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Greenspan would not agree, but, in practice, AVB feels that way from a parent’s perspective.] Unlike traditional ABA, AVB does not take a mechanical or drill-like approach. It is fluid and requires a parent to follow a child’s lead, just like in floortime, which is just the opposite of traditional ABA. There is very little table-top time. The difficulties posed in setting up a home-based AVB program mirror those of traditional ABA programs. The AVB curriculum is called the ABLLS (Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills) and was developed by Drs. James W. Partington and Mark L. Sundberg. There is no school in the DC metro area that we know of which incorporates AVB in its curriculum. AVB is a major component of the STARS School in Walnut Creek, CA. What is Floortime? The aptly named floortime intervention model means what it says: Get on the floor, at your child’s physical level, and play. The hallmark of floortime is to follow a child’s lead, which simply means to pick up on their interests and help them to expand their ideas, closing as many circles of communication as possible, and challenging them to think logically and with reason. Floortime does not break down skills into discrete steps. Instead, floortime sessions are aimed at “pulling the child into a greater degree of pleasure.” The curriculum is aimed at six developmental capacities: shared attention and regulation; engagement; affective reciprocity and communications through gestures; complex, pre-symbolic, shared social communication and problem-solving; symbolic and creative use of ideas; and logical and abstract use of ideas and thinking In practice, floortime feels more abstract than ABA. Drs. Stanley Greenspan and Serena Wieder, the developers of the floortime model, hold workshops to teach floortime to both clinicians and parents. The best description of floortime is in the book they co-authored, The Child With Special Needs (links to Amazon.com). The Coping.org site has the best online description of floortime, including a glossary of terms associated with floortime. See also the Floortime Foundation and its sister site, The Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders (ICDL). The Publications section sells training tapes on floortime. What is a circle of communication? Circle of communication is a term associated with floortime. It means the to and fro of a conversation between two individuals (for example, parent talks, child responds). A circle of communication also can be non-verbal using body language (for example, parent points to watch on wrist; child know that its time to leave and puts on coat.) Tell me more about the difference between ABA and AVB? Applied Verbal Behavior is a form of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). Think of ABA as the umbrella under which a variety of programs share similar characteristics yet are strikingly different. One program that seems to be synonymous with ABA is the discrete-trial approach developed by Dr. O. Ivar Lovaas of UCLA. The following example will help you better understand the difference between a discrete-trial and AVB. In a discrete-trial session, therapy sessions are characterized as “work” and involve a lot of table time. The therapist will sit face to face with a child when they work on goals. If the first goal is, for example, a sequencing goal – tap your knee, |
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