ABA Association Pros And Cons

Grade Retention: Is it Right for Struggling Students? 1

Retention of Struggling Students:
Is it the Right Choice?
Patricia A. Horne
Our Lady of the Lake University

GRADE RETENTION: Is It Right For Struggling Students? 2
Introduction

THE FIVE W’S OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY 3
Background
The use of ABA principles and techniques to treat people with Autism live happy and productive lives has grown quickly in recent years. According to information provided by the Autism Organization, ABA is used all over the world and is recognized as a safe and effective treatment.
He also mentioned that this program may raise IQ and other standardized scores, and even reducing the need for special services. Mr. Smith suggest research is needed to confirm results on IQ and test scores (Smith, 1999). The organization, Autism Speaks, has grown into the nation's largest autism science and advocacy organization, dedicated to funding research into the causes, prevention, treatments and a cure for autism; increasing awareness of autism spectrum disorders. With several medical professionals with field experience in Autism and behavior intervention programs, they support the use of ABA with children of all ages, with and without disabilities, in many different settings (Green G, Brennan L., and Fein, D. 2002) Several studies have been done on the effectiveness of ABA. My particular interest is will ABA work with aggressive behavior in Autistic students and I found no study that targeted aggression specifically but targeted social behaviors in general. There is a gap in the literature because I found no study that focused specifically on aggressive behavior and provided the data to support that. I will use the data from the student records at my school to fill in the
Many autistic children show minimal emotional attachment, absent or abnormal speech, retarded 1Q, ritualistic behaviors, aggression, and self-injury. The prognosis is very poor, and medical therapies have not proven effective. (Lovaas, 1987) He wrote a detailed article about a study and provided a close look at how the study was conducted. In this study, intensive ABA treatment was provided to one control group of autistic children under the age of 4, but minimal treatment was provided to the other control group. A variety of ABA techniques were used to try and reduce self stimulatory and aggressive behaviors, building compliance to verbal requests, teaching imitation, and to begin teaching appropriate toy play in the first year. The study continued to address significant behaviors over a period of time. When the study was completed, a follow up assessment was conducted and the control group that received the intense treatment had better scores on their IQ tests had higher educational placement, with 47% of them completing normal first grade in a public first