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About SAIL, Inc.

SAIL is an early intervention group in Nashville, Tennessee. We accept new children into the project from ages birth through five years old. Our intervention typically lasts between two and three years, depending on the child. If needed, we can continue to serve a child by focusing on parent training and school consultation, in an increasingly limited way, until the child is seven or eight years old. Our areas of expertise fall under the PDD-NOS umbrella, so we typically serve children with a single diagnosis in this category. A child with a dual diagnosis will be considered only if a SAIL consultant has expertise in the secondary area. Children participating in our intervention are required to maintain a minimum of ten hours of 1:1 ABA services per week. At least two of those ten hours need to be provided by a SAIL consultant, and the remaining hours can be provided by other SAIL staff or by tutors trained by SAIL. The specific number of recommended hours of 1:1 will be discussed with you after the initial assessment of your child.

We address all areas of development, using the science of Applied Behavior Analysis. ABA is a discipline used to promote the understanding of behavior by teaching socially significant goals. The intervention results are analyzed objectively by assessing each child’s progress before, during, and after the intervention. Our intervention includes a combination of structured/direct and naturalistic/incidental teaching techniques.

Although incidental and direct teaching may appear on the surface to be very different teaching approaches, both technically meet the conditions defined by Applied Behavior Analysis.

Structured/direct teaching: The main aspect of direct teaching is that the intervention is conducted in a specific and structured manner. The instructor chooses and presents a specific item related to the desired skill, and when the child responds correctly the response is reinforced. Incorrect responses typically result in the use of a correction procedure, and training on a specific skill is often repeated until the child achieves mastery. The advantages of direct teaching are:

  • A high rate of training trials can be conducted
  • The focus of the goals are clear and thus easier for staff to conduct
  • The teaching materials can be clearly identified and collected
  • The desired responses are measurable and easy to take data on
  • Progress or lack of progress is very observable
  • Distractions are low
  • Expectation and instructions are clearly presented to the child
  • It may help the child “learn how to learn” (attend, discriminate, sit and work, increased tolerance for demands, etc)

The disadvantages of structured teaching are:

  • May require special procedures to ensure generalization
  • The reason for responding during trials may not be present in the natural environment
  • May generate rote responding
  • The social interactions during trials are different than in a typical or natural situation
  • Trials do not promote the ability to respond to the variable nature of the typical environment

We acknowledge the advantages of direct teaching, but are very aware of the disadvantages of an intervention that relies solely on that approach. Therefore, we purposefully include incidental/naturalistic teaching into our intervention. Naturalistic teaching addresses the disadvantages of a direct teaching approach. We see it as a perfect blend of strategies for our kids.

Naturalistic/incidental teaching: Incidental teaching is a systematic protocol of instruction that takes place in the settings in which the new skills targeted for teaching will be needed. The fundamental features that distinguish incidental teaching from other interventions are child initiations that result in functionally related consequences. The critical components of each incidental teaching episode are:

  • Environmental arrangement
  • Child initiations
  • Instructor prompts
  • Child response
  • Access to the item or activity contingent on the child’s correct response

The advantages of naturalistic teaching are:

  • Use of the child’s interests to guide instruction
  • Teaching materials are natural to the environment
  • Reduced need for generalization procedures
  • Reduced amount of negative child behavior since teaching episodes revolve around activities or items the child is interested in
  • Social interactions during teaching are more characteristic of typical interactions
  • Natural distractions are present
  • Varied responses are mixed together, reducing rote responding
  • Responding occurs in the natural and variable environment where they will be most needed

Naturalistic teaching can be a difficult intervention to implement, because the curriculum is not scripted and data collection is more complicated. More training and experience are needed to become fluent at providing this type of intervention.

(Drs. Sunberg and Partington, 1998, Dr. Gail McGee, 2003)