Community Engagement

Student Placements
Students on the MSc in ABA make an important contribution to existing community services as they are placed in either Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention programmes that are home and school based, ASD Units within mainstream schools, special schools and adult services.

Our students implement behavioural interventions and strategies to support individuals with the following core objectives:

• to increase behaviours (e.g., reinforcement procedures to increase on-task behavior or social interactions);
• to teach new skills (e.g., systematic instruction and reinforcement procedures teaching functional life skills, communication skills, or social abilities);
• to maintain behaviors (e.g., teaching self control and self-monitoring procedures to maintain and generalise job-related social skills);
• to generalise or to transfer behavior from one situation or response to another (e.g., from completing assignments in the school setting to performing as well at home or in the community);
• to restrict or narrow conditions under which interfering behaviours occur (e.g., modifying the learning environment to support skill acquisition)
• to reduce interfering and problem behaviours (e.g., self injury, destructive behaviour or stereotypy).

While on placement students are also supervised to provide:

• Educational assessment and goal selection.
• Teaching across a range of skills which include academic, personal care skills, self-help, social skills, play and leisure skills and self-management skills.
• Communication Skills training.
• Supported employment.
• Problem solving skills.
• Improvements in social abilities and create meaningful inclusion opportunities.
• Measurement of client progress, graphic display of data collected and conducting strategic analysis of learning outcomes.
• Support to individuals within the community.
• Functional assessment and analysis for individuals presenting with challenging behaviour such as self-injury, aggression and destruction.
• Development and implementation of behaviour support plans.
• Support to individuals who present with feeding or sleep problems.

Service Provision

ICAN is collaborating with Aspergers Action Galway to deliver a social skills training programme to children and adolescents with Aspergers syndrome. 

As ICAN expands we will provide outreach supports to existing services and the wider community.  The centre also aims to provide family intervention in the form of parent and sibling education and training.

ICAN, in partnership with Autism Speaks and The American Ireland Fund, hosted Ireland's first International Autism Conference, 'Autism Spectrum Disorder: from Clinical Practice to Educational Provision' on January 12th - 13th, 2012.

Speakers from left to right: Lynn Brennan, Connie Kasari, Nancy Jones, Richard Foxx, Geraldine Leader, Laura Klinger, Joe McAllister.

Students on the MSc in ABA are placed in Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention programmes, ASD Units and Adult Services.