Riverside County Office of Education Intensive Intervention Program

In the 2005 school year, the RCOE Intensive Behavior Intervention program (IBI) was created to teach students on the autism spectrum.

The program is intensive and conducted one-to-one and outside the traditional school day. The program is based on principles of learning behavior gleaned from research. Skills may be taught in discrete trials as well as in the natural environment. The program may be conducted in the school or home settings. A developmental curriculum assessment generates appropriate goals. Skills taught include communication, academics, language, speech, social, self-help and motor. Students taught are ages 3 to 22. A training component insures that caregivers and school staff receive training to provide optimal learning environments for our students.

Tutors conduct the program. They have received training in behavior principles and receive ongoing training from supervisors who have specialized training and extensive experience in the field of autism spectrum disorders.

Children on the autism spectrum often have difficulty accessing information through a natural environment, but can make great strides in a program that employs behavioral principles such as discrete trial teaching. This is a strategy where the teacher breaks complex skills into small steps, gives an instruction and requires the student give an immediate response. Based on the response, the teacher can prompt if the student does not understand the concept or reinforce if they are correct.