Course Description:

The Balance Program

A set of social skills including functional communication, delay tolerance, and cooperation with adult instructions has been shown to reduce severe problem behavior among children with autism. Teaching these skills to typically developing preschoolers has also been demonstrated to reduce problem behavior and prevent it from developing. From this foundation, we developed the Balance Program, a skill-based curriculum to be delivered in the home, by parents to their young children recently diagnosed with autism, with the goal of preventing the development of severe problem behavior. Our empirical evaluation of the program showed decreases in emerging problem behavior across all participants, as well as increases in social and cooperation skills.

This course will consist of an on-demand portion, to be completed prior to the first class meeting, as well as weekly class meetings. In the on-demand portion, participants will review data from the empirical evaluation of the Balance Program, learn about the program content and format in detail, and view video examples. During class meetings, attendees will have the opportunity to design an individualized application of the Balance Program for a child, and to receive feedback and implementation assistance. The course will consist of 11.5 hours of instructional content, including 3.5 hours of prerecorded video instruction by Dr. Ruppel and Dr. Hanley. Successful completion of the course will yield 12 BACB CEUs.

Participants

This course is designed for Board Certified Behavior Analysts, Special Educators, Speech-Language Pathologists, Psychologists, and related professionals. Professionals are encouraged to sign up with the parent or caregiver of a child with whom they will do the Balance Program. During the 8 weeks of the course, the parent or caregiver will implement the Balance Program with the professional’s support. Both the professional and the parent/caregiver will attend weekly class meetings to review progress and ask questions. Class is capped at 4 participants/dyads.

Note: Parent/caregiver attendance in class meetings is encouraged but not required. It is, however, required that professionals have a client with whom they are ready to begin the Balance Program on the first day of class.

Class Format

This course offers the opportunity for participants to plan the Balance Program process, begin implementing the plan, and receive feedback and problem-solving assistance. The course components are as follows:

• On-demand course, to be completed prior to the first class meeting
• Clinical case review for 1 child/client per professional or professional-parent dyad
• Private discussion board where participants may support one another with instructor guidance

Course Offering and Schedule

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