Hello everyone,
This episode of The Hoot Chronicles came out on January 17th and you can listen to it on our podcast Chirping with ABA Owls. This should take you to our podcast page or you can listen on iTunes, Podbean and other podcasting apps.
Every month, we discuss a book or article(s) that we find interesting – This month we decided to go with AFLS, The Assessment of Functional Living Skills.
The AFLS were developed by James W. Partington and Michael M. Mueller, they consist of 7 different manuals: basic living skills, home skills, community participation skills, school skills, vocational skills and independent living skills and of course, 7th is the guide.
About the authors:
James W. Partington, Ph.D., BCBA-D, is the director of Behavior Analysts, Inc., and provides training and clinical services to other professionals, educators as well as to children and their families. He is a licensed psychologist with over 40 years of experience working with children with autism, language delays, and/or other developmental disabilities.
Michael M. Mueller, Ph.D., BCBA-D, has dedicated himself to practicing Applied Behavior Analysis with children with autism in homes, schools, state residential facilities, group homes, clinics, and other community settings for over 20 years.
What are the AFLS?
This set of assessments are a way of assessing, tracking and teaching functional living skills, for example, being able to use money to create a budget, learning how to manage your own time, etc.
Some of the skills included in these manuals are related to hygiene (brushing teeth), others are focused on cooking and maintaining a house, amongst others.
A very pertinent quote on their website is “The more you teach them now, the less you’ll have to do later to support him later!”
The skills to be able to care of one’s self are essential to everyone – A goal we should always work towards is to teach independence skills as much as possible.
Who can use AFLS?
Parents or professionals, it is helpful for both as it can help you understand how much we forget about with independence and the levels involved with teaching different forms of independence
Their website has different tabs for professionals, educators, parents and caregivers and explains how it can be useful for all those different levels.
Where can you get AFLS?
Physical books
Creator’s website: https://partingtonbehavioranalysts.com/
Ebay: £72.59
Amazon: £67.35
In our opinion, it’s better to go to the source for these tools, it’s a better price than other platforms. They also have online training (paid of course) and a section called WebAFLS – you can access the Manual online which provides extra support in recording and deciding targets. It’s $100 for the first year and $60 per year thereafter. Honestly, get the books.
We hope you’ve found this helpful, we will try our best to publish blog posts as the podcast episodes come out.
You can also follow us on Instagram (@ABA_owls), send us an email on aba.owls.uk@gmail.com or leave us a comment below.
Thank you for reading,
Carla and Lauren