Commonwealth Autism Services (CAS), based in Richmond Virginia, invited Vicci Tucci to present at the 2014 VA State Wide CLM Forum. In the morning during her presentation, she posed the following question, “Is explicit teaching always the best approach to take to develop independent functioning for our learners with various learning issues?” The CLM Teams (e.g., CLM Coaches, Teachers, Instructional Assistants, Administrators, SLPs, and etc.) from various counties in VA, who are implementing the CLM, completed some exercises to learn about Generative Instruction. “The study of generativity is the study of conditions that occasion novel behavior and complex behavior ‘for free’.” (Dr. Kent Johnson, 2008).
During the afternoon session, a CLM Teacher Panel presented information about how their Learning Environments are arranged and organized to develop Competent Learners. Here are the names of the members of the Teacher Panel:
Ashley Hawkins – Shenandoah County
Emily Schwab – Dominion Pre-School
Amanda Lambert – Clarke County
Jennifer Jenkins – Page County
Michelle Bennett – Harrisonburg City
Julie Whitaker – Shenandoah County
Vicci was so “moved” by their presentations! (See picture below).
Nipa Bhuptani, CLM Regional Associate and Certified CLM Coach in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, delivered a presentation about the CLM Implementation at The Future Centre for Special Needs and the CLM Services being provided to learners in their homes.
Autumn Kaufmann, CLM Coordinator in VA, commented that what she most values about CLM is the common language that it provides. Every CLM classroom looks different, has different learners, with different teachers and paraprofessionals, and at times is in different buildings, with different administrators. With all of those variables aside, we still have a shared language that clearly communicates the integral pieces of the model (i.e., ABA, DI, and PT).
Well done!!!
