Skills® for schools

Skills® empowers teachers and schools to create and implement comprehensive, customized teaching plans for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). An easy-to-use online program, Skills® improves learning outcomes, maximizes budgets, and provides measurable progress for proper placement and continued funding.

SKILLS® IS ALIGNED WITH

The Skills® Difference

Based on decades of research, Skills® identifies every skill a child needs across the entire range of human functioning, from infancy through adolescence.
With the unique Skills® approach, teachers and schools can:

Improve learning outcomes

  • Nearly 4,000 targeted lessons across a range of eight unique learning areas
  • Multi-disciplinary collaboration for more cohesive plans
  • Acquired skills - from basic to advanced — reproduced outside the classroom
  • Skills® BIP Builder for overcoming difficult behavior Learn more

Ensure compliance

  • Research-based curricula aligned with the Common Core State Standards
  • Assessment results linked directly to tailored lesson plans

Maximize school funding

  • Customizable teaching plans and activities cover a diverse range of student needs
  • Teaching plans advance with each student every year, eliminating the need for additional programs

Facilitate proper class placement

  • Comprehensive, scientifically-validated assessment tools
  • Instantly-available reports and charts for evaluation and progress tracking

Increase efficiency

  • IEP goals and benchmarks included with each lesson to save teachers time
  • A single platform for multiple students, so teachers can stay organized

How Skills® works

Skills® is intuitive and comprehensive, making it easy to administer effective research-based
teaching plans to a diverse group of students with a wide range of special needs.

Step
1

Start assessment

Answer a series of questions to identify the student's skill level across all areas of development.

Step
2

Build a teaching plan

Based on the assessment, Skills® automatically generates an individualized pool of activities. Add your desired activities to the teaching plan by checking the boxes.

Step
3

Start teaching and track progress

Implement your plan and measure its effectiveness with extensive progress-tracking reports and graphs.

Tools for effective and efficient teaching:

  • Customizable activity guides
  • Supplemental teaching aids, including printable data sheets, visual aids, worksheets, and tracking forms
  • Detailed IEP goals and benchmarks for each activity
  • Sample videos of the lessons in action
  • A variety of data-driven progress graphs and timeline charts

Comprehensive Curricula

The unique set of Skills® curricula addresses eight distinct areas of human functioning:

executive functions

Goal-oriented behavior and
self-management, such as memory, attention, planning, self-awareness, flexibility, and problem solving

cognition

Perspective-taking skills or "Theory of Mind" (i.e., the ability to understand the mental states of oneself and others)

Social interactions and relationship building, as well as social language skills and self-esteem

academic

Language arts and math skills, so a child can independently participate in assignments at school

LANGUAGE

The ability to communicate effectively and understand others

motor

The visual, oral, and motor skills a child needs to communicate effectively, participate in play and daily living activities, and succeed academically

play

Various forms of play, including interactive, independent, pretend, and computer play

adaptive

The ability to engage independently in daily living activities, from dressing and toileting to setting the table

Where did Skills® come from?

The Skills® story can be traced back more than three decades, when the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) was established in 1990 based on UCLA’s Dr. Lovaas's findings. Two decades later, CARD researchers created Skills®, integrating more than 30 years of scientific study with the latest online technology.

The Skills® BIP Builder is the ultimate tool for efficiently designing effective behavior intervention plans for challenging behavior. Proven and safe, the Skills® BIP Builder uses evidence-based practices and emphasizes least-intrusive procedures.

With the Skills® BIP Builder, teachers can:

  • Effectively address problem behaviors in the classroom
  • Minimize disruptions
  • Create an environment conducive to learning

Skills® LogBook is the most intuitive state-of-the-art mobile application for efficient and accurate real-time data collection in the classroom.

  • Easy to use
  • Created by behavior experts
  • Classroom transparency for IEPs
  • Maximize teaching time
  • Skills acquisition and behavior reduction
  • Work offline with automatic synching wherever WiFi is available

What is applied behavior analysis (ABA)?

The Skills® curriculum is based on applied behavior analysis (ABA). Widely regarded as the most effective treatment for children with autism spectrum disorder, ABA is the only treatment shown to produce significant, long-term improvement. In developing an ABA treatment plan, a clinician analyzes the relationship between a given behavior and the child's environment (the causes of the behavior) and then systematically applies a series of targeted interventions. Through this process, ABA reduces maladaptive behaviors, increases wanted behaviors, and improves the child's functioning.

Research on
Skills® and ABA

The strategies in the Skills® curriculum are grounded on over 40 years of research on the use of ABA-based procedures for teaching skills to individuals with autism. The Skills® assessment has been shown to have excellent validity (Persicke et al., 2014) and the language subscale to have excellent reliability (Dixon, Tarbox, Najdowski, Wilke, & Granpeesheh, 2011).

Here is what teachers and school
administrators are saying about Skills®:

"Skills® has been such an asset to the Mamaroneck School District. Teachers and staff have commented on several occasions how Skills® has contributed positively to their students' progress and class functioning as a whole. Its comprehensive assessment has given teachers direction in planning for their students' individual needs, and its design has created greater consistency amongst team members and more effective monitoring of progress. Skills® can greatly benefit any type of learner in any type of educational setting."
– Frank L., MS, School District Behavior Specialist, New York

ONE-TO-ONE CONSULTATION

Our personalized sessions help teachers take full advantage of the
Skills® program and maximize its effectiveness in the classroom.

Consultations include:

  • Guidance in completing the assessment and implementing the Skills® program
  • Guidance in creating Behavior Intervention Plans using Skills
  • Instruction on use of the Skills Program and LogBook Data Collection App
  • Consultation via video chat and other online technology