Dear Sunrise,
We are writing in response to your news report, “Classroom Cages,” which highlighted concerns regarding the management of challenging behavior in children with autism in public schools. In this case, a young boy with autism was caged in pool fencing, and the story unfortunately follows on the heels of several similar accounts documenting the mistreatment of children with autism in classrooms and treatment centers in other countries, including here in the United States.
Nicole Rogerson of Autism Awareness should be commended for her statements speaking to the importance of responsible inclusion. She aptly notes that the larger problem is staffing public school classrooms (and any autism treatment program) with competent, experienced, behaviorally trained teaching professionals. When educators are not taught how to work effectively with individuals with autism, we should not be surprised when they may resort to ineffective or harmful practices in their attempts to respond to behavioral crises.
Evidence-based autism treatment strategies require that providers possess technical knowledge, extensive training, and ongoing support and supervision by a board certified behavior analyst (BCBA). The Behavior Analyst Certification Board (www.bacb.com) sets standards for providers at each level of autism treatment, which ensure that these individuals have met prerequisite training requirements to effectively implement behavioral strategies. It would behoove autism treatment programs to staff classrooms with individuals who have obtained a BACB credential, or to access consultation services from a certified individual.
By accessing such expertise, administrators will increase the likelihood that school personnel will implement high quality behavioral intervention. Such intervention would include a functional assessment that seeks to understand the underlying function served by the challenging behavior, a comprehensive intervention that addressed that function including both proactive and consequence-based interventions (as needed), ongoing collection of data to objectively assess responsiveness to intervention, and careful monitoring to ensure that the plan is carried out compassionately, accurately, and as delineated. Any plan that lacks one of more of these components is likely to be unsuccessful.
In summary, this report highlighted the dire need for high-quality training of public school staff working with children with autism. We encourage your viewers to become familiar with the current evidence-based strategies for managing problem behavior in this population. We thank you again for publicizing this important story and inviting a spokesperson who can directly speak to the underlying issues with sensitivity and candor.
Sincerely,
Caitlin Reilly, MA, BCBA and David Celiberti, Ph.D., BCBA-D
Association for Science in Autism Treatment
