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About Intensive Behavioral Treatment - Historical Foundations & Reasearch Philosophy and Adaptation of the Treatment Model Age & Treatment Intensity - Treatment Process - Treatment Team Stages of Therapy - Evaluation - What Makes a Good Program? Job Descriptions - Our Directors The intensive behavioral intervention curriculum has been developed through three decades of research. The content includes all the skills a person needs to be able to function successfully and to enjoy life to its fullest. It includes skills that most children typically do not need to be formally taught such as play and imitation. A strong emphasis is placed on development of speech and language, conceptual, and academic skills, as well as promoting play and social skills. However, as a child gets older, the emphasis shifts to practical knowledge and adaptive skills along with alternative means of communication if speech has not developed. The curriculum is developmentally sequenced so that easier concepts and skills are taught first and complex skills are not introduced until the child has learned the prerequisite skills. However, the process of program design and implementation cannot rigidly be expected to follow a fixed order. Although it is not the usual pattern, some children learn to read before they can talk. It is important to build on a child's successes and expand the utilization of existing skills as well as encourage the development of new ones. Some children may never learn to talk and will need an alternative means of communication. We utilize the child's areas of strength and build upon them as rapidly as possible, while simultaneously attempting to offset the areas of weakness. The teaching methods are based on elegant application of learning theory and have benefitted from the clever innovations of thousands of individuals over the years. The approach is very pragmatic: if it works, stick with it; if it does not work, figure out how to fix it.
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