Eclectic Treatment
For children in this group elements from various
types of treatment were combined in an attempt to
best meet each child’s educational needs. As reported
by the case supervisors the treatment included at least
two of the following intervention types: alternative
communication, applied behavior analysis, total
communication sensorymotor therapies, programs
based on the principles from Division TEACCH, as
well as other methods that were incorporated based
on the personal experience of the particular teacher.
As in the behavioral treatment group, the same
therapists who provided 1:1 teaching also served as
aides in the mainstream unit or classroom. Also
similar to the arrangements in the behavioral treatment group, the majority of the time in the mainstream classroom was not used to implement
standardized instructional programs or systematic
work towards educational goals. The 1:1 hours in the
eclectic group were analyzed in the same way as in the
behavioral group; that is as either 1:1 hours spent on
working towards educational goals or as 1:1 hours of
practical assistance. The organization of supervision
and staff training for the eclectic programs were in
some ways similar to that of the behavioral group. A
special education teacher (2 children) or a supervisor
from the regional Habilitation Services (8 children) or
a combination of the two (5 children) would do one
or two weekly consultations of about 2 hours. The
agency to be responsible for supervision was determined in the interdisciplinary educational planning
process for each child, within each agency a particular person was assigned on the basis of capacity or
geographical location. These consultations were used
to train and supervise the treatment personnel. As in
the behavioral group, a team of 2–4 therapists were
recruited from the kindergarten or school to do the
daily work with the child. Also, a psychologist from
the Local Educational Authority or the regional
Habilitations Services would oversee the program
making 2–4 visits per semester.
The treatments components typically found in
the eclectic group present study can be summarized as
follows: ABA would typically include working on
selected programs from ABA treatment manuals such
as matching, imitation or toilet training. Alternative
communication would typically include working
towards a symbol or sign based communication
system. Symbols were typically line drawings, Bliss
symbols or photographs taken of objects, persons or
activities from the child daily life. Signs would
typically be hand signs for expressing needs such as
‘‘Hungry’’, ‘‘Thirsty’’ or ‘‘Toilet’’. Both symbolic
communication and sign language are skills commonly taught in ABA programs and are included in
the first and second edition of the ABA manual used
in the present study (Bondy & Frost, 2003; Carr,
1981). However, in the eclectic group, teaching
procedures differed from those used in ABA. For