School Consultations

Hudson Valley Behavioral Solutions (HVBS) provides school consultation services to students who are experiencing behavior challenges in the school setting. Challenges can range from aggressive and disruptive behavior to social interaction difficulties. Therapists at HVBS are all New York State licensed behavior analysts as well as Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA's) and most are also certified teachers in Special Education. They all have extensive backgrounds in working with students with behavior difficulties.

            School consultations have four key components: Functional behavior Assessments/Behavior Intervention Plans (FBA's/BIP's), Classroom Consultations, Social Skills Instruction, and Direct Individual Instruction.

            Functional Behavior Assessments and Behavior Intervention Plans are the result of a number of observations in various environments, collecting data on behaviors and discussing those behaviors with staff that have had challenges with the student. Information from the observations is collected and analyzed to determine the function of the behavior. If we know "why" the behavior is occurring we are much more likely to put an effective plan in place to meet the student's behavioral needs. A plan is developed with the function of the behavior addressed. It is then critical that teacher support in the form of classroom consultation be provided to ensure that the plan is put into effect and everyone who works with the student understands how to respond to behavioral incidents.

            Classroom Consultation involves the therapist working with classroom staff to alter the environment in order to meet the student's needs. Therapists will work collaboratively with classroom staff to implement specific behavioral principles and strategies (i.e., positive reinforcement, token economy, redirection) to change the way behaviors are being addressed. Therapists will demonstrate the intervention and provide feedback on any incidents that classroom staff encounter. Strategies are written out and provided to classroom staff so they can refer to them when the therapist is not present. On-going consultation on improvement or lack of improvement of behavior is critical in order to ensure that treatment is effective. Treatments that are not effective are re-evaluated to ensure treatment integrity and new treatment are implemented based on analysis of the behavior.