This professional collaboration service came about as a result of numerous inquiries from professionals (and parents too) requesting access to services for children with language delays that incorporated the systems and procedures used within the STARS School, our clinic facility, and our consultation programs.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide the intensive supervision and consultation necessary to start up STARS School classrooms or to provide consultation to large numbers of families in other geographic areas. Therefore, we felt it important and necessary to devise a way to serve the children and train professionals who are not living and working within our local area. With this distance model, the personnel of Behavior Analysts, Inc., serve in a training, consultation, and mentoring capacity to a core group of professionals who can then serve a larger number of children more effectively than either of us could do on our own. At the heart of this service is our goal to increase the quality of services for children with language delays by increasing the number of qualified behavior analysts working in the field.

We typically recommend a three-phase program, consisting of:

• Training and observation at our facility (training location can be offered at the program site; observation is available only at our facility)
  
• Start-up consultation and training at the partner location, and
  
• Ongoing consultation on a monthly, quarterly, or semi-annual basis
  

Phase 1: Internship
This phase involves the partner program staff coming to California for workshop training and observation (training elements can be arranged at the partner program site). Behavior Analysts recommends enrolling, at a minimum, a school/agency coordinator/director and another senior staff member (teacher, therapist, or consultant) who is responsible for developing IEPs and teaching procedures. The scheduling of the workshop training is dependent upon current workshop schedules.

The goal of this phase of the plan is for a small core group of senior staff from the school/agency to be able to start the student assessment process and begin to plan and implement changes to their classroom to more effectively target communication skills and improve behavior. This observation and training period will give the core staff a solid understanding of the key elements of a behavioral language-training classroom and see how the elements work together.

Phase 2: Start-up Consultation and Training
The goals of the second phase are to train and assist senior staff in the assessment of skills and in the development of student IEPs. It will also enable all school staff to understand the basic principles of behavior analysis, be able to implement behavioral language training procedures, and be able to incorporate behavioral principles and language training into all elements of a child's program. In this phase, Behavior Analysts' consulting and training team will visit the client classroom or program site and provide training and coaching in the implementation and monitoring of programs and coach staff through the development of IEPs and educational programs. Parent training is also available.

Phase 3: Follow-up Consultation
The objective of the third phase of this plan is for all staff to refine their abilities to teach language and learning skills and manage behavior, and for senior staff to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of behavioral educational programs and make appropriate changes as necessary. In this phase, a consultant or consulting team will return to the client site on a regular basis (up to quarterly) for a one-to-two week visit to provide additional training, coaching, and feedback on the implementation and design of programs. Phone, e-mail, and/or video consultation may be available during interim periods. Additional workshops may be provided on functional analysis, behavior plan development, and teaching procedures, depending on the assessed needs. Parent training is also available.