The SCERTS™ Model: Effective Practices for Educating Children with Autism
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How is the SCERTS Model consistent with recommended practices for educating children with autism spectrum disorders?
Entry into intervention services as early as possible
The SCERTS Model advocates for the commencement of services at the point of early identification, with the first priorities being enhancing abilities in social communication and emotional regulation, with comprehensive family support.
Active engagement in intensive instruction (at least 25 hours a week, 12 months per year)
The SCERTS Model supports an intensive level of service to children and families. Because of SCERTS’ emphasis on supporting children’s development in everyday activities and routines, there are greater opportunities to provide this level of service than approaches that rely on teaching sessions conducted by professionals in more restricted contexts.
Repeated, planned teaching opportunities with sufficient individualized attention daily
The NRC [National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences] committee concluded that a low student–teacher ratio was one of the characteristics of effective interventions, allowing for repeated planned teaching opportunities and individualized attention.
The SCERTS Model is, by its very nature, an approach that develops learning opportunities and goals based on individual differences in children, including learning strengths and needs. Social contexts for educational programming are chosen largely on the basis of which ones best support the development of capacities in social communication, emotional regulation, and functional skills.
Systematically planned, developmentally appropriate activities aimed toward identified objectives
In the SCERTS Model, activities are chosen and/or developed based on the assessment of children’s developmental capacities across a variety of domains, including social communication, emotional regulation, cognitive, sensory, and motor skills. Activities are planned to simultaneously address identified objectives across a variety of developmental domains, rather than artificially isolating skills in learning activities.
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The SCERTS Central Concept The SCERTS Model for educating children with autism focuses on developing the core skills of Social Communication and Emotional Regulation through the use of key Transactional Supports. By enhancing a child’s ability to communicate spontaneously and regulate his emotional arousal, you enable him to better learn and engage in social relationships—key abilities on which all sorts of other development and independence skills can be built. |
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Inclusion of a family component
The Transactional Support domain of the SCERTS Model specifically addresses the provision of educational and emotional support for family members. Using a family-centered philosophy, services are not imposed on families. Families are offered services and supports from a menu of possibilities, and therefore, the best match may be made between a family’s needs and family members’ ability to gain access to and benefit from specific support services.
Therefore, when a SCERTS Model plan is developed for a child and family, the support to families component of the Transactional Support domain is addressed with great specificity and tailored to each specific family.
Ongoing assessment of a child’s progress, with adjustments in programming at least every 3 months
The SCERTS Assessment Process consists of multiple levels of assessments, including direct observation in a number of contexts and reports from and interviews with caregivers.
Initial and ongoing assessment data can be entered into a database for monitoring short- and long-term progress and for making informed programmatic decisions. This systematic process provides objective data for a child’s team to make program adjustments and modifications.
Specialized instruction in settings that permit ongoing interactions with typically developing children to the extent that the interactions lead to specified educational goals
Programming in the SCERTS Model requires identification of learning opportunities across home, community, and school settings (when relevant). Progress is measured across these settings to ensure that efforts are resulting in meaningful and generalized changes in a child’s life.
One aspect of such programming is providing opportunities for a child with autism spectrum disorder to learn with typically developing children and with other children who can provide good language and social models when such objectives are identified as part of the child’s educational plan.
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To learn more about SCERTS, go to the Frequently Asked Questions page. |
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