Saturday, October 9, 2010

Assessment: Targeting the treatment towards all the issues, not just the child.

When a child presents with Autism, or almost any developmental disability or social emotional issue, the tendency is often to immediately provide intervention to the child.

First, you must have a good standard assessment for diagnosis and treatment. So many developmental disabilities and mental illnesses today have well researched prescriptive treatment that it is often a huge waste of time and money when the wrong intervention is used for the child; however, just because you have the completed the right assessments for diagnosis, does not mean you have completed all the needed assessment for treatment.

In any situation where the issue/behavior is a significant issue, you must also complete a Functional Analysis of Behavior. Often, the most important intervention is not targeted directly at the child; but at the environment and setting events.

The following information is as applicable to the home as it is to the classroom.
http://www.challengingbehavior.org/do/pyramid_model.htm
http://www.challengingbehavior.org/do/resources/documents/yc_article_7_2003.pdf

For additional information see postings on this website on Functional Analyses of Behavior (Functional Behavioral Assessments) and Setting Events.

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