an individualized plan of intervention based on a curriculum that emphasizes six basic skill domains:
- academic;
- communication;
- social/play skills;
- emotional/self regulation;
- motor/sensory functioning;
- independence/life skills
- Intensive, direct one-to-one intervention at home, in pre-school programs and in a variety of community settings on a year round basis;
- High levels of predictability and routine;
- Highly supportive, structured teaching methods, based on the principles of applied behaviour analysis (ABA), that incorporate a variety of strategies to facilitate efficient acquisition, generalization and maintenance of skills;
- Progression from more formal and structured to more natural settings;
- Use of functional assessment and positive behavioural support techniques to address problem behaviours;
- Use of multiple, integrated therapies such as speech-language pathology, occupational therapy and physical therapy;
- Integration with typical children in preschool/day care settings;
- Family involvement in training and in the development, implementation and review of intervention and service plans;
- Transition planning from preschool to kindergarten;
- Trained and adequately supervised staff; and,
- Regular, ongoing monitoring of the child’s progress by parents and professionals, and re-assessment and evaluation of the program at least once every six to twelve months.
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