BASE: Building Advanced Social Education is an interactive, complete social skills curriculum. It is designed to support students of all ages (kindergarten to transition years) to learn the social skills they need to effectively communicate and interact with the social world.

 

BASE has three main components: foundation, top, and transition. The foundation component is designed to support emergency behaviors and can be used for all developmental ages as needed. The top and transition components are intended to be used for classroom instruction over the course of the school year. However, all three components of BASE work together fluidly. Lessons can be adapted or repeated based on student need in order to achieve optimal understanding and generalization.

 

BASE’s unique components include video modeling, visual supports, differentiation, home connection, coaching supports, and assessment.

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Base coaching technique helps the teacher (or parent) to teach the student the skill in a safe setting.  The skill is modeled by the teacher and other peers, then the students are placed into pairs or grouped (depending on the skill), and the students then practice the scenarios while the teacher is circulating about the room.  Through the teacher’s observations of the skills, she gives the students immediate feedback through coaching in order to reinforce the correct social skill.

 

BASE’s assessment format is structured to assess generalization of the skills over the course of a school year.  The skills are assessed in four ways:

• 1. Unit Pre-assessment (5 minute duration, 1:1 teacher to student, 8 questions asked and answered prior to teaching the 8 lessons in the Unit).

  • Assesses the student’s current understanding of target skill

• 2. Unit Post assessment (5 minute duration, 1:1 teacher to student, 8 questions asked and answered following the teaching of the 8 lessons in the Unit).

  • Assess the student’s latter understanding of all the target skills.

• 3. Lesson assessments Teacher’s observes each student practice the skill after instruction days. (Day 5 of the lesson to be recorded on the Observation sheet).

• 4. Surveys (5-10 minute duration, given twice in one school year. Student, teacher, and parent all complete two total surveys)

 

The primary goal for each lesson in BASE is generalization of the target skills. Generalization is the ability to demonstrate understanding of the target skill in a variety of settings (i.e. home, school, in the community) independently. Generalization occurs as the students practice the target skills via acting out scenarios and participating in video modeling in a variety of settings.