Archives

The evaluation process in schools is different than the requirements for evaluation in clinical settings, which often is confusing for both families and practitioners. This session will outline critical components and processes for an education-based special education eligibility evaluation for Autism Spectrum Disorder, including a review of key language within the Michigan Administrative Rules for Special Education (MARSE) ASD eligibility criteria. Evaluation components and processes outlined in the EducationBased Evaluations for ASD document published by the Michigan Autism Council will also be discussed, which include tools and examples for interviews, observations, and report-writing. A brief review of available standardized tests and their use in schools and an overview of the differential eligibility decision-making processes within the education-based evaluation will also be included.

About the Speakers

Stephanie Dyer joined the Statewide Autism Resources & Training (START) Project at Grand Valley State University full-time in the fall of 2022, after contracting with START as a state-wide presenter and content developer since 2008. Stephanie has extensive experience with Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (PBIS), education-based evaluations for ASD, IEP development and implementation, supporting social competency, and trainer/coach development. She has participated in state-level projects and workgroups related to autism, behavior, and early childhood and has presented at numerous state and national conferences. For the past ten years, Stephanie worked with Michigan’s MTSS Technical Assistance Center (MiMTSS), with her work primarily focused on district/school implementation of PBIS and intervention systems within an MTSS framework, including intensification of behavioral intervention and FBA/BIP, as well as trainer/coach development. During her career in public education, Stephanie has also served as a school psychologist, behavior interventionist, autism coordinator, and special education supervisor in urban and rural districts and ISDs.

Kelly Rogers is a school psychologist and Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). Currently, she works as the Special Education Coordinator at Char-Em ISD. Prior to that, she worked with the Autism Education Center from 2001 as a contractor, and then full-time from 2003 until March 2020. Kelly has extensive experience and expertise on topics related to evaluation for special education eligibility, positive behavioral interventions and supports and ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis), IEP development and implementation, and guiding principles for establishing effective programs for students on the autism spectrum. She also contributes to the development of systems of support for students with ASD as they transition to employment settings, including the utilization of tools, checklists, and resources that improve the process of transition.

This presentation will distinguish between habilitation, “…the original learning prior to the interference we call disability”; dishabilitation, “learning to be disabled”; and rehabilitation,”learning to be better able” (Meyerson, Kerr, and Michael, 1963, p. 82). These conceptual distinctions suggest that many of the behaviors or lack of behaviors that are evidence of disability actually result from learning or the failure of learning. Many so-called disabilities include behaviors reinforced by others albeit inadvertently and often with good intentions, or the absence of behaviors that should have been reinforced but weren’t. This conception of disability is at odds with traditional approaches that suggest the disability is either structural (i.e., something wrong with the brain) or genetic. Even the term disability reflects a view that the problem is some vague concept of ability rather than the probability of engaging in certain behaviors at a certain time. This presentation will cite selective examples from a large literature showing that many behaviors, some of which were thought to be the result of some inherent disability, could be not only changed (i.e., rehabilitated), but also prevented by reinforcing able behaviors (i.e., habilitation), making this is a revolutionary approach to disabilities.

About the Speaker

Henry D. (Hank) Schlinger Jr. received his Ph.D. in applied behavior analysis from WesternMichigan University (WMU) under the supervision of Jack Michael. He completed a two-year National Institutes of Health-funded post-doctoral fellowship in behavioral pharmacology at WMU with Alan Poling. Dr. Schlinger was a full tenured professor of psychology at Western New England University in Springfield, MA, before moving to Los Angeles. He is now professor of psychology at California State University, Los Angeles. Dr. Schlinger has published approximately 100 scholarly articles, chapters, commentaries, and book reviews in more than 35 different journals. He has authored or co-authored four books, Psychology: A Behavioral Overview (1990), A Behavior-Analytic View of Child Development (1995) (translated into Japanese), Introduction to Scientific Psychology (1998), and How to Build Good Behavior and Self-Esteem in Children (2021). He is past editor of The Analysis of Verbal Behavior and The Behavior Analyst and sits on the editorial boards of several other journals. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies and on the Advisory Board of The B. F. Skinner Foundation. He received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Psychology at Western Michigan University in 2012, and the Jack Michael Award for Outstanding Contributions in Verbal Behavior from the Verbal Behavior Special Interest Group of the Association for Behavior Analysis International in 2015.