HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT OUR NEW COLLABORATION?

By: Dr. Tara Fahmie, BCBA-D

An exciting new collaboration is underway between Autism Behavior Intervention and California State University, Northridge (CSUN) Masters in Applied Behavior Analysis program. The name of the collaboration is “Taking Steps Together” and its mission is to bring together top-quality services and cutting-edge research in behavior analysis. In a nutshell, this collaboration allows ABI families to access new opportunities for their children to participate in research led by myself (a faculty member at CSUN), Allison Bickelman (ABI’s Quality Assurance manager), and several highly-trained CSUN student interns. Before I tell you more about the vision for ‘Taking Steps Together,’ let me introduce you to our first two interns, Ellie and Carissa, and the program they initiated this year:

 Hi Everyone! Our names are Ellie and Carissa. We started working at ABI about 9 months ago when we entered the masters program at CSUN. Under the supervision of Dr. Fahmie, Allison Bickelman, and Dr. Saltzman, we developed a group-based social skills program for preschool children at ABI. Our program was developed based on research in many areas: behavioral skills training, group-based learning, and, most importantly, pro-social skill development in children with an autism spectrum disorder. The result was a highly engaging 1-hr per week group, in which children experienced practice with social skills embedded into games and activities. We taught skills such as greetings, accessing adult and peer attention, and sharing materials. These skills are considered foundational to the establishment of friendships and the prevention of problems in social situations. Activities included bowling, playing duck duck goose, making food, singing, coloring, completing puzzles, gardening, crafting and more! In addition, we evaluated whether participating children preferred story-based or practice-based teaching styles. We thoroughly enjoyed developing and implementing this program, and we know that our results will inform future work at ABI!

I am proud of these interns as well as the families who participated in the social skills groups with us this year. I also feel a great deal of excitement about the future of this collaboration. Taking Steps Together promotes three distinct, but equal, aims—service, training, and research.

Service. Our partnership is designed to enhance evidence-based behavioral programming for children and families.

Training. Graduate student interns gain important skills in the application of behavior analysis to a community setting and accrue hours that meet the university-based practicum experience standards of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB).

 Research. Our team (including CSUN undergraduates, graduates, and faculty advisors) conducts research designed to increase our understanding of best-practice applications of behavior analysis.

These three goals guide our work together with ABI. Our immediate future plan is to extend our social skills groups to older children. If you are interested in participation, do no hesitate to email me (email hidden; JavaScript is required) or Allison Bickelman (email hidden; JavaScript is required).