Topic 19: Program Development

When writing treatment plans, targeted skills are divided into categories based on similarities and
general curricular areas. Often, funders (e.g., insurance company or school district) will specify
what areas need to be assessed and targeted. Under the medical model for autism treatment,
those categories might need to be related to the key characteristics that lead to the diagnosis of
autism (communication, social skills, and behavior). Alternatively, domains of skills may be
specified by the assessment used to identify areas of needed support.

Curriculum Areas
There are countless skills taught to individuals. Most of them fall into one or more of the
following curriculum areas:
Imitation
Basic skill required: The individual must copy something that an adult or peer
does.
Instruction used: The instruction, “Do this” or “Copy me” is usually used.
Examples:
Motor imitation with objects (e.g., throw a ball, read a book, stack
blocks)
Motor imitation without objects (e.g., clap, wave, jump, march)
Verbal imitation (e.g., “say ‘ah’,” “say ‘mama’,” “say ‘it’s a cookie’”)
Peer imitation (e.g., imitate a same-age individual doing a variety of
actions)
Receptive Language
Basic skill required: The individual must “receive” language and act upon it.
Instruction used: Whatever language the individual must “receive” and act upon;
a verbal direction to do or give something.
Examples:
Following directions (e.g., “clap your hands,” “throw this away”)
Receptive labels (e.g., “give me the cup,” “point to the shoe”)
Attributes/abstract concepts (e.g., “put the block on the shoe,” “point to
‘little’”)
Expressive Language
Basic skill required: The individual must “express” something, usually vocally,
but also includes the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).
Instruction used: “What is this?” “Tell me about…” What, where, who, why
questions, etc.
Examples:
Expressive labels (e.g., “What is this?” “How does she feel?”)
Commenting (e.g., display visual stimulus such as a book or photograph)
Social questions (e.g., “What is your name?” “Where do you go to
school?”)
Motor Skills
Basic skill required: The individual must complete a task that focuses on fine or
gross motor skills.
 Instruction used: Varies considerably (e.g., “Do your puzzle,” “Open the jar,”
“Color”).
Examples:
Gross motor skills (e.g., throwing, catching, kicking a ball, climbing)
Fine motor skills (e.g., puzzles, coloring, buttoning, zipping, tying shoes)
Pre-Academic & Academic Skills
Basic skill required: The individual must complete tasks common in school.
Instruction used: Varies considerably (e.g., “Do your worksheet,” “Count,”
“Read”).
Examples:
Worksheets
Counting
Reading
Social Skills
Basic skill required: The individual must exhibit social interactions common in
individuals their age or younger.
Instruction used: For many skills, there is no direction. The cue is some
naturally occurring event in the environment.
Examples:
Eye contact
Greeting
Sharing
Play Skills
Basic skill required: The individual must play both independently and with
peers.
Instruction used: Often no direction is used. The individual may sometimes be
given a direction to “go play”.
Examples:
Independent Play (e.g., puzzles, coloring, look at books)
Play with Peers (e.g., play games, with cars, pretend play)
Daily Living Skills
Basic skill required: The individual must care for themselves and their body.
Instruction used: Depends on the skill (e.g., “Get dressed” “Brush your teeth”).
Examples:
Grocery shopping
Get a haircut
Use a toilet

Generalization and Maintenance

Once a new skill is taught, it must generalize to other situations and maintain over time. For
instance, if I teach an individual to imitate clapping hands, I want to be sure that they can also
imitate clapping during a song, when other individuals are clapping, or when another adult
models clapping. This process refers to generalization. Programming for generalization is key to
the success of intervention for each individual. Consequently, programs should actively
incorporate strategies designed to transfer instructional control to family members, school teams,
and others with whom the individual has contact and across new materials and environments.
 Examples:
Structured Situation Generalization Example
“say cookie” à cookie Mom says, “say cookie” before giving the individual a cookie
“shoes”à individual points to shoes Dad tells individual, “get your shoes” and individual brings shoes
“do this” + waveàindividual waves Grandma waves goodbye before leaving and individual waves back

Generalization Procedures. Procedures to ensure generalization vary greatly across

individuals. Generalization should begin once the individual has demonstrated that the skill set
is in their repertoire. Here are some general strategies.
Learning from different people will help the individual to generalize across people.
Practicing learned skills in more than one environment (e.g., outside, kitchen, living room)
will help individuals to generalize across environments. It is important to generalize outside
the home as well.
Using a wide variety of teaching materials (e.g., 3 different pictures of shoes) will help
individuals to generalize across objects.
Run the program with different SD’s (e.g., “Hand me” vs. “Touch the” vs. “Point to”).
Vary the ways the learner can respond. Do not accidentally shape up very scripted
responding.

Maintenance Procedures. Individuals may be expected to display skills months and years after
they are taught. This refers to maintenance. For instance, after teaching an individual to follow
an instruction to “clap hands,” the provider might continue asking the individual to “clap hands”
at least once every week. Additionally, mastered skills can be imbedded into new skills, creating
more complex behaviors over time. This is very apparent in social skills, as well as in academic
tasks. It is essential to continue practicing learned skills to ensure maintenance. At the same
time, a balance must be struck between maintaining skills and having enough time to teach new
skills. If all teaching time is spent practicing learned skills, there may not be enough time to
teach new skills. Therefore, the consultant must determine how much practice is enough.

Program Development
When writing a program, it is important to include certain information so that everyone who
works with the individual will conduct the program the same way. This information includes:
Domain – The curricular area under which this skill falls.
Target Response/Sub Domain – The name of the skill to teach.
Response Definition – Written as an operational definition of exactly what the behavior
will be and under what conditions it will occur.
Probe Procedure – How a provider would assess whether or not the individual can
perform the skill.
Mastery Criteria – The level of data that must be met before working increasing the
difficulty or complexity of a skill.
Teaching Procedure – How a provider would teach the skill to the individual. This should
include methods of prompting and fading and any error correction procedures used.
Measurement Procedure – How a provider will record whether or not the skill was
performed correctly, or how well the individual did with the skill. Include what is
included in the percent correct to be included in graphing.
 Maintenance and Generalization – How often the skill will be monitored after mastery
criteria are met and how the skill will be generalized to other environments.

Assignment:

1. Write an operational definition for a skill to teach within each of the eight common
domains of behavior.
2. Identify a teaching plan for each program, including reinforcement schedule,
prompting and fading techniques, data collection, mastery criteria, and plans for
generalization.

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