Hello, we're here at VCU's Autism Center for Excellence. Welcome to our ask the expert 
series. I'm here with Selena Layden and she's going to talk a little bit about 
antecedent based intervention. 
So Selena, what are antecedent based interventions?
Sure. Antecedent based interventions are those strategies and practices that we can put in 
place for students, and what's really nice about them is they're antecedent based, 
which means they happen before the behavior. So they are proactive strategies that 
can prevent those interfering or problematic behaviors from ever occurring. 
Why is it important to use antecedent based interventions? 
Well, of course, none of us want to deal with interfering behavior and our students really 
don't want to have interfering behavior either, and so if we can put these strategies 
in place to be proactive, we can prevent those interfering behaviors from happening. 
It's going to make everybody happier and more successful. 
So let's say I'm a teacher watching this video. What tips would you have for me on how to 
use antecedent based intervention in the classroom? 
Sure. So there are lots of different kinds of antecedent based intervention. So my first tip is 
definitely start small. A lot of the antecedent based interventions are things like 
environmental considerations, how you set up your classroom, the physical 
boundaries, visual supports, and schedules, and the routines that you put in place in 
your classroom. There are lots of others, but if you think about that, that can be a lot 
to change at one time. So if you start small, and say, we're going to put a mini 
schedule in place for one student and see how it works, or we're going to put a 
schedule in place for the classroom and see how that works, or we're going to make 
sure we're going to have the same routine every morning. Those kinds of small 
changes can make big differences in classrooms. 
Great. So for more information about antecedent based intervention, check out our website 
resources. We have seminars, webcasts, and how-to's, all about different strategies. 
So feel free to explore and look for more information about ABI. 


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