Printable: Journey to Independence Curriculum Level 1

Meaningful Play - Incorporating ABA into Everyday Play

We believe that children learn best when they are motivated and having fun! The JTI Early Education Curriculum is based on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) principles in naturalistic, everyday routines and a play-based format. Specifically, we have incorporated many key components in Pivotal Response Training by focusing on teaching pivotal skills that lead to significant growth. Knowing your child (i.e., the parent as the expert on their child), establishing and maintaining a good rapport with them, having fun, and inputting targeted objectives into everyday meaningful play interactions is at the core of the JTI Early Education Curriculum. 

We believe that parents are the most important teachers for their children, therefore, parents play a pivotal role in their child’s growth throughout their childhood. Parents can be intentional participants in intervention by implementing strategies during targeted and meaningful play and throughout the child’s day. We also believe in the importance of social interaction and community integration, so the JTI Early Education Curriculum can be implemented in the home, in the school, and in the community (Global Adaptations are also provided in necessary play plans). 

The JTI Early Education “Play Plans” are important because they provide opportunities for children to develop social relationships with their peers and caregivers and generalize all learned skills to his/her everyday life. While using the curriculum, caregivers can control the level of reinforcement delivered to maintain engagement and build skills.  This is especially important so that children who need it can receive a high level of reinforcement that can be adjusted on an individual basis, allowing caregivers to create a learning environment that closely resembles the reinforcement schedule commonly found in ABA learning environments. 

Benefits:

This curriculum was developed as a solution for the many obstacles in accessing clinical services and to address the treatment and resource needs of families, schools, and clinicians working with students with autism spectrum disorders in the United States as well as across the globe.  

Early Intervention can change a child’s learning path and lead to more positive lifelong outcomes. Providing intervention at a young age is likely to be more effective than it would be to implement later in life. Research has shown that the neural circuits of a child’s brain are more adaptable in the first few years of life than at any other age. Families benefit from early intervention by learning strategies to communicate with their children and meet their needs at a young age.

Included:

Level 1 of 5, developmentally appropriate for approximate ages 2-3 years old (Full Curriculum is Levels 1-5, developmentally appropriate for approximately ages 2yrs - 7yrs old)
Learning Domains across all levels

Social-Emotional
Language Development
Adaptive Life Skills
Cognitive Skills
Reading Readiness
Math Readiness

Data Collection
Daily data/graph system
Fidelity of Implementation
Anecdotal Reports
Video Tutorial