Dr. Chris’ Autism Journal

     It is imperative for parents to take an active role in their child’s therapy. Lovass, a pioneer in applied behavioral analysis ( ABA ) therapy, has stressed the importance of training parents as intervention providers. By learning various intervention techniques, parents cannot only strengthen the parent-child relationship, they can also learn methods for promoting generalization, communication usage and skills, and help the child maintain general academics. Koegal and collegues have found that parents who participate in supplemental training show an increase in quality of family life, a decrease in parental stress, and become more optimistic about their ability to aid in their child’s development. Although parent training is not usually publicly funded, it is cost effective. By learning effective techniques, you can implement some of the programs for which you would normally pay an ABA tutor/therapist, thus decreasing hours of paid services. 

SpectrumCIRCLES is providing a 6 week parent training series in Bremerton , WA . The classes are from 130-330pm every Saturday starting March 1^st through April 5^th. Some of the topics that will be covered include: de-escalating tantrum behavior, potty training, starting an ABA home program, and picky eaters. Manya Vaupel, M.Ed., BCBA, the Clinical Director for SpectrumCircles and Early Intervention Program Director for Pivot Point-Family Growth Centre, Inc, will be running the parent training. If you would like more information, contact Manya at manya@spectrumcircles.com or call 206.384.3702

The winter holidays can be a difficult time for children with ASD and their families. Difficulties may arise from too much free time, changes in routine, and gift giving.

Most school-age children are off school for two to three weeks for the winter holidays, leaving six to eight hours of unstructured time for families to fill each day. You’re not alone if you dread the school holidays; past experience has taught you that a lot can go wrong in two or three weeks. If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to plan how you will structure that free time for your child with ASD. Plan activities for each day of the vacation, and create simple visual supports (e.g., print a picture of a park from the Internet if you will be taking your child to the park) to prime your child about the activities you have planned. If possible, allow your child to help decide on the activities you are planning. During the vacation, review the schedule for the day the night before and on the morning of the day to which the schedule refers. Of course, you can’t plan for everything, and you will invariably have to make changes to the schedule. Let your child know of any changes as soon as possible, and provide visual supports to make the changes concrete for your child. If your family will be traveling during the vacation, changes to the schedule such as flight delays are even more likely. Prepare your child that more than likely, there will be changes to the schedule, perhaps through the use of a social story. Don’t forget to bring an assortment of things for your child to do such as coloring, books, games, or a laptop computer.
Where your child will go and what he or she will do in a day are not the only changes that may be upsetting during the winter holidays. Many people visit with friends and relatives during this time that they rarely see during the rest of the year. These people may feel like strangers to your child, and he or she may behave accordingly. Forcing your child to hug Aunt Mary because “She came all the way from Boston to see us,” is likely to induce challenging behaviors from your child and to make Aunt Mary very uncomfortable. Aunt Mary insisting on a hug may produce similar results. Inform Aunt Mary that your child may view her as a stranger and she should not be offended before Aunt Mary arrives at your home (or you at hers). If possible, show your child pictures of friends and relatives you will visit and review the names of these people before the visit.

Many people exchange gifts during the winter holidays. This can be a source of great disappointment for family and friends of a child with ASD. As a behavior therapist, I once special ordered a beach magnet set for a child I worked with one-on-one, three hours a day, five days a week. I was sure he would love it. I imagined all the exciting language he would produce when we played with those magnets. I heard in my mind spontaneous comments he would make and squeals of delight he would emit. As you probably guessed, the boy opened the magnet set, said nothing, put it down, and picked up another toy. I tried to engage him with the magnets through my enthusiasm. Nothing worked. I have heard similar stories from parents and educators time and again. Even when the child showed intense interest in a toy when it belonged to someone else or requested the toy, the same toy is often of little interest to the child when received as a holiday gift.  As a parent, there is nothing you can do to prevent this. If you have a neurotypical child, you may have complained that he or she only played with a new toy for a day and lost interest. This is part of being a parent, but it is especially disheartening when your child is on the Autism Spectrum, has limited interests, and you worked so hard to find that special gift. Remember that your effort is special regardless of the immediate reaction to the gift. And time may reward your effort. I heard that the beach magnet set became a preferred toy for the boy I worked with over a year later.

Seattle, WA – TeachTown, a privately held autism research and technology company, was named a winner of the 2007 Tibbetts Awards for excellence in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs. Individuals and companies selected for these national awards are recognized as having provided outstanding SBIR leadership.

Teach Town, founded in 2003, provides an education and language learning platform as well as services specifically designed and developed for children with autism and other cognitive impairments. It was conceptualized by Chief Scientist Dr. Christina Whalen, licensed psychologist, and certified behavior analyst, and developed with Eric Dallaire, and Lars Liden, Ph.D., cognitive and neural systems. Dr. Whalen will accept the award on October 10, 2007 in Washington, DC, and attend the congressional reception on Capitol Hill.

With recent increases in autism prevalence, estimates are now 1 out of 150 births, “We have a rapidly growing school-age autism population that is severely under-served.” says Dr. Chris Whalen, “Our goal is to provide affordable, available, and effective treatment.”

TeachTown received an SBIR (Department of Education) grant in 2004 to develop its first product TeachTown Basics, which was released to the market in March 2006. They also received a “Stepping Stone” grant in June 2007. The company has built up a science advisory board which includes some of the most prominent autism researchers in the US. The results of the first Teach Town: Basics study was published in the Journal of Speech and Language Pathology and Applied Behavior Analysis in March 2006.

SBIR support for product development and research has allowed Teach Town to become the only evidenced based autism treatment technology solution available which provides online synchronization and communication of the child’s activities and progress data. This addresses the main area of pain for service providers and parents which is the ability to; track, report and communicate on a child’s progress. The program includes both on and off computer activities using scientifically-based treatment approaches which are needed to be successful in teaching children with autism. TeachTown allows service providers to serve more children at one time and exceeds mandated education data reporting requirements in all 50 states.

TeachTown is now embarking on a 2 year project and will conduct research studies which will include children with autism or Asperger’s Syndrome, parents, and professionals from the autism community. This research will guide the development of a new education and treatment program targeted at grade levels 2^nd – 5^th. This innovative treatment will build on the success of TeachTown: Basics, which is now helping hundreds of younger children and being adopted by major school districts across the U.S.

Christina Whalen, PhD, BCBA

(206) 336-5585

chris@teachtown.com

About Teach Town

www.teachtown.com

TeachTown is a privately held company based in Seattle with offices in San Francisco, and is funded by the Washington Research Foundation and private investors led by Richard Fade, founder of the Autism Treatment Network.

For more information about the Tibbetts Award Click Here

The Department of Education recently awarded TeachTown a grant to design and develop a computer-assisted education and treatment program for autistic children with a developmental age of 6-12 years. As part of the grant requirements, TeachTown is conducting a study to assess the needs of the autism/Asperger’s community.

The study is an online survey designed for parents, teachers and clinicians who work with children diagnosed with autism or Asperger’s. We are looking for parents and professionals to provide us with their ideas and suggestions for developing an effective and motivating program. The program will include computer learning for children, as well as off-computer activities to enhance the skills they have learned on the computer. Focus will be on language, social, and cognitive skills in addition to community and life skills for this developmental age group. Once the study is completed, TeachTown will analyze the data and use the results in the design of the new computer-assisted education and treatment program.

Those who complete this survey will have the option to participate in free beta testing when this product is near completion (in 2008). To see if you are eligible for this study Click Here. If you meet the criteria, you will be forwarded to the complete survey.

If you have any questions about the study or about our company and products, please send an email to support@teachtown.com

If you are struggling with finding a quality service provider for your child, or if you are wondering if the ABA services you are receiving are appropriate, the ABA Autism Special Interest Group, with funding from the New Jersey Center for Outreach & Services for the Autism Community, have provided a set of guidelines that are extremely valuable:

ABAAutismSIG Gdlns 2007.pdf

In this document, they provide consumers with information about board certification for ABA providers and what other qualities to look for to increase the chances of receiving the quality services that your child deserves.  They note that certification is NECESSARY, but not SUFFICIENT for selecting a qualified professional.  In other words, someone who provides ABA services and who is not certified should be questioned regarding their education and ability to provide services.  However, just having that is not enough, you should look at the applicant’s experience with autism, and with the age group and functioning level of your child. 

This document was put together with a lot of expertise and thoughtfulness, I hope you find it helpful!