Here at BCOTB, we are excited to work towards your child’s school success. As you may know, children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and/ or other developmental disabilities often struggle in school settings. These groups are designed to teach appropriate behaviors and prepare children in a combined setting. The purpose of these groups is to have that 1:1 aid that is used in ABA and utilize it in a group responding setting which simulates the school settings. Some children need extra help in school this is the perfect way to get that extra practice and have that extra help if needed. At BCOTB we also individualize these group responding targets to skills the child may struggle or need help with. For example: If a child struggles with peer collaboration, his or her case manager can add targets to aid with developing this skill. Or if a child needs redirections or engages in any maladaptive behaviors, his or her case manager may have his or her therapist sit within close proximity to the learner and then work on fading away until the therapist is farther away and the child is more independent.
At BCOTB we offer three different programs to help children succeed in academic settings.
If your child is between the ages of 1.5-3.5 years old the Toddler Achievement Program (TAP) is perfect for them. TAP is designed to provide nurturing and individually designed program for children to develop critical skills. Within the context of play our aim is to help these children develop language, social, and adaptive skills and to meet critical developmental milestones. TAP works on bringing instructions and working on developing skills exclusively in the natural environment. TAP focuses on structured play-based instructions. During TAP session time, there are different skills and activities that are worked on. These activities include: introductions and greetings, calendar/weather, music and movement, reading time, and arts and crafts. During greetings and introduction TAP children work on greetings with a song, waving to a friend, high 5’s, and saying “hi”. During calendar/weather, TAP children work on simple listener responding or directions and simple echoic responses. For example: “Today is Wednesday, touch Wednesday”, “say wuh”, “today is the 1st, touch 1”. Music and movement time is dedicated to a musical and educational video on that weeks lesson. If they are learning about plants, sports, colors, etc the video will go over the specific topic. During music and movement, the video will be paused in certain parts to work on gross motor imitations, listener responding, and simple echoic targets the video may include. During reading time, the teacher will read a few pages and ask the children to repeat simple echoics, gross motor imitations, pointing to items in the book, and simple identification targets. During arts/crafts, the children will work on one step directions.
The School Readiness Program (SRP) is designed for children ages 3.5- 5 years old. This program attempts to prepare preschool children with important skills like following a schedule, responding to instructions, engaging in peer interactions, and participating in group work. In this program kids will work on individual skills as well as group skills, play based instruction, peer interactions and cooperative skills. SRP includes a combination of natural environment teaching and table instructions that simulate a classroom setting for children these ages. In the SRP group the same activities are done but include a more complex set of skills that the children will be working on. During introductions/ greetings they work on turning and facing friends, waving to friends, saying hi with a friend’s name, and even introducing themselves. During calendar time they work on days of the week, what day or month it is, the weather, the seasons, intraverbals (including fill in questions, wh questions), simple tacts, intermediate echoics (phrases) and identifying objects. In music and movement, the SRP group works on gross and fine motor imitations, receptive, and expressive skills. During arts and crafts the SRP group works on more adaptive skills such as waiting for materials, asking for materials, raising hand, two step directions, asking for help, and group activities or collaboration with peers.
The School Success Program (SSP) is designed for children ages 5-10 years old. This program is designed to build from SRP and teach more complex skills. Some of these targeted skills are social, academic, adaptive, language, and communication skills that will help maximize learning in a mainstream classroom. SSP uses a combination of natural environment teaching as well as instructions at the table for more intensive teaching. This group also works to establish functional goals in a more academic setting. The SSP group works on most activities the other two groups work on, but in a more advanced way. During calendar time, they work on the day, date, year, weather, month, season, and what yesterday was and tomorrow will be. During music and movement, this group takes turns having a group leader that leads the activities and motor movements that are being worked on. During reading time the SSP group works on all those targets that TAP and SRP have and also work on comprehension questions, inference questions and taking turns reading. Arts and crafts is similar to SRP but they work on more advanced, functional, and collaborative skills. Some of these skills include: “find a seat and wait”, “collect everyone’s work”, “raise your hand when you finish”, requesting for missing items, 3 step directions, requesting for help, “when you finish find a book and read quietly”, and “pass out the____”.
If you are interested or want more information about enrolling your child in one of these group settings, let your child’s case manager or BCBA know and they will be happy to help.
**BCOTB has been Tampa’s leading provider of pediatric ABA therapy since 2003. With four clinic locations throughout the Tampa Bay area, we know that our clinic is the right spot for your early learner! BCOTB focuses on in-clinic early intervention for children from birth to ten years old. BCOTB accepts most major insurances, including, but not limited to: Aetna, Anthem, Baycare, Beacon, BCBS, Cigna, CMS, Florida Blue, Humana, MHNet, Meritain Health, Magella Health, UnitedHealthcare, and TRICARE.**
