Workshops

The Training program provides an avenue for this most basic level of training. Workshops are offered almost monthly on various topics in ABA such as social and leisure skills, language development, and self-help skills. We also provide regular workshops on An Introduction to Applied Behavior Analysis and Functions of Behavior which are not only useful to the community, but are most often requested by outside educators, such as school districts and other educators and specialists. Workshops are also a cornerstone of any Ongoing Specialized Training program which is then individualized as trainees are learning the techniques and terminology useful for their everyday interactions with children with special needs.

Ongoing Training

Training can occur both onsite and offsite. Professional development onsite is a hierarchal process involving a series of training and certifications obtained as skills are mastered. When beginning a training program in the inclusionary setting, such as the Texas Star Academy, the educator/provider will quickly learn how to structure a learning objective to fit any learner. Specific Incidental Teaching skills in the areas of direct instruction (1:1), peer teaching (1:2) and group incidental teaching (small group) are targeted and trained to criteria

Onsite Training is specifically designed to address how to 1) increase a child's appropriate engagement with toys, 2) increase communicative behaviors and attempts, and 3) increase social behaviors with peers. Once those skills are attained, opportunities for advancement are explored. This onsite certification process also includes attaining mastery of data collection and analysis, functional assessments of behavior, treatment program development, classroom management, and professionalism in the autism community.

Offsite training is often individualized to each setting. Training is typically contracted for the purpose of developing a team of professionals who learn to Apply the Principles of Behavior Analysis as needed in their respective education or treatment setting. This level of training can occur with either the professional or paraprofessional educator or it can serve to supplement the training and expertise of the professional provider. Opportunities for supervision for post-grad professionals interested in obtaining Board level certification (BCABA or BCBA) are available.

Offsite training can also provide a means to promote specialized training in other school or therapeutic settings. Examples of this are training in functional behavior assessments, effective ABA teaching tools, structured teaching in classrooms, positive behavior support, and developing behavior intervention programs to target challenging behaviors. These trainings can begin as workshops and continue as ongoing training programs at regular intervals if needed.

Individualized Parent Training

All families who are receiving services in the Center-based preschool or the Outreach services should be immersed in a parent training program tailored to fit the families' needs. Parent training is corner-stoned by workshops and supplemented with an individualized protocol that starts at identifying events in our everyday environment that affect behavior, moves into defining behavior to target for increase or reduction, and reaches the level where parents can then design, implement and evaluate behavior change programs themselves as needed. Some more specific areas may need to be addressed as challenges are faced, but this process is always approached with the child's best interest, the stress level of the parents, and the integrity of the families' normal routine kept in check.