Behavior Analysts, Inc.

We our proud of our students. On this page you'll find an archive of our students who have previously been featured.

(Please note that we have placed these descriptions just to share the joy of some of the children we serve. We realize that not all children will progress to the same levels or at the same rate, but our overall goal is to see children acquire new skills)

Brendan

Brendan is the STARS Featured Student this month. Brendan was enrolled in STARS only in June, and has made excellent progress in such a short time. Brendan’s humor has brightened the classroom and provided many enjoyable moments. When shown his picture for this posting, he exclaimed, “Beautiful!” Recently, Brendan’s parents were reading a note from school that indicated that Brendan “knew where he lives.’ His parents asked him where he lives and were delighted to hear that he had learned to identify his hometown. All of us at STARS and his parents are extremely proud of his accomplishments. Tobin Ehrlich, one of Jordan’s instructional assistants, has been a critical part of Brendan’s recent progress. Congratulations guys! Keep up the good work!

 

Jordan

Jordan with Felicity (Instructional Assistant)

Jordan Quintor began his time at STARS in 2003. In March of 2005, Jordan was moved into a 1:1 teaching situation to help accelerate acquisition of early learner behaviors. In the past three months, there have been substantial changes in Jordan's interactions with instructors. Jordan is attending to people, attending to tasks, and is beginning to acquire some basic receptive and expressive language. One staff, in particular, has played a pivotal role in the careful shaping of Jordan's behavior. Through creativity, patience, and a whole lot of hard work, Felicity has captured Jordan's attention and prepared him for learning new skills.

Amazing Anna

Anna and her mom

Such an amazing sight! Four weeks ago, Anna didn’t like to play on swings nor go down slides. Her mom and her therapist, Darcy, are so pleased to hear her request to go to the playground to swing and slide. Instead of standing and making a repetitive sound, she is now actively engaging in fun outdoor play.

However, probably even more significant is the fact that since 3-year-old Anna and her mother and 5-year-old brother, Vikram, have been attending our START Program (Start Teaching and Reinforcing Today…a parent teaching class), she has learned how to sort by categories and can even have some little conversations about the things she has learned. Anna can now tell you all sorts of cool stuff about herself such as who is in her family and her phone number. But most of all, she can now tell you what she wants to play with and where she wants to go.

Both her mother and brother have developed the ability to teach Anna new skills. Its nice to have her family members be some of her best teachers!

Darcy (START Coordinator) & Anna

Anna’s brother teaches to ask “Where” is her toy

Alex, Darcy Bachrach, and Rikki Roden - 1/2004

Alex is a 3-year-old boy in our START program. When he began, he had no verbal responses, but was able to imitate most motor actions. He had no echoics; thus, it was decided to teach him sign language. He now requests 11 reinforcers using sign. He has a tact and receptive repertoire of 50 objects and pictures. He is able to match to sample with objects and pictures. He has 30 signs at the intraverbal level. He has also just started to vocalize and has 3 echoics. It was very interesting to observe that Alex spontaneously signed "baby" when a family friend brought their baby into his house. As you can see, Alex is eager to learn and his smile is contagious.

The person in the picture with Alex is Darcy Bachrach, his START teacher. Rikki Roden is the START supervisor.

Rikki Roden graduated from Gonzaga University with a degree in Special Education. Rikki received a Level 1 Special Education Teaching Credential and also a K-8 Regular Education Credential both in the state of California. She is a Certified Associate Behavior Analyst and this is her fourth year working as a teacher at STARS School. Rikki has presented research studies at conferences such as CALABA and ABA each of the past five years. She enjoys sports, traveling, and working with children. She and her husband, Josh, are expecting their first child in May!

Rhiannon – 5/2002

The look and smile says it all! Rhiannon has been participating in our intensive clinic classroom project since the end of October. Her parents and our staff are all very proud of the skill development we've seen in Rhiannon in the last few months. She has made considerable progress in developing her vocal imitation skills and we are most pleased with the increase in her seeking attention from others. We now see that people are important to her; she is now running across the room to get people to interact with her. She can now make clear approximations vocally requesting (mand) things to eat, movie, open and has started saying “water.” Her parents have made a huge commitment and are doing a fantastic job of learning how to teach new skills to Rhiannon.

Parker – 5/2002

The staff of our Integrated Sites Program are pleased to see how much progress Parker's parents and their instructional team has made in developing Parker's basic learning skills. After the completion of his learner profile, our staff has been working with Parker's parents to help them learn how to teach him a variety of skills. We are all pleased that Parker has made great progress in his ability to imitate actions and sounds.

Initially, Parker was taught to use sign language to request (mand) for several items and activities. Just recently, he is starting to ask for those items and activities by speaking. Because he has made such improvements in the generalization of his imitation skills, he is now watching and spontaneously doing actions that are being done by other children in his Gymboree class. Our congratulations go to his parents for working so hard to learn how to develop his skills.

Garrett – 12/99

Garrett began receiving services from the Integrated Sites Division in June of 1997 and captivated us with his curious, big, blue eyes. This charming and energetic little boy would prefer to be the "teacher" or have a teacher who acts like a clown, but he now successfully uses his skills in a wide variety of environments with the numerous members of his teaching team. The consistency of Garrett's family and those involved in his multiple placements, have assisted Garrett in developing the ability to initiate, extend and sustain conversation. Through integrated play groups and other social settings, Garrett now initiates greetings, requests items from peers, initiates play and also joins interactive games when asked. Garrett has benefited from the "soft brick wall" personality of his preschool teacher, where his ability to follow classroom routines and acquire new skills during group instruction flourished. Garrett entered a typical kindergarten class in the fall of 1999, with an aide to the classroom to increase staff-to-student ratio. After the first marking period, both Garrett's family and teacher are proud of his success in regular education. We look forward to monitoring Garrett's progress through this milestone in his academic career. We hope to help make this his best year yet!

A note from Garrett's parents:

We want to express our gratitude to Behavior Analysts, for all the help and guidance they have provided to our family and intervention team. They were a vital part in getting us past a diagnosis and into practical solutions. Everyday we marvel at our son’s progress and we know that without Behavior Analysts, Inc., as the coach to our team, we would not be achieving so many miraculous milestones.

They have been there for us from the beginning of intervention, and now 2.5 years later we celebrate a 5-year-old little boy who is talkative, social, curious, energetic, and recently just started regular kindergarten. Behavior Analysts, Inc has given us a gift that is unmeasurable. They taught us how to teach and to reach our son. Garrett’s future is looking bright and we believe this is possible because of the dedication and commitment of Behavior Analysts, Inc., our family, and the intervention team.

Dani – 12/99

In March, 1999, when Dani was 2 1/2 years old, she and her family visited California for a consultation appointment and parent training. During the initial visit, Dani did not respond to language, had no mode of communication, and had few, if any, play skills. Her parents and grandparents were diligent and attentive in the implementation of building a strong foundation of basic learner skills from where Dani can continue to acquire skills.

Today, Dani can readily request many, many items and activities. She can label nearly 70 items. (These lists are growing every day!) And, she can even respond to a number of intraverbal exchanges!!! Dani’s play skills are emerging, and she is particularly fond of playing with her baby and stroller.

Dani’s parents, Amy and Scott, are to be commended for their tireless efforts and outstanding comprehension of the many facets of creating a continuous learning environment for Dani learn and grow.

Preston – 12/99

Preston is a four-year-old boy who has been at STARS school since October, 1998. When he entered STARS, Preston used American Sign Language to communicate. He now uses vocal communication and speaks in complete sentences. He participates in large circle groups, and enjoys interacting with his peers. He is now able to go to his older brother and ask for items. He also greets both adults and peers, and enjoys playing with many toys. We are looking forward to Preston continuing to develop additional skills this school year.

Updates on a Few of Our Students

Elizabeth Santopadre – 12/99 update (Featured 9/96)

Today, Elizabeth attends the third grade at her local, neighborhood school. She continues to learn alongside her peers and is a contributing citizen to her classroom. Last spring, she participated in the State of California’s standardized achievement testing for all students at her grade level. Her test scores surpassed her parents’s expectations as she blended into the national average in many areas and excelled into the 75th percentile in a few academic areas! More importantly, Elizabeth continues learn at a rate similar to her peer group without the need for any specialized instruction. She has become an extremely hard worker and is confident that she can learn anything. In addition to her achievements in the academic areas, she has developed many friendships and is known as a kind and caring friend.

One of our proudest moments was the day Elizabeth began attending Kindergarten at her local school in the fall of 1996. She is now eight years old, and is a student in a typical first grade class. She is there for the same reasons as the other students in her class...to learn what she needs to know to move onto the second grade.

Six years ago, her parents only hoped that someday Elizabeth might talk, and possibly...go to kindergarten like other children her age. The dream of attending kindergarten was not considered realistic by many professionals. At 26 month, Elizabeth was not communicating, and was unable to follow instructions. The diagnostic label....autistic. Through much work on the part of her parents (Ed & Cathy), brothers (Chris & Johnathon) and many dedicated instructors who were highly trained behavior shapers, she has acquired the skills necessary to learn in a regular education program. We are all very proud of her accomplishments and wish her much happiness and success.

Carrin – 12/99 update (Featured 4/98)

Carrin is now 6-years-old and is fully mainstreamed into kindergarden. Her parents report that she is doing fabulous. She has recently completed a series of testing by all the specialists at her local school district. Her scores in the academic areas of spelling, reading, and math are at the early to middle first grade level. The teachers say she is a leader in the class and that the kids love her and want to play with her and really listen to her advice. She's also very sensitive to others, especially when someone is sad or hurt, she always tries to help. She is beginning to participate in school plays and has just been signed-up for softball.

Our staff were very happy to begin working with Carrin in July, 1996. She was only 38 months of age, and used only about 15 words under very limited conditions. The staff couldn't help but notice her great smile and willingness to work with them. Her parents' (Mike & Roxanne) trust in the staff and their eagerness to follow through on input provided to them really helped to develop a team effort focused on her skill acquisition.

By February of 1997, Carrin was using well over 100 words in a wide variety of conditions. She was spontaneously naming items, asking for many desired items and events, and her conversational speech was developing rapidly. She was enjoying using the computer, playing with toys, singing, and had begun taking a dance class with typically developing peers.

In the fall of 1997 she began attending a half-day classroom for children with language delays, and a typical preschool classroom on a half-day basis. She is continuing to make great progress in the development of her language and social skills. We are delighted that she is making such rapid progress!