Do teachers’ unions really prohibit non-public agencies from serving as children’s aides in public schools?

Some special education administrators will initially mention this as being a reason why they cannot authorize non-public agency support for a child. It is true that some districts' aides are in labor unions. However, in the past 25 years, working with at least 40 different school districts, the union issue has never affected our ability to serve children in public schools. The issue generally disappears if you ask for specific details about the exact constraints that districts are working under.

Should We Have 30 Programs on Maintenance?

My daughter’s program currently has 11 programs on acquisition, and over 30 programs on maintenance. We end up spending more time reviewing old programs to make sure my daughter doesn’t lose them than teaching new ones. Is this normal?

No. You should probably have no more than 3-5 programs on maintenance at any one time. You should definitely not have to regularly practice all old programs. Your problem is most likely due to poor sequencing in the programming of your daughter’s case.

When programming is done correctly, each new skill is only introduced if it will be used relatively soon in a higher level program. Skills that are not subsequently used in more advanced programs will typically be forgotten (though there is a critical exception to this that we will get to in a minute).

Studying math offers a good analogy to this situation. Each skill taught is used in the next, more complex skill. Counting skills are used in addition and subtraction. Addition and subtraction is used in multiplication. Multiplication is used in division. Multiplication and division are used in algebra. Algebra is used in geometry. Geometry is used in trigonometry, and so on. Children taking algebra don’t have to continually review multiplication facts, because multiplication skills are practiced in the course of doing algebra.

EIBT programming should be conducted the same way. Verbal imitation skills are used to expressively label objects and actions. Object and action labels are used to speak in complete sentences. Complete sentences are used to describe previous experiences. Descriptions of previous experiences are used to carry on conversations (we left a lot of additional skills out of this chain).

Introducing pronouns such as “I,” “you,” “he,” and “she,” too early is a common mistake. Because they are easy to say, they are often introduced before children are able to speak in complete sentences. But guess what? They don’t really have any communicative value unless they are used in sentences. Consequently, children lose them pretty quickly.

Effective EIBT requires the rapid acquisition of hundreds of skills over the course of 2-4 years. This rapid acquisition is sabotaged if programs are not sequenced appropriately.

What’s that exception we mentioned earlier? It’s the real world. It’s fine to introduce a new skill that will not be used in subsequent programming, if the skill will be used in a real-world setting. For example, we may teach a child to receptively label her own printed name, because in preschool, she has to sit on the carpet square that has her name on it.