When working with children with autism, often a major constraint is the amount of time we have available to work with the learner. There are so many possible behaviors where our procedures may help, but we only have x number of hours to work with them. Everyone also has limited attention; even if you could work with the student more, there’s only so long they can work without needing a break. Using your limited time with a student wisely requires making careful decisions. If you don’t plan well, you are sure to waste it.
Something that I have found useful is the concept of the TILE (Time in Learning Environment). Probably, the main goal for any behavior analysis program serving children with autism should be something like making sure the TILE is optimized. How can we make sure that we are maximizing the use of the TILE and not wasting it?
When people learn about the TILE, often their first idea is to make sure that we have “extra” things to work on so that if we end up with extra TILE on a particular day, we can always keep the learner busy and not waste the TILE. Of course, our goal isn’t to keep the learner busy, but to make a socially significant difference in the life of the learner. It is easy to get distracted by measuring whether the learners are on-task, acquiring new skills, or reducing problem behaviors. Sure, those things may be important. But maybe not as much as you think if you are focused on the long-term view of what matters.
I think the key is to not to try to make sure every minute of the TILE is focused on some learning activity. That’s almost guaranteed to add unproductive and distracting tasks that won’t make a long-term, significant difference. The key is to think, “If we mastered this behavior change, would it make a significant difference in the life of the learner?” Then, optimize your time on those behavior changes. In most cases, the time available will be shorter than what we’d like. But focusing on the most important things in the TILE will make a big difference.
Sometimes, even just asking the question is helpful. Is this the best use of the TILE? How can I prevent wasting the TILE? What’s the best use of the TILE–a social skills group, time in the general education classroom, or 1-1 therapy? Well, let’s think, what are the behavior changes, if made, that will make a major difference in his life outside of therapy?