Get to know Don and Anne Haley, owners of Strive Centers
Anne and Don Haley live in Genesee County and have 5 kids, one of whom has autism, so they can relate first hand to loving and supporting a child on the spectrum. Anne has served as the Executive Director of the Autism Support and Resource Center since 2015. They offer social, recreational and lifeskills programs to those on the spectrum. Don is the 3rd generation owner of Italia Gardens restaurants, which was the first Italian restaurant in Flint in 1931. In their free time they enjoy cooking, high school sports, spending time with extended family and traveling. Anne and Don are thrilled to carry on the excellence Strive has offered and are proud of the team who works so hard to provide relief and create possibilities for the children and their families.
ABA Term of the Week
One addition to our newsletter this year will be some definitions of terms we use most often in ABA. We know we use a lot of lingo and we want to help families understand it better. All of these terms will also be on our website in a glossary, so you can check them out anytime.
This week's term is VB-MAPP, the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program.
The VB-MAPP is an assessment tool that we often use with children in our centers. It is a criterion-referenced assessment that also works as a curriculum guide and skill tracking system.
The VB-MAPP was developed by Mark Sundberg, a well-known expert in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and specifically in the area of verbal behavior.
Here are some of the reasons we like the VB-MAPP:
- Criterion-referenced means that this is an assessment where a child has to demonstrate the specific skill in order to obtain the scoring point for that skill. There is not a comparison to other children, as in norm-referenced assessments. This is a close look at the skills your child has and the skills he gains.
- The skill tracking aspect of the assessment allows us to administer it multiple times and see growth. When you meet with your BCBA to go over a re-assessment, you'll see new skill boxes colored in on their assessment. The ability to use a new color shows you exactly how much growth there's been since the last assessment.
- The assessment utilizes Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior, which is a very helpful approach to teaching children with Autism. Check out our glossary page for a reminder of Skinner's Verbal operants.
- The VB-MAPP has three main sections that we use: the milestones, the transition assessment, and the barriers assessment.
- The Milestones section is all the skills in all the different areas, the main portion of the assessment.
- The Transition assessment looks at skills that are needed to transition to a lower level of care, such as a school or a group treatment option, which is less restrictive than our 1:1 model. This helps us determine when your child is ready for those next steps!
- The Barriers assessment looks at the barriers that might prevent your child from being successful in a lower level of care, and helps us pinpoint things to work on to get them ready for that important change.
Typically, we complete the VB-MAPP at intake, to get a baseline of the skills your child has and to help develop his treatment plan. After that, we use it to re-assess every six months at a minimum. We may assess sooner if there is a large amount of skill growth at a particular time, in order to keep up with your child's new developments!
To learn more about the VB-MAPP, visit the author's website.
If you have any questions about your child's VB-MAPP, please ask your BCBA. We are happy to talk about it anytime.
About Us
Email: info@sc-centers.com
Website: www.sc-centers.com
Location: Burton and Brighton, MI
Phone: 810-344-8082
