Newsletter
Volume 28 | 2005 | Number 1
The New England Center for Children
By William H. Ahearn, Ph.D.
Vincent Strully founded The New England Center for Children (NECC) in 1975. From that time, NECC has established a model program that has provided a comprehensive continuum of educational and clinical services to over 650 children with autism or related disabilities. In 2000, the United States Department of Education awarded NECC the National Award for Model Professional Development. NECC is the only private special education school ever to receive this award. It has been an appreciation and application of the principles of behavior analysis in addition to the dedication of countless individuals that has led to the school’s success.
Today, 228 students are enrolled at NECC in one of the following program components. The young children in the early intervention home-based program are provided 30 hours a week of intensive behavioral services. Our preschool program provides state of the art intensive behavioral instruction with opportunities for integration with typical peers. The day school provides both intensive behavioral instruction and more traditional academic, social, and vocational instruction for students across a range of ages. Children who cannot be served in their homes are served by our residential program where they receive clinical and educational services 24 hours a day. NECC’s staff intensive unit provides these same services to children with extreme challenging behaviors. An adult services program offers behavioral programming across a full range of vocational and daily living skills for adults with autism. Though the goal for all of our students is a complete, successful transition to independent participation in the community, NECC also has a transition program that provides teaching staff to accompany children through this process.
With the substantial contributions of Paul Touchette, Murray Sidman, Gina Green, and our research partners from the E. K. Shriver Center, NECC has developed an extensive program of applied, basic, and translational research. Brian Iwata and Richard Foxx have also provided assistance to NECC’s research agenda through their consultative services. The school vigorously supports the research activities of staff with the ultimate goal of improving service delivery to individuals with developmental disabilities and disseminating effective behavior analytic practices. NECC staff have productive ongoing research in the following areas: assessing and treating problem behavior; empirically-derived developmental profiles of children with autism and typically developing children; teaching play skills; teaching social skills; effective prompting techniques; preference and reinforcer assessment; concurrent choice; establishing verbal behavior; pediatric feeding problems; and, translating basic research to application. NECC staff have delivered well over 300 research presentations in just the past ten years. This research has lead to over 100 publications in peer-reviewed outlets.
Perhaps NECC’s most significant contribution to behavior analysis can be seen in its commitment to the professional development of its staff. NECC has developed a teacher training protocol that trains college graduates to become effective teachers of children with autism. One key aspect of this protocol is a graduate level course in applied behavior analysis that is delivered to all teachers. In the past decade over 1,000 people have successfully completed this course. NECC has also developed and financially supplemented three on-site Master’s degree programs. Over 250 of our staff are currently enrolled in these programs and more than 500 employees have successfully completed one of them with most graduates now working as special educators and behavior analysts in public schools across the United States. NECC also supports the development of upper level staff and currently employs 47 Board Certified Behavior Analysts who are offered continuing education in behavior analysis on an ongoing basis.
NECC also has an established outreach program that enables us to have a far greater societal impact. One example is our Partner program where we have collaborated with public school systems to create model ABA classrooms housed within local public schools. NECC also provides outreach through consultation and training, primarily in public school settings. Recently, NECC has attended and participated in government-sponsored meetings with researchers, advocates, educators, and legislators as discussions of research and service delivery agendas are developed for tackling autism. We also regularly host international visitors, from as far away as New Zealand, Israel, Brazil, Japan and Italy, who want to learn more about ABA and The New England Center for Children.
NECC has close to 30 years of providing clinical and educational services based strictly on the principles of applied behavior analysis to children with autism and related disabilities. We have maintained a commitment to scientifically proven treatments throughout our history and have steadfastly refused to allow the glut of clinical, educational, or medical fads to dilute our treatment approach. This commitment is evident at all levels of the organization and goes far beyond the instruction program for our students. We utilize these principles in the training and evaluation of our staff of over 640 people, in our work with our parents, and in the overall organization of our service delivery model.
This section of the newsletter introduces ABA’s new organizational members. Each new member has prepared a description of its work and services so that it can introduce itself to the larger ABA community. The inclusion of this material is not an endorsement, authorization, sponsorship or affiliation by ABA of these members or their work and services or of the content of the material they present.