understanding the ABLLS: it's useful purpose

[Guest guest]

Dear Listers, below are my notes from Dr. Partington's ABLLS workshop. I was

planning on posting bits and pieces when answering parents questions, etc. but I

do not seem to be finding the time to do that. Dr. Partington said he did not

mind participants taping the workshop but did not want it dictated over the

internet. With this in mind, I want to say that the following notes are

strictly from my note taking and are not taken from any tape recorder. The

following is written to the best of my understanding during the workshop.

I highly recommend that any parent OR professional wanting to learn more to

contact Dr. Partington's agency and attend one or more of the many workshops

they have to offer...on both a parent and professional level. Workshops cover

ABLLS, behaviors, specific teaching techniques, etc. There is definitely one to

meet your needs (if not more then one). I do not have their website handy but

it has been post to this list in the past and can also be found on the ONElist

link page.

Please excuse my typo's. I am sure you will find some.

Biggest issue: lack of language skills. Language helps decrease unwanted

behaviors a great deal.

Stars School: 1 to 2 ratio. Opened 9-10 years ago. 24 students. Based on

Skinners Analysis of Language.

How do we measure skills? Which skills do we choose first? What was important

to Dr. Partington in the beginning was education. Project Follow-through was a

program developed to help the disadvantaged people to live for themselves. This

was to follow the Headstart program. PFT was to keep children moving along with

their peers. The models that came out with the best outcomes were Direct

Instruction and Behavioral Analysis. Direct Instruction out of Oregon was

better because they had a detailed curriculum to follow. ABA gives us the " know

how " to teach but we needed help on what to teach (years ago ?? date - during

this study of Project Follow Through). DI had that already, thus provided them

with better outcomes. Many people know how to direct behavior but do not know

what to teach. The ABLLS will help guide instructors through the " what to

teach. "

How do you pick things for children to work on? Pediatricians look for

developmental milestones to see if kids are ready to start school.

Developmental milestones are great but when you look at the child and they have

not reached other milestones, it would not be advised to teach colors or

numbers, etc. Children show escape behavior to get out of instruction to get

out of what they do not like. If people would look at other skills a child

needs and teach first, it may not take as long to teach more advanced skills.

Biggest issue we have to look at is to teach the right skills, especially when

highly structured instruction is needed. We do not want children to have to

have highly structured instruction their entire lives. Teaching should result

in the acquisition of generalized skills that allow the learner to learn from

his everyday experiences, not just structured instruction.

When a typical child goes to kindergarten, they come to school with a lot of

skills that allows them to learn from observations, and basic learner skills

that allow them to learn from their everyday experiences. We want them to learn

from peers, neighbors, family, and community. We needed a way to look at

what those basic learner skills are, thus the development of the ABLLS.

Autism: language deficits, social interaction deficits and atypical response to

stimuli, repetitive behavior, etc. As you look at all these issues, you will

see that language is a key to over come the other deficits associated with

autism. Bottom line, no language the child will have difficulty learning

skills.

Basic Learner Skills: (refer to assessment book-there are 15 areas of basic

learning.)

COOPERATION is one of the first skills a child needs to learn. You have to make

friends with the child. They have to want to be with you. We have to build a

reinforcing relationship.

VISUAL PERFORMANCE: to make sense out of stimuli that is available to the

child. We need to have the child pay attention to what we are showing the child

(is it a cat or a dog: furry little animal). Work through descriptives to

understand what you see.

RECEPTIVE SKILLS: ability to understand words of other people.

IMITATION: we learn a lot of skills from observing others behavior. Does not

matter what the imitation is, just that the child can imitate and generalize

imitations into the natural environment.

VERBAL BEHAVIOR: (vocal imitation/echoics/signing-how we communicate with

others):

n Requesting (manding): a child can get something out of what they are

asking (simple to complex information)

n Labeling: label complex social interaction as well as simple: that is a

cup

n Intraverbals: need to make sure a child can ask for labels they know or

they can talk about the items that they know. Important for social skills. (ex.

We can say all kinds of things about pasta. It is a kind of noodle, you eat it,

kinds of sauces you put on it, where to buy it, etc.) While driving down the

street. Child says, " cow " . Now we want to make sure they can talk about it.

Where do cows live, what does a cow say, etc. If we do not have this skill,

socialation cannot happen. Must have the ability to talk about these things.

n Spontaneous Vocalitation: we want children to use these skills without

having to tell them they can talk. Not only answer the question when we ask you

" what is it? " We want them to talk about things without us prompting it. Make

sure we are reinforcing it. What good are 200 words is we do not use them? A

child needs to learn that being asked is NOT the only time they can use their

labeling skills. Highest level of skill is their use of language without being

told to do so. Just because you are not working on labeling " water " but the

child says " water " spontaneously, you need to stop what you are doing and

reinforce that spontaneous language.

n Syntax and grammar: looking at how children use the function of

language. Formal aspect is how the child puts the words together (red car vs.

car red) Is it important how the child uses the language?

PLAY AND LEISURE SKILLS. We need to make sure that the child knows what to do

when he is alone.

Appropriate play: Things a child does to entertain him/herself. Appropriate

activities to keep him entertained. Drawing in other kids to bring in these

skills is a wonderful way to teach appropriate play.

SOCIAL INTERACTIONS: How to we act with each other. We do not want to just sit

down and teach children in a teaching environment. We want to make sure these

things occur naturally. The more skills we can teach them the more

opportunities the child will have to enjoy life. How can we get that child to

learn under more naturalistic teaching environments, less structure? How do we

move them on from the one on one teaching experience?

GROUP INSTRUCTION/FOLLOW CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION: does the child know that when I

say " everyone, " it means them too? Make sure the child knows the routine that

is expected of him. How do we follow along with a set of instructions?

GENERALIZED RESPONDING: make sure that all these skills we teach are

generalized. You have 30 cards a child learns, then you change the cards to

same but different items and the child does not know those items. Sometimes

children are attending to the wrong stimulus. (A crease in the card instead of

the car on the card.) We need to make sure the child can answer every ones

questions and they are able to use different stimuli to identify the same/like

items.

ACADEMIC, SELF HELP AND MOTOR SKILLS: reading, math, writing, spelling,

dressing, eating, grooming, toileting, gross and fine motor are all included in

a good program. These things are in the ABLLS, but are not a part of the basic

learner skills. Use other assessments to help you fine tune skills a child

needs, do not depend on just the ABLLS. The ABLLS is a tool and should not be

etched in stone. I have to do this first, then this, etc.

CURRICULM ISSUES: must emphasize the development of skills the student

currently needs to learn. We must allow for changes in instruction, as the

learner needs change. We are not going to be able to follow a book to meet all

the needs of every child. This is in contrast to what a typical kindergarten

class is like. We may need to be able to adapt quicker then a reg. kindergarten

class curriculum. If a child learns a skill in November but the teacher is not

planning on addressing that skill within her curriculum until Jan that is too

late for the child. We have to go with what the child needs and when he needs

it.

Multiple pay-offs: teach a child to MAND for reinforcers and you get ATTENDING,

COOPERATION, IMITATION, SOCIALIZATION, AND LANGUAGE. You need to make sure what

you are teaching provides a multiple of pay-offs, not just one specific thing.

If I have something a child wants, I do not need to ask him to " look at me " or

" come to me " because most likely they will do that anyway, just based on the

knowledge that I have what they want.

You need to track a child's progress. Including emerging skills. The ABLLS is a

criterion referenced assessment, curriculum and skills tracking system. What is

your sequence of what you are trying to do? Know what your goal is in the end.

Special features of the ABLLS are that it assesses language skills, a child's

ability to attend to verbal and NV stimuli, assesses generalization and

spontaneity sensitive to motivation of all variables.

There are holes in the ABLLS. I need to look at the child, itself, and then

look at the skills. Look at the patterns the child may have. Then ask

yourselves, is this a skill that I need to worry about. Maybe the child hates

puzzles. Is it necessary to make the child learn puzzles or would it be better

to do something the child likes better. Always look for fun, creative ways to

teach these skills. The ABLLS is a guideline. This gives guidance but we really

need to look at the child.

We have to have good teaching, good common sense, know what is available to

child (environment and teachers). All this should change when a child's needs

the change to progress further. Take a healthy view of the child. Do not

compare to others and do not look at timelines. Enjoy them for whom they are

and celebrate their successes as they come. Strive for the best, but keep the

focus on what they need to do now. And ask yourselves, " Can I help my child

enjoy himself and am I helping me enjoy my child as he learns. "

Limitations: ABLLS is not an exhaustive list of skills (476 skills derived from

25 areas of learning). These are arranged in a " somewhat " developmental

sequence. Every child learns differently. You are not going to fill in the

blanks in order for all kids, but it does progressively up.skill B1 most likely

will be easier then B10. But realize that there are many scattered skills for

children with autism. Exception to this would be motor skills. This section

was put in to say which ones do you need to teach. It does not matter the order

a child learns these.

The ABLLS does not provide age norms. It is not standardized. It has been

developed to provide guidelines. These are just skills. Some of these skills

are above a Kindergarten - 5 year old level but is based on where a 5 year old

needs to be. Because much of the ABLLS is language based, many of these skills

may be appropriate to teach an older child who has not reached these language

milestones yet. The ABLLS does not assess disruptive behaviors. That is an

entirely different process. It is not a predictor of how a child is going to do

in life. It is a guide to help you determine what to work on.

WHERE SHOULD TEACHING OCCUR? EVERYWHERE. There is a need for a blend of formal

(structured) teaching sessions and training natural environment. Home, park,

school, etc.

FEATURES OF THE ABLLS (Skill book, page 29 how the ABLLS works.)

For every item: task number, scoring to show level of child's skill. A uniform

way to measure progress. Task name, objective (loose), question (to ask

parent/teacher), and criteria to grade where the child is.

One of the features that are built into the ABLLS is the name of the task. Very

important to how you ask the question. Labels reinforcers vs. common objects.

Takes into account the motivation.

** Many times people have misconceptions regarding a child's understanding of

something. If you can label something, should you be able to talk about it.

But in actuality, these are separate skills. Just because someone can label

something does not mean they can find it in the environment. There are many

different skills in our understanding of language. If a child knows one (how to

label an object) does not necessarily mean he knows the other (to tell you

things about that object). They are taught differently.

ABLLS moves to more complex examples of categories as the numbers increase.

Please read the task name / objective carefully when marking off what a child

knows. On a lot of these the child will have one and it will cross over to

another goal but many times it does not. That is why the ABLLS breaks down

tasks.

Some tasks are markers, not skills. Example: (G7) acquires novel labels

without intensive training. Can the child learn from being told what something

is vs. doing it in a DTT setting.over and over again?

Many goals tell us " something " . Do we need to data record everything if the

child is learning it quickly? No. Do complex skills come easier for the child?

THE IMPORTANCE OF CARRIER PHRASES: Do we always use complete sentences when

labeling things? No. Why should we make our children do so? When you see a

cow, do you always say, " Look, there is a cow. " ? Or do you say, " cow " . You may

do both and it is important to have the child be able to do both. (A reasonable

range is about ½ of the time J) Look at the skill and ask yourself, how

important is it? You want a balance.

To break it down for an IEP. Provide task name and objective you want.

Basically that is it. Do not make it too complex. When trying to teach

something a child cannot see is more complex then trying to teach something that

is reinforcing or that the child sees everyday. So focus on what is common to

the child FIRST. (Example, body parts come later. If a child is learning these

skills on his own, go ahead and teach them. But do not hold a child back from

learning other things because he is not labeling something he does not see or

hear daily.)

When using the lists in the back of the book, use what makes sense. Teach

common things first. Do not start at the top and go down. You may want to

teach, " jumping " before " scraping " because it is more common to the child. We

have to make sense of what we are teaching. Do we have to set up a situation to

teach on top or beside or do we teaching in the environment? (Ex. put your

backpack on top of the shelf or do you want to teach put the block on top of the

box.????) You do not always want to do this in isolation. You want to teach it

naturally.

There are many factors that go into teaching. With typically developing

children we do not see each individual piece because they are able to transfer

their understanding. Each goal builds on the previous one. We often see people

teaching labeling of community helpers which contains a lot of abstract

concepts. In order to be able to identify a policeman you need to know some

identifying features of a policeman. (uniform, badge, gun, police car, etc.) So

why teach police man if the child does not have these other things known first.

You have to teach by using a lot of collateral events. You cannot teach a child

the concept of pain but you can teach them to attend to the behavior of others

that may show a person is in pain. (holding stomach, running fever, crying,

etc.) It is very difficult to teach social interaction. To know a person is

having a heated discussion with another person and you should not interrupt is

very difficult to teach but you can teach a child to look for and pay attention

to a lot of subtle details. You cannot just jump in and expect a child to know

not to interrupt.

When a child shows high motivation for something, go with it and teach it

because he is interested, but realize that you need to go back and teach those

things he is not interested in too. If he loves letters and numbers at age 2,

use it to teach what he is not motivated to learn (ex. Teach " apple " using

letters and match it to the apple)

PRACTICE: Filling out an ABLLS:

Looking at the ABLLS for patterns to see where your focus should be. This is

designed to be easy for you. Updating and scoring. Do so on a yearly basis for

school. Parents may look at it more often but do not become obsessed with it.

Do not live with the feeling you have to mark out blocks daily. Maybe every 6

months to a year fill it in.

When a child has a skill known, do not attend to it anymore. Focus on the ones

that the child has lower scores on. It is also better to underestimate a child's

skills instead of overestimate and the child actually not have it. This is when

we usually see that a child does not retain the information. Once it is really

learned, it usually stays. (and you should be using the information within the

environment, not just in a structured setting.) For the most part, it could be

the behavior of the child that causes a child to not give the correct answers.

So make sure you focus on the reason the child is not getting it, not that the

child just does not have it.

KEY TO GOOD TEACHING/LEARNING: capture the motivation of the child and keep

moving. If you are not catching the motivation, re-look at your teaching

techniques. Numbers of skills mastered is not set in stone. 50 or 45, does it

really matter? The ABLLS gives you easy guidelines to follow for evaluation

purposes. Do not live by it in stone. Be reasonable in life.

TEACH REINFORCERS FIRST: It will be more interesting to the child to learn

these first. It is not important to teach table and chair, first. Develop the

learning interest by teaching reinforcing items first (tact items that a child

has learned to mand for. -popcorn, pizza, trains)

ABLLS shows you the progress a child is making right away. As you get further

up the ABLLS it will take longer for the child to gain the skill. (most likely).

It is best for the same person to fill in the ABLLS. Fill out what you know

the child can and cannot do. Then, go back to the child and test out (probe)

what you are unsure of. If you are unsure or the child can sometimes or

sometimes not do the skill, then give the child the lower score, until the skill

is strong and he can exhibit it all the time. It is better to underscore then

over-score, and the child actually not have the skill.

TYPICAL IEP PROBLEMS:

n Lack of emphasis on Language and Basic Learner Skills

n Failure to prioritize objectives.

n Non-measurable objectives

n Failure to write objectives prior to the IEP meeting.

GOAL OF THE IEP should be emphasis of skills that will eventually allow student

to learn without us.

1.. Extend existing skills

2.. Develop new skills

3.. Generalize.

Number of objectives an IEP should have is between 20-30 objectives. Too few-

will not address enough skills. Too many - reduces time to work on critical

skills and will delay acquisition of them. You want to leave time for

incidental teaching and generalization and always add new ones when others are

mastered.

Guidelines for content of IEP. Each child is different and requires a unique

set of objectives. Most objectives and teaching time should be based on basic

learning skills and language skills first. ation and reinforcers-usually

don't need a specific objective - if you have good teaching these things should

come naturally. May include an objective to thin the schedule of reinforcement

as the child acquires skills.

VISUAL PERFORMANCE: 1-3 objectives, often an area of strength, can facilitate -

cooperation, task completion, and attention to complex stimuli. This works on

the area of independent play also.

RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE: usually one or more objectives. Follow simple directions.

Discriminations: simple, complex, RFFC. **Specify total number child will know

rather than increase by X amount. (ex. Instead of saying " will learn 20 new

labels " say " will have 75 known labels " ). This gives you specific goals. You

want a total number so you can keep track of what the child continues to know.

MOTOR IMITATION: include an objective unless has well-developed and

well-generalized skill. Gross motor, fine motor, speed, sequence, head and

mouth. May put imitation in social or play skills section. Speed/sequence

should also be included in imitation. Do what I do. Pattern what you are

doing. Make it fun. This can go under the social or play skills.

VOCAL IMITATION: Usually appropriate if the child doesn't have clear speech.

Simple sounds or words, phrases, volume, speed, tone. (View this as an

imitation. Work on motor skill differences first (fast, slow, etc) and then

vocal will come easier).

MANDS: one or more objectives. Very critical. Look at number of items child can

request as well as frequency of requests and requests for information. May put

requests made to peers in social skills section. Teach children to ask for

reinforcers from other children. (Remember to reinforce the child giving the

reinforcer too!) Make sure we set up the environment to promote the child to

ask for things/events he wants.

LABELING (TACTING): usually one or more objectives. Label objectives or

pictures, complex stimuli. Specify total number rather then increase by a

number. Kids are always learning new tacts, just not referred to it in that

way. In elementary school, a child may learn locations of states, in high

school he is learning new math terms in algebra. We are always tacting new

things in our environment through learning.

INTRAVERBALS: one or more objectives if a child can request a few items, and has

some labeling and receptive skills. These are critical for conversational

speech and social interaction. Describing sequences, features, functions, and

class. A child needs to answer a variety of questions. This is one skill

that is often missed on an IEP.

SPONTANEOUS VOCALS: usually don't need a specific objective. Need good

teaching. May include an objective to ensure people focus on the development of

spontaneous language. There are often times when we need to look at the

behavior of a child and reinforce that behavior because that is one we want to

see. (ex. If the child sees a plane and says " plane " on his own, stop what you

are doing and reinforce that spontaneous language.) It is VERY important to

increase your awareness and reinforce those behaviors we want to see more of in

a child.

SYNTAX AND GRAMMAR: may be appropriate when the child has developed requesting,

labeling, and intraverbal skills. Many times a child will learn from how we

model it. (ex. Child says " car red. " Then teacher will model " red car " and

the child will learn it correctly). Emphasize FUNCTION before FORM. Do not get

stuck on making sure the child says " red car, " model it and it will come over

time. Formal aspects are often acquired via modeling as acquiring functional

language. SP/L pathologists can provide a good means to move the child on in

specific areas.

PLAY AND LEISURE SKILLS: One or more objectives. Increase variety of play

activities, or the amount of time a child plays with an item. Also, play with

peers. Something that teaches the child to engage in play when you are cooking

dinner. A child needs to have appropriate play skills to engage in while alone.

SOCIAL INTERACTION: One or more objectives. Return/ initiate greetings,

turn-taking, requests from peers, offers to share, converse with others. May

include with play skills. Really reinforce and take notice that the child is

taking part in conversations with others, etc. Sharing: give, take, ask, and

refuse. Make sure they are responding back to you. You do not want to teach

language and then the child does not attend. It takes a lot of work. You need

to pair yourself with good things so that the child will respond to you. Later

you become the reinforcer because you have paired yourself with good things.

GROUP INSTRUCTION: at least one objective unless isn't under instructional

control or he hurts others. Minimally use known skills in a 1:2 group. More

advanced is learning /acquire new skills in a group. Specify size of group and

types of responses you require from the child. Very important in a goal. You

may have to search for the right type of group to meet specific goals.

CLASSROOM ROUTINES: at least one objective. Can help develop basic receptive

skills, help reduce disruptive behaviors and teach expectations/compliance,

often necessary for movement to less restrictive classrooms. Learn what is

expected from the child. It is important that the child learns when he is

expected to do what the other children are expected to do.

GENERALIZED: It is important that skills are learned in all settings. That a

child can do a skill in a very structured setting (at the table) and can also do

those things in his natural environment.

ACADEMIC SKILLS: not as critical as the BASIC| LEARNER SKILLS. For a child who

has most of basic learner skills you want to include 1 or 2 from appropriate

areas (math, reading, etc.) May be appropriate if has some skills and specific

interest (ex. a hyperlexic child will do well with programs that involve reading

or writing). You need to tie the child's academic ability into useful skills.

(ex. He knows numbers but can he go into the kitchen and bring back 4 spoons.

You have 4 plates and 2 spoons, how many more spoons do you need?) Sometimes

you have people who are trying to teach more abstract concepts when a child

cannot perform the basic learning skills. (Ex. He does not know how to ask for

his backpack, teach that before you teach him to ask for something he does not

use on a daily basis -say an apple but the child doesn't eat apples.)

SELF HELP OBJECTIVES: Include one or two objectives. Often best to teach these

skills in context of daily activities rather than devoting much time to these

skills, unless you have someone who can incorporate language into these

objectives. (Ex. When dressing, you can teach all other aspects of language.

Think about all the things you can teach with a shirt -mand, tact, RFFC,

intraverbals, etc.) Incorporate functional teaching first.

GROSS/FINE MOTOR SKILLS: 1-2 can facilitate cooperation and receptive language

skills. Can be incorporated into socialization interactive skills. Fine motor,

can do with other visual performance skills. More advanced skills; handwriting

can be achieved in academic goals.

BEHAVIOR ISSUES: can help to ensure that desired behaviors are reinforced.

Disruptive behavior that has been reduced, can serve as a reminder to use

effective strategies. If you get disruptive behavior it is indicative to

something else. Something reinforcing to the child is occurring is a behavior

continues to occur over and over again.

Look at reinforcement or amount of effort to get reinforcement. (Ex. if I give

you $1 just for reaching out and getting it, that is very reinforcing. But, if

I give you a $1 to push my call all the way to LA, you will not be very

reinforced. If I pay you $1 million to push my car, it is more reinforcing.)

Take a close look at what the reinforcement is. Ok the behavior is down; moving

to another environment, pay attention to the behavior so that the bad behavior

does not come back. Reinforce wanted behavior greater in new environments.

Get input from others: parents, educators, speech/language pathologists,

Behavioral Analysis, Developmental Pediatricians, Physical and Occupational

therapists. Focus on input from others so you are looking at things

objectively. You may not take all the input everyone gives you, but you should

look at it and consider it in your thought process so you are not focusing on

one thing too much, without seeing the whole picture.

Regarding CRITERIA. All involved must agree what the student must be able to

do. 80% or 8/10. When people agree what constitutes acceptable performance

" teacher observation " can be ok. Let effective specialists set their own

measures. Has to be some level of trust or you will not get anywhere.

Page 40 of ABLLS, List of Priorities. When checking off skills, make sure that

they are generalized. Not under just specific circumstances. Major emphasis is

on requesting and cooperation for the early learner.

ADVANCED LEARNER: Remember it is easier to take something somewhere (put your

shoes in your room) then it is to retrieve something (go to your room and bring

me your shoes). 2 different skills, if a child can do one it does not mean he

can do the other. It is a balance. He may be asking for car. But he is not

asking for a big red car, etc. so work on intraverbals, too. Capitalize on what

the child's interests are first to promote intraverbals. Do not wait until you

get all the mands before you start on intraverbals. Develop a balance in what

you are teaching. If you do not, you will promote a delay for the child.

When you write IEPs you are writing to an audience. You are writing in order to

give people guidelines, so the detail depends on whom you are working with. Do

they need a lot of direction or can they take the ball and run with it.

Name some things you eat. You do not want the child to rotely say items.

Change items out. Use visuals to promote varied responses. Then fade the

visuals so he can put it from his head.

Language, language, language. If you have too many goals, you may want to cut

the academics because the Language goals will bring more goals down the road.

Do not focus on only one verbal goal (manding) you need to have a balance.

Profiles are different, so every IEP is different. Why would you work on this

before you work on that. because he already has some skills in that area or he

has an interest in a specific area?