Choice is often positioned as a cornerstone of student engagement. In many classrooms, offering options like where to sit, which activity to start with, and how to complete a task is seen as a way to create more responsive, collaborative learning environments. 

But what if the issue is not whether choice is offered, but how it is experienced? 

That question guided the work of Chelsea Shea, BCBA, and Bianca Torres, Clinical Associate and BCBA Trainee, at ALL Academy, Aspire’s private special education school. Drawing on a combined 15 years of experience supporting neurodiverse students across a range of ages, they explored how small adjustments to instructional strategies can make the difference between choice being available and choice being usable. 

Recognizing Communication in the Classroom 

In ALL Academy classrooms, a small group of students were experiencing similar moments during instruction. Students had shown signs of having difficulty expressing when they needed a break, staying engaged, and at times, their frustration often led to moments of unsafe behavior. 

Two of the students used AAC devices to communicate, while one communicated vocally. Across communication styles, a similar pattern emerged. When expectations increased or tasks became unclear, communication often broke down. 

Rather than focusing only on whether a student accepted or refused a task, the team looked more closely at what was happening leading up to that moment. Subtle changes in body language, hesitation, pauses in responding, or disengagement offered important insight into how students were experiencing the situation and how they may not yet have the tools to navigate the demand being placed on them. 

Recognizing these early signals created a critical shift. Instead of reacting after frustration escalated, educators began stepping in sooner and supporting students in communicating what they needed. 

Supporting Students in Making Independent Choices 

To support this shift, Chelsea and Bianca adapted an evidence-based approach known as the Enhanced Choice Model (ECM). The model focuses on offering meaningful options while helping students communicate what works best for them in the moment.  

In practice, this meant going beyond simply offering two choices. The team used preference assessments to understand what each student moderately and highly preferred, and then utilized their preferences to encourage engagement in Functional Communication Training and academic instruction.  

Students were supported in learning how to express when they needed a break, when they wanted to continue, or when something felt too difficult. Visual supports like schedules and timers helped clarify expectations, while consistent reinforcement encouraged participation. 

When preferences are intentionally embedded into learning, choice becomes more than a prompt, it becomes something students can connect to, act on, and use to guide their behavior. 

This work was later shared at the Connecticut Association for Behavior Analysis (CTABA) Conference, where it received a Best Poster Award, underscoring the impact of these strategies in real classroom settings. 

Why Cross-Team Collaboration Makes the Difference 

This work did not happen in isolation. 

Chelsea and Bianca collaborated closely with school teams throughout the process, including special education teachers, speech and language pathologists, and occupational and physical therapists. Each discipline brought a different lens, from communication systems to sensory regulation to instructional design.  

For the students using AAC devices, this meant partnering with the speech and language pathologist to ensure that the prompts built into the Enhanced Choice Model aligned with the communication systems they were already using. Rather than introducing a separate set of cues, prompts were adjusted to match the language and navigation within each student’s device. That kind of cross-team detail is what turned a good strategy into one that actually held. 

Without alignment across teams, strategies like these can easily become inconsistent or fade over time. With collaboration, they became part of the student’s full experience. The same supports, expectations, and responses were reinforced across classrooms, therapies, and daily routines, making it easier for students to use these skills in real time. 

For Chelsea, this kind of collaboration is deeply connected to what first drew her to the work: 

“I started at Aspire as an intern and grew into roles as a behavior therapist, special education teacher, and now a BCBA. Early in my work, I found it rewarding to support students to progress and develop skills in a positive way academically, socially and behaviorally that aligned with their unique needs and goals. Today, a big part of my role is supporting students as emerging communicators using AAC devices and making sure their voice is recognized and valued, no matter the form of communication they use to express their thoughts, feelings, and needs.” 

A Lesson for Educators

Choice can open doors in the classroom, but only if students are able to step through them. 

Chelsea and Bianca’s work challenges a common assumption in education: that offering options is enough. In reality, students need support to understand those options, respond to them, and communicate when something is not working. 

As Bianca shared, 
“Being part of this process is about more than implementing a strategy. It’s about empowering students to understand their own behavior and use tools to communicate in ways that shape their outcomes and support their independence.”