Description of ABI (1)

The following vignettes help to illustrate practical differences among three of the most prominent approaches to early childhood education and early intervention: developmentally appropriate practice (DAP), applied behavior analysis (ABA), and activity-based intervention (ABI). Consider how a routine activity such as snack time might take place quite differently depending on the philosophical approach of the teacher.

Ms. Jimenez is the lead teacher in an early childhood classroom of 12 students, 10 of whom meet the criteria for being considered “at risk” and 2 of whom have an identified developmental delay and receive support services from their school district. The classroom is located in an early childhood center accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) for providing a developmentally appropriate practice curriculum.

As snack time approaches, Ms. Jimenez invites children to join her at a small table to help prepare the day’s menu. She uses snack time to provide the children with the opportunity to make choices for themselves. First, children may choose to have snack or not. They may choose to help with snack preparation or not. Today the children are making “homemade” apple butter and peanut butter. Children who decide to eat snack can serve it themselves and elect to have a bagel half (a) plain, (b) with peanut butter, or (c) with apple butter. They may choose to drink water or juice, or nothing at all. They may sit at the table, or stand, or take their snack to the housekeeping area and eat it there. The snack is available to the children any time during their free-play period to allow the development and completion of child-directed activities without interruption. After snack, each of the children took their empty cup and napkin to the trash and their plate to the sink. The teacher’s goals for snack include encouraging responsible eating habits and self-sufficiency. She believes that provided with appropriate choices and the opportunity for participation in snack preparation, children will discover for themselves the joy of making and eating healthy food.

Ms. Dickerson is the teacher in an integrated early childhood classroom that includes eight students with individualized education programs (IEPs) to address identified disabilities and four typically developing peers of the same age. Ms. Dickerson believes that children with disabilities have to be taught the skills they lack through direct instruction. She has two teacher assistants to help her provide individualized instruction for the children with IEPs during 1:1 and small-group teaching sessions.

Snack time is one of the only times the children are together as a large group. Each of the children with IEP goals has an individual program for snack time and assigned seating. Snack time provides the opportunity for adults to work on target skills using food and drink as reinforcers for correct responding. Each child’s program is carried out according to a prescribed format that involves the adult setting up an opportunity to practice the target skill, followed by an adult prompt or cue for the child to produce the desired behavior, and either reinforcement or correction for the child’s response (also known as discrete trial instruction: click here for a link to the discrete trial instruction module). If possible, the adult provides the child with multiple opportunities to practice the target skill and make sure the child receives the appropriate feedback. Ms. Dickerson values snack time as an optimum period for individualized instruction on a variety of target skills. Some children are working on feeding themselves, others are learning to use two-and three-word phrases to make requests, and still others are using pictures to communicate their wants and needs at snack time. Teachers are kept busy recording the responses from each child so that progress on individual objectives can be closely monitored and revised, as needed, in keeping with her ABA approach to instruction.

Ms. Schaefer is an early childhood teacher in a classroom with 12 preschoolers, six of whom have IEPs. Snack time in Ms. Schaefer’s room is a predictable routine for all. The children take turns being the teacher’s helpers with jobs that include table-setter, server, and clean-up helper. Ms. Schaefer and her aides provide a consistent format for snack so that the children may fully participate in all aspects with minimal adult assistance. Children are encouraged to work together to ensure that everyone has his or her snack. When problems arise, such as spilled drinks or empty bowls, the children are allowed to come up with their own solutions and handle the situation independently whenever possible. Children with IEPs may have individual objectives embedded into snack time activities. For example, specific jobs may be assigned to children who need to develop target skills such as 1:1 correspondence (passing out napkins), categorizing objects (sorting cups, bowls, and spoons), or initiating social interactions (asking each child what he or she wants to drink). These target skills are identified on an activity matrix that reminds teachers of opportune times for embedding practice on children’s individual objectives during planned activities and routines of the day. Data may be collected on the activity matrix. Some children also have an individual matrix for collecting and summarizing specific kinds of data necessary for ongoing program planning. This approach is consistent with Ms. Schaefer’s activity-based approach to intervention.

A Linked System

ABI evolved as part of a linked system within an early intervention or early childhood special education program in a cyclical process that moves from assessment to goal development, intervention, and evaluation (Bricker & Cripe, 1992). A schematic of the linked system appears below.

While a significant body of literature, resources, and research has evolved in the past decade describing the effectiveness of ABI’s linked systems approach on groups of young children (for a review see Pretti-Frontczak, Barr, Macy, & Carter, 2003), less information is available on the effect of ABI on individual children with disabilities. Still, in recent years, a small but growing body of research seems to attest to the effectiveness of ABI on a specific target group: young children with autism spectrum disorders.