Applied Behaviour Analysis, or ABA, is considered the most effective intervention for teaching children with autism. St. Amant's ABA program offers a 3-year service for both Preschool and School-Age children. The Preschool program provides 31 hours per week of one-to-one instruction for three years. The School-Age program provides consultation and training for 20-25 hours of instruction in school, and 10 hours of tutor-led instruction at home each week. Parents are trained and supervised to implement a minimum of five additional hours per week.

St. Amant's ABA program started in October, 2002, after a three-year pilot project.

For more information, download the ABA brochure. To learn more about eligibility and the application and intake processes, visit the ABA Resources page.

Our Goal
Our goal is to partner with families in providing the best education for their children with autism. We strongly believe that all children can learn. And we believe that we have the necessary resources to setup and conduct successful programs aimed at teaching children skills necessary for effective participation in their family and community.

Models of Service – Preschool Services
The Preschool Program offers two models of service, one for families in the city of Winnipeg and one for families living in rural Manitoba. The number of service hours is identical in both models. The difference is frequency of visits by the ABA Consultant and Senior Tutor.

School Age Services
The St. Amant ABA Program began in 2005 and currently serves 56 children in 18 school divisions throughout Manitoba. The ABA program works with school teams and parents in the school, home,and extra-curricular environments to provide programming to children with autism in all of their areas of need.

ABA Team

ABA Consultant:
Responsible for assessing skills, programming, analyzing outcomes, training and supervising team members. ABA Consultants participate with each client about 4.5 hours per week. Senior Tutors participate the same number of hours for the School-Age program and twice as many hours per week for the Preschool program. These hours are used in direct contact with clients, clinical and administrative meetings, professional development, and other activities.

Senior Tutor:
Experienced tutors with coursework in Behaviour Modification, they assist the Consultant in their tasks, with a focus on training of team members. They also conduct a shift with each client once every two weeks. (preschool only)

Tutors (pre-school only):
Conduct 31 weekly hours of one-to-one behavioural intervention, implementing the programs designed by the Consultant.

Tutors (school age only)
Are hired by the parents to conduct 10 weekly hours of one-to-one behavioural intervention, implementing the programs designed by the consultant.

Activities

Clinic Meetings
In pre-school, clinic meetings are carried out by the ABA Consultant every two weeks, for 3 hours, including all members of the team (see differences between Winnipeg and Rural areas below). In school age, clinic meetings occur once every four weeks for 2 hours, as more time is focused on the school. According to the child's needs and clinical activities that prioritized, the Consultant sometimes conducts shorter clinic meetings or skips a clinic meeting. During that time he or she works on other activities to benefit the child's program, such as conduct assessments, write progress reports, participate in school and review meetings.

During clinic meetings, some time is spent talking about child performance, team performance, programming needs, successes and difficulties that have arisen in the previous weeks. Some time is spent taking turns working with the child for direct observation of current skills being targeted and assessment of progress and programming needs.

Overlaps
An overlap is when the Consultant or Senior Tutor observes a team member working with the child to provide important feedback on their work, as well as collect information to be shared with the Consultant, which impacts on programming. In pre-school overlaps happen every two weeks, following a week where a Clinic Meetings occurred. On an overlap day the Senior Tutor spends a full day at the client’s home. Approximately 1.5 hours are allotted to each team member (i.e., tutor 1, tutor 2, parent) every other week. In school age, overlaps occur by the consultant & senior tutor 3 out of 4 weeks at the school and once in 4 weeks at the home, additional to the clinic meeting.

Winnipeg and Rural Areas
For clients living in rural areas, the Clinic Meeting occurs once a month and the Senior Tutor Overlap day also occurs once a month. This guarantees the same number of hours is allotted to all clients, in the city or outside.

Training

Training is a very important part of our program. All consultants are behaviour analysts with a Masters or a PhD. degree, either complete or in process, in Behaviour Analysis. They are supervised closely by the Director and the Clinical Coordinators. Senior Tutors have completed two courses on basic principles and applications of behaviour analytic principles, and receive ongoing on-the-job training and supervision, with a minimum of 6-hrs per week of direct contact with clinical consultants. They also attend local conferences every year. Preschool Tutors participate in an initial training session of seven hours, in addition to pairing up with more experienced tutors for one month prior to starting independent sessions. They also receive ongoing on-the-job training and supervision, with a minimum of six hours per month of direct contact with clinical consultants and 12 hours per month of direct contact with senior tutors. In addition, they attend monthly meeting at St Amant's River Road Place.