Jacob Daar, assistant professor of psychology at Northern Michigan University and director of NMU’s Behavioral Education Assessment and Research Center, works with a child at the BEAR Center. The center, along with the Western Marquette County Health Foundation, is involved in a project involving Applied Behavior Analysis. (Photo courtesy of NMU)

MARQUETTE — Students who present behavioral difficulties in western Marquette County schools will get more access to applied behavior analysis, or ABA, services through a new collaboration with the Behavioral Education Assessment and Research Center at Northern Michigan University.

NMU students also will gain practical experience before they graduate and practice in their field of study.

The Western Marquette County Health Foundation is spearheading the project that involves ABA, defined as the systematic use of learning theory and evidenced-based practices to encourage adaptive behaviors while minimizing problematic behaviors.

“ABA is an approach to helping individuals who are engaging in either too much behavior, if you will, or too little behavior, or behaving in a way that creates difficulties for themselves and the environment they’re in,” said Jacob Daar, assistant professor of psychology at NMU and director of the BEAR Center.

Practitioners of ABA identify what a student wants to get out of that behavior and attempt to teach alternative behaviors, he said, with the goal of a student accessing the desired outcome in a more socially acceptable way.

In a school setting, the unacceptable behaviors would include tantrums and acting in a disruptive way, Daar said.

Through functional behavior assessment, ABA practitioners can help schools identify what stimulates the behavior, such as events or people in the environment, and then predict behavior, develop a measurement system and then modify the environment to teach appropriate skills, he said.

For example, Daar noted students might be trying to escape work they consider too difficult. Or, they might be trying to draw the attention of preferred adults or teens.

“We help identify what that individual is attempting to access or escape from,” said Daar, who noted that strategies are developed for professionals, teachers and fellow students.

Ultimately, the goal is for the child to be autonomous and to be in the least restrictive — and more effective — environment, Daar said, with kids being in a general classroom with their peers and finding success in a general learning environment.

ABA focuses on developing effective positive-based strategies that help to reduce less ideal strategies such as detention, suspension, seclusion or expulsion, and possible restraint, Daar said.

There is a shortage of qualified behavior analytic professionals, and schools often struggle to obtain access to ABA services, said Daar, one of relatively few board-certified analysts in the region.

The collaboration with western Marquette County schools allows NMU students to gain experience and explicit training in school-based behavior analytic consulting and implementation — an area of particular need since most ABA professionals are trained in clinics and home settings, Daar said. He also pointed out a strong relationship with local schools allows the BEAR Center to better provide and coordinate services for children who need more comprehensive and complex behavioral supports.

Dealing with disruptive, aggressive and otherwise problematic behaviors is a complex and multi-disciplined task, Daar said, which underscores the importance of NMU training qualified people in the field.

The collaboration between western Marquette County schools and the BEAR Center is made possible through WMCHF funding and a $25,000 grant from the Superior Health Foundation. The grant aims to support the development and implementation of individualized education plans, increase competency in positive function-based behavioral supports among school professionals and increase regional access to behavioral health services in schools by graduating behavior analytic professionals with relevant training.

Services currently are provided at NICE Community Schools evening classes in addition to the Negaunee and Ishpeming public school districts.

“I think what really attracted us is the local institution (NMU) with a good rep in the area,” WMCHF Manager Pam Christensen said in a news release. “They presented the project to us to use as something we could fund to improve the climate in our school districts.”

Christensen said when the WMCHF made a commitment to fund the project, it had to find sources of additional funding to implement the program and potentially expand it into other school districts.

The program is funded for two academic years. Six NMU students will work under the supervision of two NMU faculty behavior analysts. The group will provide about 90 hours in services per week.

It is hoped the collaboration will lead to the ongoing availability of ABA support for children, families and schools, Daar said, as well as development of a model other schools and programs may implement to support their children and staff.

As the program allows NMU students to access the school environment, another goal, according to Daar, is that schools will continue to seek and hire behavior analysts with explicit training in school-based consulting.

NMU’s Department of Psychological Science includes an undergraduate and graduate program in behavior analysis and maintains the BEAR Center. The center provides a mix of clinical, in-home and agency services, in addition to professional training in behavioral sciences.

The facility also helps connect agencies across the Upper Peninsula to the ABA services provided by NMU practicum students, graduate assistants and faculty supervisors.