CREC: River Street Outreach Program

Since 1997, the River Street Outreach Program has provided expert consultation, training, assessment and program development services to school districts and families. Board certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) and assistant behavior analysts (BCaBAs) provide consultation services to support area school districts in their services of children with autism spectrum disorders and other challenging behaviors. The Outreach Program currently serves over 500 children in 31 school districts in Connecticut and western Massachusetts. The service delivery model varies to meet the need of the school district.

Certified Special Education Teachers assist district staff in curricular modifications. The Outreach program currently serves over 500 children in 31 school districts throughout Connecticut and western Massachusetts. Our goal is to help children reach their own unique potential by providing high quality, researched-based services to children, families and professionals.

District Assessment of Program Quality Indicators

Outreach staff use the APQI (Assessment of Program Quality Indicators) to assist districts in reviewing and improving their services to students on the Autism Spectrum. Our staff can help fill in the gaps in the district’s current level of services.

Assessment of Individual Student Needs

Staff provide a comprehensive assessment of student needs to give the district valuable placement information. Assessments may include: Ecological assessments of current or future placements, functional behavior assessments, ASIEP-3 Autism Screening Instrument for Educational Placement, ABLLS-R (Assessment of Basic Language and Learner Skills- Revised), VB-MAPP (Verbal Behavior Milestones and Placement Program), Social Skills Rating Scales.

Consultation in Public School Classrooms

In this model, Outreach staff provide consultation to school staff to enable a child to stay in their home school. Consultation may include assessment, Functional Behavior Assessment, assistance in the creation of the behavior support plan, development of an individualized program, staff training, inclusion support, assistance in developing data systems to track student progress and ongoing support in implementation. In some cases, staff may assist in setting up intensive discrete trial training programs.

Model ABA Classrooms

Located in public schools, our staff set up and staff classrooms for intensive intervention for young children on the autism spectrum. These classrooms are ABA programs that employ discrete trial intervention for initial acquisition of programs, with programming for generalization in group activities with other children. The public school classrooms provide opportunities for inclusion and peer integration. In these contexts, the children receive shadow support with the goal of transferring control to the classroom teachers.

Staff and Parent Training

The Outreach department provides a speaker’s bureau to meet the needs of each district. Trainings may include (but are not restricted to) Autism, Asperger Syndrome, Working with Challenging Children, Discrete Trial Training, Observation Techniques, Building Social Skills, Planning for Inclusion, Supporting a child on the autism spectrum in the regular education classroom, Toilet training, Prompting and fading prompts, Reinforcement, Generalization, Using visual supports, How ABA fits into the SRBI model, Positive Behavior Supports, Writing measurable objectives, How to break down tasks and teach chains of behavior, Strategies to increase attending to peers.

Home Consultation

Outreach staff can work directly with parents on issues that impact home and school. Coordination and consistency are important issues for success. Consultation can include specific home behavior plans and parent training, behavior training for community based activities and home routines.