What is Home Base?

You are in a public elementary school observing a classroom of third graders. It is individual work time and students are working hard to finish a number of assignments before the recess period in five minutes. The class has been working for over one hour since music class earlier in the morning. A student named Johnny starts to rub the back of his arm quickly; his voice gets louder as he repeats several phrases about missing recess. He then starts to arch his neck back and make louder noises. As the teacher attempts to calm him down, Johnny only gets louder. Finally he explodes, falling to the floor in a tantrum of tears.

A difficult situation for all involved, for sure. Luckily, there are a number of interventions and strategies that parents and professionals can use to deal with a situation such as this. Although not new to the field of education or parenting, one intervention that is receiving more attention lately is called home base.

According to Myles and Simpson (1998) and Myles and Adreon (2001), home base is a place where individuals with ASD can go to regain control over their environment. A designated spot, predetermined by family members and/or educators and with the individual’s input as much as possible, home base can be in any number of places in a school, home, or community. In school it could be the psychologist's office, the resource room, an empty classroom, the custodians office, or anywhere that is appropriate for meeting the needs of the student and staff. In the home setting, a home base could be any designated room in the house. While at the mall, a home base could be a quiet little bookstore or the lounge area.

You may know home base by other names. Some people call it a time away, a chill-out, a cool-down, a safe place, a quiet place, etc. For many years teachers and parents have been using this technique, and perhaps they did not even know that it had the name - home base! Home base is relatively easy to use and understand. Besides, it is a relatively low-cost intervention with potentially highly positive results. Home base can be an effective intervention for any student, but is especially helpful for students with ASD.

Why Do We Use Home Base?

For individuals with autism spectrum disorders stress and anxiety are major barriers to success (Myles & Southwick, 1999). The stress and pressures of dealing with an often confusing and unpredictable environment can lead to a loss of control, anger, behavior challenges, tantrums, rage, and meltdowns. For many, stress and anxiety build up during the day and then gets to the point when tantrums occur. Many children will “melt down” when they get home or when they are asked to do one more thing after a tough day at school (Myles & Southwick, 1999).

Using home base helps address many of the core characteristics of individuals with ASD. By providing a safe, consistent place to go to, home base helps address and reduce the challenges presented by social misunderstandings, communication breakdowns, and restricted areas of interest (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).

One reason to use home base is to help with transition challenges. Students with ASD often have difficulty with changes in routine and moving between activities and/or between parts of an activity. Home base can help students deal with their stress in a positive way. That is, they can move to a new environment BEFORE a meltdown, take a break form the overstimulation of the classroom, and prepare for the transition. At home, a child can go to her home base to prepare mentally for a transition—a trip to the grocery store, a visit to a relative’s house, etc. As a result, transition may proceed more smoothly.

Many individuals with ASD have difficulty in the sensory realm. Taking in and integrating sensory information is often difficult and can lead to behavior challenges (Ayres, 1979; Dunn, Myles, & Orr, 2002; Myles, Cook, Miller, Rinner, & Robbins, 2001). A home base may contain sensory items identified by an occupational therapist to help the student with ASD calm down and focus herself. Thus, home base can also help address students’ sensory issues (see ICAN topics under Sensory Interventions).

It is important that home base is seen as a positive and prosocial location, not as time-out, (i.e., a removal from positive reinforcement) (Alberto & Troutman, 1999). In fact, if you have a time-out room or location, home base is NOT to be located at the same spot. Likewise, home base is not to be seen as escape from whatever the student was doing before the need for home base occurred because the student’s work goes with him to home base.