Pine Grove School

Pine Grove offers residential and educational programming for autistic and developmentally disabled children and adolescents. Highly individualized care plans focus on receptive and expressive communication skills, behavior management, daily living skills and interpersonal relationships. A social-behavioral model is utilized which follows the principles of the behavior management approach. In adopting the behavioral approach, we set specific treatment goals that focus on target behaviors in the "here-and-now" and on specific factors or causes that serve to maintain them. We assume that these behaviors are learned and that they are specific to given situations. We use treatment techniques that have been empirically validated by scientific research to be appropriate for behavior management. Positive behavioral support procedures aimed at increasing desirable behaviors are given top priority. Special care is taken to protect the children's rights by establishing a treatment environment that imposes the fewest restrictions necessary while assuring individual safety and development. This is achieved through having an exact description of the techniques included in written behavioral "policies", careful recording by staff of each incident requiring intervention and keeping a close watch on a child's progress in response to a particular treatment method.