Dr Christos Nikopoulos is a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst® – D (Doctoral Level; BCBA-D), a former member (International Representative) of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB®) Board of Directors. He is currently the Applied Sciences Representative of the European Association of Behaviour Analysis (EABA). He is also the Founder and Director of Autism Consultancy Services Ltd in London, and was recently appointed as a Governor at an ABA School in London, UK.
He has served as a clinician, a University lecturer, an educator, a consultant, a researcher, and an author in the areas of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), intellectual and other developmental disabilities as well as neurological and behavioural interventions in special education for more than 19 years. He has been teaching in Higher Education at both undergraduate and postgraduate (i.e., MSc and PhD) levels for more than 10 years at a Research-Incentive University. He has obtained extensive experience in the provision of behavioural consultation to families of children with ASD as well as to schools; provision of training parents, tutors, teachers or other therapists in a view of enhancing their knowledge in the theory and practice of ABA for the benefit of the child whom intervention is provided for; provision of consultation for the development and implementation of functional behaviour analysis and behaviour intervention plans at school-based programmes; provision of guidance for the development and implementation of school-wide Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) plans; provision of autism workshops and information sessions, program evaluations, case-based school consultations as well as ACE (BACB®) and other BCBA courses [e.g., Registered Behaviour Technician (RBT) Courses, BCBA Verified Sequence Courses / VCS, supervision to candidates who pursue their BCBA or BCaBA accreditation etc.
Presenting at the Bucharest International ABA Conference 2018:
Functional Behaviour Assessments and School-wide Behaviour Support Plans
Schools face a number of challenges in educating pupils. In addition to the responsibility of effectively teaching academic subjects/skills such as maths, science, literacy, the arts, reading and writing, educators must increasingly deal with non-academic factors that influence the instruction they provide. Examples of such factors include behaviour problems that disrupt learning and negatively affect school climate such as off-task behaviour, non-compliance, defiance, disruptive behaviour in the classroom, vandalism, bullying, or even violence. School-wide Behaviour Support Plans as guided by Functional Behaviour Assessments provide assessment driven and comprehensive support that focuses on redesigning ‘environments’ to reduce problem behaviours and to increase adaptive, social behaviours. Thus, targeted individualised support includes interventions that are designed for groups of pupils at risk for discipline problems or school failure. Such Behaviour Support Plans are neither a curriculum nor a program of prescribed strategies. Rather, they can be conceptualised as a framework under which systems identify predictable problems, select logical strategies to improve outcomes, facilitate consistent implementation, and use data to evaluate their success. It is helpful to conceive them as a sequence or continuum of processes and practices ranging from the most general universal strategies (i.e., rules, routines, and arrangements) to the most specific intensive interventions.
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