PEAK RELATIONAL TRAINING SYSTEM
PEAK ABA ASSESSMENT AND CURRICULUM:
Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge.
The PEAK Relational Training System is a (fairly) NEW assessment and curriculum planning guide for teaching basic and advanced language skills with a contemporary behavior analytic approach.
A certified PEAK instructor teaches new skills by using the 4 different PEAK modules to help learners understand, acquire, and generalize brand new skills - without needing to teach those skills directly.
First, a learner takes the NEW standardized PEAK Comprehensive Assessment (PEAK-CA or PCA) which provides scores for each module and combines the pre-assessments per module. The PEAK-CA contains 184 skills which correlate to the 184 item curriculum. Also, this assessment only only takes 30 min - 2 hours of direct testing.
READ THAT AGAIN, MAYBE OUT LOUD, FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK:
‼️ONLY 30 MINUTES - 2 HOURS OF DIRECT ASSESSMENT TESTING ‼️
After analysis, the results will have identified the learner's assessed skill level, informs programming decisions, and the BCBA immediately transfers assessment results to the corresponding programing content.
This standardized process takes the guesswork out of "what to teach" or "when to teach."
So PEAK is an
Assessment AND Curriculum?
YES! Originally, the Pre-Assessements for the different Modules of the PEAK Curriculum were available free online, plus all of the materials and printed stimuli needed for testing.
Now, the PCA provides a seamless solution with considerable less effort to administer than the current PEAK Pre-Assessments.
The PCA also includes the PEAK Autism Severity & Behavior Observation Scale as well as the Challenging Behavior Index (CBI) to evaluate potential limitations of treatment due to challenging behavior.
PEAK is suitable for children aged 2-17 years
What do the
Modules & Colors Mean?
1
PEAK-DT
Direct Training Module
requesting preferred objects, imitation, attending to a speaker, labeling items, early social skills
2
PEAK-G
Generalization Module
generalized imitation, requesting various objects, categorizing and sorting, early life skills, intermediate social skills
3
PEAK-E
Equivilance Module
decreases the need for direct positive reinforcement, making inferences from events in the environment, matching by using one's senses
4
PEAK-T
Transformation Module
complex reasoning, and problem solving, identifying events that are: same, similar, different, or opposite, advanced cognitive relationships, advanced social skills
Is PEAK evidence-based?
Where can I learn more?
I am still lost...
What makes PEAK so special?
Well, it really comes down to how each learner is best able to acquire the new skills that PEAK teaches. The style of teaching is never "mass-trialed" because the skills are taught in a very mixed and combined style.
For example, during administration fo the PCA, this is the order of questions in the VCS - Verbal Comprehension Skills section:
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Say Ribbit. No materials shown
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Stand up, turn around, and clap your hands. No materials shown
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What comes next? L-M-N-O-... No materials shown
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What number is this? (BCBA shows a printed 5)
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What letter says Mmmmm? (BCBA shows array of 3 letters)
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Which one is crying? (BCBA shows array of 3 pictures)
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Tell me something that has spots? No materials shown
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Who is this? (BCBA shows a cartoon picture of a woman in white lab coat)
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Which one is feeling wet? (BCBA shows array of 3 pictures)
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Which one does not belong? (BCBA shows 3 cartoon pictures of 1 hat and 2 fruits)
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Bob's balloon popped. What might he be feeling? No materials shown
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Which one is 9:30? (BCBA presents 3 drawings of analog clocks)
At this point, the learner may look at you 😧 quizzically and/or may display problem behavior. (This happened to our BCBA when she was practicing administering the PEAK assessment with her mother.)
"Wait, what? What did you ask? I'm still thinking
about Bob, I don't know what time it is!" 🤦🏻♀️
The PEAK assessment and curriculum by design doesn't allow for 'parlor tricks' or memorization and 'parroting' responses. 🤯
This innovative approach helps to build the prerequisite skills necessary for derived responding, which is learning relationships between stimuli, as well as through these relationships, without needing to be directly taught. Generalization without direct programming.
Ok, I think I got it...its like throwing questions from ⚾️ 'left field' all the time
Pretty much! Skills aren't taught in intensive isolation - which is what most people may be used to seeing during an ABA session.
By 🎯targeting skills in a more fluid way, this more closely resembles natural every day life learning and exposure to new skills or challenges.
Because the learner is being taught and is picking up skills in a more natural and fluid way, learning styles are able to be more different. This leads to a more flexible learner who can adapt and generalize skills more naturally.
⚠️BUT WAIT - nobody said it was easier! This kind of assessment and curriculum is so different that a learner, literally, may not know what to think.
Patience is vital for new to PEAK learners!
Does Insurance accept PEAK as a valid assessment tool?
So to answer the question,
✅YES some major insurance companies accept PEAK.
Cigna does - they have PEAK directly listed on its Applied Behavior Analysis Assessment Request Form.
What is PEAK?
PEAK stands for Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge and involves teaching skills in a way that helps learners generalise and learn skills that they haven't been taught as a result more easily. It is a curriculum that enables individuals to gain skills for free (without teaching) because of the way in which the teaching is mixed and combined, enabling learners to start using their own taught skills and strategies in order to learn new skills. It's is really the true definition of teaching 'learn to learn' skills and it helps with promoting independence.
Who is PEAK suitable for?
PEAK is suitable for children aged 2 years up to 17 years of age.
How does PEAK assess skills?
PEAK assessments are divided into full assessments and pre-assessments that will thoroughly cover different skill areas. Full assessments are indirect assessments we complete by looking at a full list of skills and selecting skills we have seen our learners perform. It also contains quick pre-assessments that we can use to back our findings and more consistently pinpoint strengths and areas where our learners need support. Preassessments are direct assessments where we test skills with the learner on a one to one basis and observe them in the moment during sessions. PEAK offers a range of programmes that cater for language acquisition needs and cover aspects of language that include: • Foundational learning skills (e.g. requests for what one wants, imitation, listening to instructions) • Perceptual learning skills (e.g. identifying and matching objects) • Verbal comprehension skills (e.g. answering questions) • Verbal reasoning (e.g. when told a situation, how the student would respond), Memory (this includes pre-requisites for remembering past events) and Maths skills (e.g. working with quantity, numbers and money). As the curriculum moves from an early to a more advanced stage, it becomes complex and language skills become more sophisticated. Learnt skills are combined and generalized, transformed (for example the concept of ‘red’ can mean stop, as in a woman shouting ‘stop’ at the airport, her voice being heard for the first time in that context, it has never been tested and wasn’t part of teaching before; it can also mean that you may not have access to a certain item) and then combined with new skills.
How does PEAK teach skills?
PEAK works in teaching skills by combining skills so that learners do not focus on certain skills in isolation. Instead of focusing on teaching programmes within a certain area intensively e.g. listener responding, PEAK will mix different developmental areas (e.g. matching, then listener responding, followed by labeling) to enable learners to learn skills with more flexibility and then correlate these skills more easily, as one would if they were learning language more naturally. PEAK teaches aspects of languages that may not be included in some of the other ABA based curriculum such as inferencing skills (reasoning given situations), perspective taking (putting one self in another person’s shoes) and advanced language comprehension skills within Maths and Reading. It also ensures that skills learnt are generalized so that they can be performed in different settings, across different people and that they are maintained across time as skills are built on top of skills.
Is there any evidence that PEAK works and helps individuals progress in development?
PEAK is evidence based, which means that studies have been published within the PEAK lab demonstrating its efficacy. • More evidence of the efficiency of PEAK as a curriculum can be found in the PEAK ABA website: • http://www.peakaba.com/research-and-publications/
How are PEAK programmes run and which setting is best?
PEAK programmes can be adapted to whatever type of programme you run. For example, they can work in home programmes that focus on teaching skills via play (as it can start from two years of age) or early learners that are older and are focusing on acquiring social and functional skills. PEAK programmes can be taught in one to one sessions in schools, home and also in ABA specific clinics.
How can I ensure that the person doing assessments and recommending PEAK programmes is appropriately trained?
PEAK ABA provides training across the USA and different countries. In order to perform assessments, write reports on results and recommend PEAK programmes, ensure your practitioner has had training from the actual suppliers, rather than second hand training in PEAK.
https://peakabasolutions.com/what-is-peak/