Intensive Individual Support (IIS) Providers are responsible for the majority of instruction for the intensive early intervention services outlined by the Kansas Autism Waiver. Thus, the IIS providers must be skilled in all aspects of teaching and managing young children with autism (under the supervision of the Autism Specialist). In addition, this type of intervention is systematic and precise; therefore IIS providers need to be familiar with the terms used by professionals and consultants that develop programs for the clients.
Training consists of three components; online informational tutorials, experiential training (clinic and on-the-job training), and follow-up. Each component is outlined below:
Ten online tutorials are included in the training. These tutorials include information about autism and the principles of behavior. In addition, these tutorials provide information on how to:
Interventions for children with Autism require comprehensive programs. Thus, each child typically has a team of providers delivering services. During this training the IIS provider will also learn about “Team membership” and the role of each member in implementation of the child’s IBP. Members of a team may include:
(a) home – in-home support provider, parents, Autism Specialist and behavior analyst/psychologist; and
(b) school/extended – paraprofessional, teacher, speech/language pathologists, occupation and/or physical therapists, pediatrician, school team, and/or other professionals involved with the child. All home-based team members must consistently implement all prescribed programs. Ideally, the home and school/extended teams will work together to ensure consistency across environments. All team members must consistently implement all prescribed programs.
Clinic Training: Ten clinic-based experiential training sessions, corresponding to the online informational tutorials, are held in order to afford the IIS provider an opportunity to practice the strategies and implement the techniques presented in the online tutorials in a controlled setting with a child with autism. Each experiential training session lasts approximately 3 hours, and is implemented immediately following the trainee completing the online tutorial. This sequence (online tutorial + clinic-based experience) allows the trainee to immediately apply the procedure/technique in a controlled setting with modeling and immediate feedback on performance.
During these sessions, 1 staff member works with 2 trainees and 1 child with autism. The session is structured such that the each trainee watches a model of the technique and then engages in the technique with the staff providing real-time feedback on the application of the technique. While 1 trainee works with the child, the other trainee observes, collecting data on both the application of the technique and the child. After a period of time the trainees trade positions. This provides an additional layer of training, teaching each trainee how to apply the skill, work in front of other team members, accept feedback, take data, provide reliability checks on procedures and data, and provide feedback to others. These skills are all essential for providing precise, data-driven intervention services to children with autism.
On-the-Job Training (OJT): Following the online tutorial + clinic-based experiential training, OJT begins. OJT is conducted at identified training sites that provide services to children with autism and will include actual hands-on work with a child. At the training sites, trainees will have access to a Lead Therapist and/or experienced para/providers in actual work settings. During OJT, each trainee is engaged in working with a child with autism and/or observing others for 2-3 hours for each day of training. The OJT experience will consist of a period of “shadowing” an experienced Lead Therapist or para/provider (e.g., observing program intervention, asking questions, taking data, reviewing written programs). Beginning on the second day of OJT, each trainee takes over the position of the experienced para/provider and provides the instruction/intervention. This typically occurs for a maintenance program (i.e., skills already learned by the child, rather than new skills). During this time, the experienced para/provider will monitor the trainee, providing feedback and answering any questions that might arise.
Because the effectiveness of this type of intervention service is dependent upon interventionists’ skill fluency, and due to the condensed nature of this initial year of training, it is important for program monitoring to be conducted through Follow Up support. Consequently IIS providers will be required to submit two 10-minute video clips every 6 weeks for the 3 months following training of their performance in implementing home-based programs for Autism Waiver recipients (a total of 6 video clips). This quality assurance will ensure that adequate progress for all children receiving Autism Waiver services will be enhanced.
Week 1 |
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Week 1 |
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Day 1 |
Day 2 |
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Tutorial |
1 |
2 |
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Content |
Autism Behavior Analysis |
Behavior (defining) Data (recording, graphing) |
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Weeks 2-4 (2 days a week at KU/LSI training site) |
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Week 2 |
Week 3 |
Week 4 |
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Day 1 |
Day 2 |
Day 1 |
Day 2 |
Day 1 |
Day 2 |
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Tutorials |
3 & 4 |
3 & 4 |
5-7 |
5-7 |
7-10 |
7-10 |
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Content |
Increasing Behavior |
Increasing Behavior |
Teaching |
Teaching Decreasing Behavior |
Functional Assessment |
Functional Assessment |
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Experiential Sessions |
Clinic |
Clinic |
Clinic |
Clinic |
Clinic |
Clinic |
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On the Job Training |
On the Job Training |
On the Job Training |
On the Job Training |
On the Job |
On the Job |
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Content |
Observation |
Supervised work |
Observation |
Supervised work |
Observation |
Supervised work |
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