ESRC IAA Implementation of the British Early Special Schools Teaching (BESST) model in maintained special needs schools

Disgrifiad o Effaith

Six maintained special schools will implement the BESST model in their Reception and Key Stage 1 classrooms. Maggie Hoerger will provide support in terms of training and problem shooting. The project aims to fulfil more than one category of impact:

Conceptual: The BESST model utilises positive behaviour and educational methodologies to teach young children with special needs the skills they need to learn naturally from the environment. The BESST model prioritises the skills children need to know before they can access academics such as joint attention, imitation, and social referencing. Typically developing children usually have these skills in the first year of life, and therefore these skills are not part of the national curriculum nor are they covered on teacher training courses. The project will shift teachers’ understanding of the foundation skills that may need to be explicitly taught to children with special needs and learning disabilities.

Capacity Building: The primary goal of the project is to train local behaviour analysts, teachers, and classroom assistants how to assess, utilise the curriculum, and write behaviour plans for each child. At the completion of the project, we anticipate the schools will be able to deliver the BESST model without the support of Bangor University.

Working with additional six schools to establish the model will both improve and extend the potential impact of the work. The early feedback generated by this project will help us further develop the model for more widespread use in schools. We intend to collect data on the implementation fidelity to evaluate if the project has been successful.

Crynodeb Effaith ar gyfer y Cyhoedd

The British Early Special School Teaching (BESST) model is an evidence-based intervention for children ages 4-7 years old who are enrolled in Special Needs Schools. The model combines teaching practices derived from Applied Behaviour Analysis and uses a curriculum intended to teach children the skills they need to learn from the natural environment, such as joint attention, imitation, and social referencing. Teachers and classroom assistants deliver the model in collaboration with behaviour analysts and other professionals. The model is a novel approach to education in maintained school settings. Research from Bangor University has found that children in the BESST model make significant gains on IQ, academic, and adaptive behaviour measures (Foran et al, 2015). The current project is an extension of this research: the BESST model will be replicated in six special needs schools across England and Wales. The funding will be used to provide training, facilitate stakeholder working groups, and obtain feedback on the model.

Disgrifiad o'r ymchwil sylfaenol

The current project is an expansion of the British Early Special School Teaching (BESST) model. The model is an effective, affordable, and sustainable teaching strategy for young children in special needs schools. While there is a general consensus that early intervention may improve the outcomes for children enrolled in special schools, there is little specific advice on what a broad and balanced curriculum might include for children with significant learning difficulties (Robertson, 2015). Early Intensive Behaviour Interventions (EIBI) based on Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) have been shown to improve outcomes for young children with learning difficulties. Children who receive EIBI make greater gains on social, language, and cognitive measures than children who receive standard interventions (Barton, Boyd, & Hume, 2012; Eldevik et al., 2009). On a typical EIBI programme, a child receives between 25-40 hours a week of 1:1 instruction. The programme is overseen by a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst, and can cost as much as £25,000 a year. Despite the evidence base, few local authorities offer ABA as a standard option for children with special needs. Often schools find the programmes expensive, and the emphasis on 1:1 teaching makes it difficult to include the child into the classroom and the national curriculum. While there is evidence that children who receive EIBI make gains compared to treatment as usual, it is also clear that the service delivery model is not compatible with UK education practice. There is a need to identify the effective components of EIBI, and incorporate them into a typical education setting. My colleagues and I have recently presented such a model (Foran et al; 2015). We described a collaborative model whereby the principles of ABA were adapted for use in a special needs school with typical staffing levels. A behaviour analyst worked in the school alongside a multi-disciplinary team. The children received some 1:1 teaching on learning readiness skills and also accessed the national curriculum. Subsequent data revealed that fourteen children ages 4-7 years old made significant gains on measures of IQ and adaptive behaviours. There was a significant reduction in challenging behaviours. The school and teachers expressed satisfaction with the BESST model. The intervention has been successful with one cohort of children, and we have been approached by six other schools who wish to replicate the model.

The BESST project is an extension of research conducted over the past several years at Ysgol-y-Gogarth in Llandudno. Ysgol y Gogarth funded two PhD studentships to assess the implementation of Applied Behaviour Analysis in a maintained special needs school.  The Sharland Foundation provided a small grant to help fund the research. The BESST model derived from a collaboration between teachers and behaviour analysts working together in schools in Conwy and Gwynedd. The model utilises the principles of ABA, and is unique in the application of these principles. Early Intensive Behaviour Interventions (EIBI) based on ABA have been shown to improve outcomes for young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Children who receive an education based on the principles of ABA make greater gains on social, language, and cognitive measures than children who receive standard treatments (Eldevik et al., 2009; Grindle et al., 2012; Eldevik et al., 2009; Reichow, 2009; Reichow & Wolery, 2009; Virués-Ortega, 2010). The teaching on EIBI programmes is based on a developmental curriculum. Children are explicitly taught pre-academic skills such as joint attention, social referencing, imitation, communication, play skills and social skills (Eldevick et al, 2009). A typical EIBI programme consists of a child receiving between 25-40 hours a week of 1:1 instruction. The curriculum is individualised and children are taught using discrete trial teaching (DTT). The programme is overseen by a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst, and can cost as much as £25,000 a year. The programmes last for three years, but in some cases even longer because often schools do not have a plan to transition children to less intensive programmes. Despite evidence that a school based ABA teaching is effective (Grindle et al, 2012); there are very few local authorities who offer ABA as a standard option. Often schools find the programmes expensive, and the emphasis on 1:1 teaching makes it difficult to fully include the child into the classroom and the national curriculum. The local authority does not usually have expertise in ABA, and schools may need to contract expensive private consultants. Once a programme has begun, it can be very hard to transition to a more typical and cost effective educational provision. The programmes are expensive for local authorities, but are increasingly requested by the parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. The BESST model is a meaningful alternative to intensive ABA programmes.

 

We published preliminary data and a review of the BESST mode (Foran, Hoerger, Philpott, Walker-Jones, Hughes, & Morgan, 2015). The paper described a model whereby children were assessed and taught using a developmental curriculum in the Foundation Phase and Key Stage 1. The children all received a differentiated learning programmes. They were taught for 7.5 hours a week in a 1:1 setting using methods derived from ABA. A behaviour analyst wrote a function based behaviour plan for each child. These behaviour plans were implemented throughout the school day and focused on skills such as how to gain attention, tolerate delays and transitions, play skills, self-control, and how to make requests. An emphasis was placed on communication systems and toilet training. The children in the study showed significant increases in IQ and adaptive behaviours. These gains are particularly meaningful because IQ typically does not change across the lifetime; these data suggest that children in the study made more than a year of developmental gains in one year. The results compare favourably to the outcomes from more intensive interventions. The cost of the intervention is within the typical budget for a maintained special school.  

 

My collages and I are currently writing up the full version of this research study. Fourteen children participated in the research and we found they made significant gains on measures of IQ, adaptive behaviour, and national curriculum targets. The data compare favourably to the data from more intensive interventions based on Applied Behaviour Analysis. A strength of the model is that it is delivered by all members of the classroom staff and the behaviour plans are consistent across the day. The children have more opportunities for generalisation than children on intensive 1:1 programmes that may only work with one or two therapists in just one environment. The BESST model is part of a mutli-disciplinary context. Maggie Hoerger presented this research at an invited talk at the European Behaviour Analysis Group (EABG) in May 2015. She was approached by three schools in England that are interested in implementing the BESST model. Three schools in North West Wales have also requested the model. 

Buddiolwyr a cyrhaeddiad effaith ymchwil

The BESST model will be implemented in six maintained special needs schools. A local behaviour analyst will work alongside a multi-disciplinary team of teachers, speech and language therapists, and other professionals to help set individual teaching targets and behaviour plans. Each child will receive 70+ minutes a day of 1:1 teaching, delivered by teachers and classroom assistants. The children will work with every member of classroom staff in a rotation. The 1:1 teaching sessions will supplemented by group activities and the national curriculum. The behaviour analyst will write an individualised, function-based behaviour support plan for each child. The model is intended for children in the Foundation Phase and Key Stage 1 only and is appropriate for all children enrolled in special school. We aim to teach the children the skills they need to learn from a group before they begin Key Stage 2. Each school will employ a behaviour analyst for a minimum of 7 hours a week to oversee the implementation of the model, and we consider this to be in-kind funding.

Six schools independently approached the researcher and requested support in implementing the BESST model. The schools are: Ysgol y Bont in Anglesey, Ysgol Pendalar and Ysgol Hafod Lon in Gwynedd, Bluebell Park School in Merseyside, Exeter House School in collaboration with Positive Behaviour Solutions in Wiltshire, and Columbus School and College in Essex.

Each of the six schools will establish a lead behaviour analyst for each project. Bangor University will provide a curriculum, samples of teaching programmes, and behaviour programmes. Maggie Hoerger will visit each school a total of two times during the six-month project. She will provide training on both the theoretical underpinning and the techniques used in the model. She will provide advice on delivering the model to the administration, the behaviour analyst, and the classroom staff. In addition to the visits, we will host four stakeholder BESST implementation meetings for the lead behaviour analysts to receive training and discuss the implementation of the model. These meetings will provide the behaviour analysts with training, and give the team at Bangor University feedback on the implementation of the model. We will review the implementation fidelity at each of these meetings.

The potential for economic and societal impact is great. Children who receive an early intervention should show greater skills in communication and adaptive behaviours. At Ysgol y Gogarth, children who received the BESST model have some of the highest scores in literacy and numeracy in the primary school. The children are all toilet trained and have robust communication systems. The children can tolerate delays and express their needs, therefore they are less likely to engage in challenging behaviours. The potential for societal impact is huge: because the children can communicate their needs, they may be greater able to achieve their potential. If the children can express themselves easily, they can communicate more effectively with their families.

The economic impact is also potentially great. Often children with special needs require expensive care packages and in some cases, expensive residential school placements. By giving children the skills they need to communicate and tolerate delays and transitions, we may allow them to live at home in their communities.

Statws effaith	Cyfredol
Dyddiad effaith	Ion 2016 → Gorff 2017