General Questions about Organization
for Research and Learning (ORL)
Does ORL
do Applied Behavior Analysis?
Does
ORL specialize in any particular type of instructional
intervention?
What
types of children does ORL work with?
Does
ORL work with children with behavioral problems?
What
developmental areas does ORL work with?
How
many clients does ORL currently work with?
Are
there any parents of children who are currently ORL
clients that I could contact as references?
Does ORL do Applied Behavior Analysis?
Yes. Absolutely everything that we do at ORL is rooted
firmly within the discipline of behavior analysis.
All of our staff members are formally trained as behavior
analysts, and they all specialize in applying principles
from behavior analysis to the education and treatment
of children with autism and related disabilities.
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Does ORL specialize in any particular type of
instructional intervention?
At ORL, we are leaders in the application of Fluency-Based
Instruction with children with autism. In Fluency-Based
Instruction, we teach children skills to very high
levels of mastery-levels that exceed those used in
other instructional arrangements. You may read A
Parent's Introduction to Fluency for
more information about what fluency is and why it
is essential for children with autism.
In addition to Fluency-Based Instruction, we also
employ Discrete Trial Instruction, Direct Instruction,
Precision Teaching, Applied Verbal Behavior, Natural
Environment Training, and Incidental Teaching to help
build skills for our clients. Each of these instructional
arrangements has undergone rigorous scientific evaluation,
and has been shown to be highly effective with children
with autism. We select which instructional arrangement
we use with any given child according to the child's
individual needs.
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What types of children does ORL work with?
At ORL we work with children with Autism, Pervasive
Developmental Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not
Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), Asperger's Syndrome,
and Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Our clients range in age from 18 months to 14 years
old. We work with both boys and girls, and children
whose skills range from very low to very high.
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Does ORL work with children with behavioral problems?
Yes, we do work with children with behavioral problems.
In treating misbehavior, we take a balanced, comprehensive,
and positive approach based on the most current science
available. If one of our clients exhibits misbehavior,
we consider that misbehavior to be communicating something.
We determine what the misbehavior is communicating
by conducting a functional assessment-an evaluation
that helps us learn why the child is misbehaving and
what he or she wants. Once we know what the child
is communicating through his or her misbehavior, we
teach him or her a more socially appropriate way of
communicating.
We always emphasize building skills-teaching children
through positive approaches what they need to learn
to allow them to communicate and participate fully
in their lives.
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What developmental areas does ORL work with?
We work with all areas of a child's development including:
- - motor skill development
- - imitation skill development
- - receptive language development
- - expressive language development
- - intermediate and advanced language development
- - emotional development
- - social development
- - self-help skills development
- - academic skills development
- - behavioral development
Which areas we work on at any particular time vary
from child to child according to his or her individual
needs.
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How many clients
does ORL currently work with?
We currently supervise the intervention of approximately
60 clients in our private practice. We maintain such
a small private practice because we believe in very
closely supervising each child's behavior analytic
care.
As an example, whereas some other consulting companies
in our area assign approximately 15 clients to each
staff person, our average staff person supervises
only 6 clients. This low staff-to-client ratio allows
us to provide our clients with the very close monitoring
and supervision that our clients' families and we
expect.
Are there any parents of children who are currently
ORL clients that I could contact as references?
Absolutely! We are very fortunate to work with amazing
children and their families. These families graciously
allow us to refer other families to them for references.
In the table below, you will find a list of some of
the parents whose children we either currently work
with or have worked with in the past.
Each of the parents we listed has given us permission
to release this information and each will be more
than happy to speak with you about our services:
