Question about staff to child ratio

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

I have a friend with a preschool age autistic child who has never

had any ABA and is fairly low functioning (no expressive language,

minimal receptive language or compliance, no self help skills,

etc). His school has agreed to provide an ABA program in a

classroom with several other autistic preschoolers. The staff to

child ratio in the classroom will be 1 staff to 2 children, and the

school is saying the ABA will be provided in a 1:2 format. Each

staff member will be teaching 2 children. Presumably, the idea is

that when one child is taking a break or busy doing a task, the

instructor will be doing drills with the other. So each staff

member will be responsible for teaching 2 children, and will sort

of switch back and forth all day between the children.

My friend has concerns about whether this will work and has concerns

that this is not traditional " one on one " ABA. The ABA consultant

setting up the program, who I know and respect, says what matters is

the number of trials a child gets in a day, not the number of hours

spent in one on one. She suggests the number of trials will be

adequate to make good progress and not to worry about the 1:2

teaching format.

I am wondering if anyone in this group has any knowledge or

experience with this kind of 1:2 ABA format. This is new to me, I

have never heard of doing ABA this way. If anyone has any thoughts,

comments, or experiences (good or bad) regarding this kind of format

please share them. My friend has to decide whether to accept this

program or keep pushing for traditional " one on one " ABA which the

school is not currently offering.

Thanks.