Behavioral Learning Network offers a variety of services.
All of BLN’s services are based on the scientific principles of Applied Behavior Analysis. All services are provided by a caring and supportive team member extensively trained in Applied Behavior Analysis and working with individuals with autism. BLN offers a continuum of behavior intervention services from assessment and consultation to full treatment models in the home, community or school setting.
Assessment services are provided to clients local to our offices and are designed to assist you to better understand your child’s strengths, areas of improvement or challenging behaviors. Assessment services include:
Skills-based assessments typically include completion of the Verbal Behavior-Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP; Sundberg, 2007) which assesses language (i.e., Verbal Behavior) and other social skills. These assessments include direct observations of the child, file review and interviews with parents, caregivers and/or educational team members. Each Skills-based assessment will result in:
Functional Behavior assessments are based on the completion of an assessment of your child’s adaptive behavior, as well as multiple observations of the child, extensive file review, interviews with parents and caregivers and/or educational team members and may include a Functional Analysis (FA). Each Functional Behavior Assessment will result in:
All assessments are conducted by a Program Supervisor or Behavior Analyst, and under the direct supervision of the Clinical Director, with extensive experience in autism, Applied Behavior Analysis and conducting Skills-based assessments and Functional Behavior Assessments.
Summary and highlights of Assessment Services:
Home-based services are implemented by a small team of BLN’s well-trained and caring staff who work directly with your child, one-to-one, in the home and community setting. This team of staff is closely supervised by a Program Supervisor and/or Behavior Analyst with extensive experience in designing and overseeing a child’s behavior program.
Services start with an assessment to determine your child’s strengths and abilities and any challenging behavior he or she may exhibit. The treatment plan is then individually designed from this assessment, including intensity, based on each child’s needs.
The team members all undergo extensive training in autism, applied behavior analysis, and ethical and professional considerations. The team meets on a regular basis to assess progress through demonstration and data review and to ensure treatment fidelity. In addition to attending meetings, the Program Supervisor and/or Behavior Analyst conducts regular visits to supervise staff, check on progress and update the program. Parent and caregiver education is included as part of BLN’s Home-Based Services, provided by the child’s Behavior Analyst.
Summary and highlights of Home-Based Services:
Consultation services are designed to help families and schools set up and maintain behavior intervention programs modeled after our Home Based and School Based services. In this model BLN provides a Program Supervisor or Behavior Analyst who designs an individualized program and trains the family and/or school or family’s staff.
Services start with an assessment to determine your child’s strengths and abilities and any challenging behavior he or she may exhibit. The treatment plan is then individually designed from this assessment, including intensity, based on each child’s needs. Each Program Supervisor or Behavior Analyst has extensive experience in designing and overseeing a child’s behavior program. The team meets on a regular basis to assess progress through demonstration and data review and to ensure treatment fidelity. In addition to attending meetings, the Program Supervisor or Behavior Analyst conducts regular visits to supervise staff, check on progress and update the program.
Parents and caregivers or educational staff are considered integral members of the child’s team and kept up-to-date on progress and involved in treatment plan decisions. Parent and caregiver education may be included as part of BLN’s Consultation services.
Summary and highlights of Consultation Services:
School-based services are designed to provide your child with the one-to-one support they need to be successful in the school setting. Services are provided by BLN’s well-trained and caring staff. All of BLN’s staff receive extensive training in autism, applied behavior analysis and ethical and professional considerations. The staff is closely supervised by a Program Supervisor or Behavior Analyst who designs and develops the child’s program.
Services start with an assessment by the Program Supervisor or Behavior Analyst to determine your child’s strengths and abilities and any challenging behavior he or she may exhibit. The treatment plan is then individually designed from this assessment, including intensity, based on each child’s needs. Each Program Supervisor or Behavior Analyst has extensive experience in designing and overseeing a child’s behavior program.
The team meets on a regular basis to assess progress through demonstration and data review and to ensure treatment fidelity. In addition to attending meetings the Program Supervisor and/or Behavior Analyst conducts regular visits to supervise staff, check on progress and update the program. Parents and caregivers and educational staff are kept up-to-date on progress and involved in treatment plan decisions as part of BLN’s School-Based services.
Summary and highlights of School-Based Services:
Telehealth services involve the use of electronic communication to enable our team to provide medically necessary care from a distance. Using phones, tablets, and computers, a behavior analyst can deliver instructions and feedback to caregivers and behavior technicians while not being in the same location. Telehealth has not only facilitated access to services for those in remote locations but has also improved the safety of service delivery during the pandemic. We may use telehealth services to provide care when otherwise unsafe or unfeasible to have all care team members physically together at once.
Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) is an intervention which applies the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to teaching the developmental milestones that may be either missed or delayed to young children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). EIBI is typically provided for children between the ages of two (2) and six (7) years old (Eikeseth, Smith, Jahr, & Eldevik, 2002, 2007; Waters et al., 2018; Vea et al., 2017), and involves the intensive delivery (30-40 hours per week) of one-to-one ABA treatment, systematically targeting a comprehensive curriculum based on typical childhood developmental milestones. The purpose of EIBI is to “close the gap,” between children’s chronological age and their developmental age, which may be delayed as a result of their diagnosis, and ultimately, to teach them the skills so they may best be prepare to enter school within the least restrictive environment. EIBI has a much stronger empirical basis than virtually any other intervention used with children with autism and is considered ‘‘best practice’’ for young children with autism (Eldevik, Titlestad, Aarlie, and Tonnesen, 2019).
The intensity of treatment/treatment dosage (number of hours per week of intervention) is a salient feature of successful EIBI. The best reported treatment outcomes were based on treatment in which 30–40 hours per week of one-to-one EIBI was delivered (Lovaas, 1987; Smith et al., 1997; Sallows and Graupner; 2005; Howard et al., 2005; Granpeesheh, Dixon, Tarbox, Kaplan, and Wilke, 2009). According to Makrygianni and Reed (2010), it appears that more intensive programs, in general, have a higher impact on the gain in intellectual, and adaptive behavioural abilities of children with ASD. Several studies have evaluated clinical outcomes for low-intensity interventions (below 15 weekly hours). Even though these studies report clinically meaningful gains, the gains are more moderate than studies reporting outcomes of more intensive behavioral intervention (Eldevik et al., 2012; Lotfizadeh, Kazemi, Pompa-Craven, & Eldevik, 2018).
Although EIBI is provided in several different ways it involves some common core elements: a) it blends research from ABA, ASD and child development, b) it addresses all the important skill domains, c) skills are broken down into teachable units and built up step by step, d) it is based on positive reinforcement to build new skills and reduce problem behaviors, e) procedures to reduce problem behaviors are based on functional analysis, f) direct observation and data collection are used for selecting new targets and evaluations, g) many well-documented behavior analytic procedures are used, both child-initiated and adult-directed methods (such as discrete trial teaching), h) intervention is individualized to the needs of the child and the family, i) it is conducted in many settings, j) parental involvement, k) explicit generalization training, and, l) it is designed and overseen by professionals with appropriate training (Green, 2011; Eldevik, Titlestad, Aarlie, and Tonnesen, 2019).
The Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB; 2014) describes Comprehensive ABA as follows:
“Comprehensive ABA refers to treatment of the multiple affected developmental domains, such as cognitive, communicative, social, emotional, and adaptive functioning. Maladaptive behaviors, such as noncompliance, tantrums, and stereotypy are also typically the focus of treatment. Although there are different types of comprehensive treatment, one example is early intensive behavioral intervention where the overarching goal is to close the gap between the client’s level of functioning and that of typically developing peers. These programs tend to range from 30-40 hours of treatment per week (plus direct and indirect supervision and caregiver training). Initially, this treatment model typically involves 1:1 staffing and gradually includes small-group formats as appropriate. Comprehensive treatment may also be appropriate for older individuals diagnosed with ASD, particularly if they engage in severe or dangerous behaviors across environments.”
“Initially, treatment is typically provided in structured therapy sessions, which are integrated with more naturalistic methods as appropriate. As the client progresses and meets established criteria for participation in larger or different settings, treatment in those settings and in the larger community should be provided. Training family members and other caregivers to manage problem behavior and to interact with the individual with ASD in a therapeutic manner is a critical component of this treatment model (BACB, 2014).”
The Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB; 2014) describes Focused ABA as follows:
“Focused ABA refers to treatment provided directly to the client for a limited number of behavioral targets. It is not restricted by age, cognitive level, or co-occurring conditions.
Focused ABA treatment may involve increasing socially appropriate behavior (for example, increasing social initiations) or reducing problem behavior (for example, aggression) as the primary target. Even when reduction of problem behavior is the primary goal, it is critical to also target increases in appropriate alternative behavior, because the absence of appropriate behavior is often the precursor to serious behavior disorders. Therefore, individuals who need to acquire skills (for example, communication, tolerating change in environments and activities, self-help, social skills) are also appropriate for Focused ABA.
Focused ABA plans are appropriate for individuals who (a) need treatment only for a limited number of key functional skills or (b) have such acute problem behavior that its treatment should be the priority.
Examples of key functional skills include, but are not limited to, establishing instruction-following, social communication skills, compliance with medical and dental procedures, sleep hygiene, self-care skills, safety skills, and independent leisure skills (for example, appropriate participation in family and community activities). Examples of severe problem behaviors requiring focused intervention include, but are not limited to, self-injury, aggression, threats, pica, elopement, feeding disorders,
stereotypic motor or vocal behavior, property destruction, noncompliance and disruptive behavior,
or dysfunctional social behavior (BACB, 2014).”
Social skills groups are used to teach individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) ways to appropriately interact with typically developing peers. Social skills groups typically involve small groups of two to eight individuals with disabilities and a teacher or adult facilitator. Most social skill group meetings include instruction, role-playing or practice, and feedback to help learners with ASD acquire and practice skills to promote positive social interactions with peers (Collet-Klingenberg, 2009).
Within the evidence-base, studies included learners as young as 4 and as old as 12 years of age. Thus, social skills groups have the potential to be an effective practice with all learners. Research also exists that supports its use with adult learners.
In the evidence base, social skills group training targeted the following: perspective-taking, conversation skills, friendship skills, problem-solving, social competence, emotion recognition, theory of mind, and problem-solving. In addition, specific interaction skills such as initiation, responding, maintaining, greeting, giving/accepting compliments, turn taking, sharing, asking for help, offering help, and including others were also improved through the use of social skills groups (Collet-Klingenberg, 2009).
Social Skills Groups typically take place at our office, but they may also take place in family homes and/or other community settings (e.g., parks).
If you are interested in initiating BLN services, please submit this enrollment form, or simply contact our office at 888.233.9555. After receiving your information, a Clinical Director will contact you to discuss how we can help!
At BLN our mission is to provide quality, empirically validated services to individuals with autism to help them reach their individual potential. This is only possible by having the highest quality and well-trained staff. BLN is constantly recruiting quality staff at all levels, Behavior Technician, Senior Behavior Technician, Program Supervisor and Behavior Analyst. We are eager to hear from those at all levels interested in a career in Applied Behavior Analysis.
Direct service positions offer wonderful and valuable field experience for those seeking to work with autism spectrum disorder.
For more information or to send a letter of intent and resume, contact BLN’s office directly: