[FEAT BC Admin]

In this discussion area, please feel free to share your experience in implementing A.B.A. programs in the school system. We would particularly like to hear from those parents who converted their school teams to A.B.A. We’d like to hear the nightmares as well as the success stories.

Any insight that can be shared by school-based special education assistants to help parents would also be very meaningful.

Topic

[Todd Dea]

MAJOR AUTISM PROGRAM CHANGES TO BE ANNOUNCED !!

Anyone seen this yet ?? The announcement is supposed to be at 11:30 this morning !!

http://www.publiceyeonline.com/archives/004273.html

[Stella Li]

Heather: your son should have funding for an aide at school from the Ministry of Education.
You should be able to advocate for your child without alienating the staff at school. Please call or email me at 604 434 0880, shui@autismbc.ca

stella

[Heather Burke]

New Westminster School District

Has anyone has recent experience with the NW school district. Our son has just entered kindergarten and has full funding for an aide. Suddenly, we have been told by our principal that there is no specific aide assigned to our son. I am wondering how to handle this situation and to find out if this is unique to NW with funding cuts. I worry about alienating the school staff as they seem geniunely interested in assisting our son.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Heather (William's mom)

[Super Dad]

*** REMINDER ***

North Shore ASBC Lecture Series

The North Shore ASBC Support Group proudly presents:

Supporting our children in school:
the law, the IEP, and the advocacy
by
Mike Hancock
and
Harmony House
at
7:00pm, Sept 15
in the North Building of the
Delbrook Recreation Centre in North Vancouver

We are very pleased to have the following guest speakers at our upcoming session:

1. Mike Hancock: Mike is a parent of a child with autism, and a former in-house counsel for the Vancouver School Board. He has also previously worked in private practice with a focus on education law. He will review our children's right under the School Act.

2. Bohdanna Popowycz Kvam and Michele Shilvock: Bohdanna and Michele are behavior consultants with extensive experience in the school setting. They will review the art of writing an IEP.

This is a great opportunity for anyone with a school-aged child, or with a child coming up to school age, to learn and ask questions about how to work at integrating your home-based ABA programme into the school system.

DATE: Tuesday, Sept 15, 2009
TIME: 7 – 9 pm
LOCATION: Delbrook Recreation Centre, North Building (600 West Queens Road, North Vancouver)

For those going north/west on Highway #1: take exit 17 for Westview Dr, turn right at Westview Dr, and then turn right at Queens Rd. For those going east on Highway #1: take exit 17 for Westview Dr, turn left at Westview Dr, and then turn right at Queens Rd.

Coffee/Tea and snacks provided. Donations are greatly appreciated.

Please RSVP to Carol at colemanmoser@hotmail.com

Carol and Tony
(Co-facilitators for ASBC North Shore Group)

[Pam Browne]

Line Therapist Training Class Based on Teaching Principles for Early Autism Intervention

Harmony House is holding a one day class based on the Lovaas-based Applied Behaviour Analysis and its application to the treatment of autism spectrum disorder. The class will address several topics that outline the basic foundation of a Lovaas-based treatment program and will include information on autism and general behaviour strategies. The main focus, however, will be on practical application with 50% hands-on approach in small groups, with the remaining time spent on larger group discussion and video reviews. The group will be facilitated by our program supervisors: Joanne Ma and Gabrielle Stigant.

Date: October 3, 2009
Time: 9:30am to 3:30pm
Location: Harmony House offices/school 2916 Mcbride Ave.
(corner of Mcbride and Sunshine Alley)
Cost: $40.00 (cash or cheque made out to Harmony House)
Contact us: hhschoolteam@gmail.com OR phone 604-542-1550

[Super Dad]

We’re back!

North Shore ASBC Lecture Series

The North Shore ASBC Support Group proudly presents:

Supporting our children in school:
the law, the IEP, and the advocacy
by
Mike Hancock
and
Harmony House
at
7:00pm, Sept 15
in the North Building of the
Delbrook Recreation Centre in North Vancouver

We are very pleased to have the following guest speakers at our upcoming session:

1. Mike Hancock: Mike is a parent of a child with autism, and a former in-house counsel for the Vancouver School Board. He has also previously worked in private practice with a focus on education law. He will review our children's right under the School Act.

2. Bohdanna Popowycz Kvam and Michele Shilvock: Bohdanna and Michele are behavior consultants with extensive experience in the school setting. They will review the art of writing an IEP.

This is a great opportunity for anyone with a school-aged child, or with a child coming up to school age, to learn and ask questions about how to work at integrating your home-based ABA programme into the school system.

DATE: Tuesday, Sept 15, 2009
TIME: 7 – 9 pm
LOCATION: Delbrook Recreation Centre, North Building (600 West Queens Road, North Vancouver)

For those going north/west on Highway #1: take exit 17 for Westview Dr, turn right at Westview Dr, and then turn right at Queens Rd. For those going east on Highway #1: take exit 17 for Westview Dr, turn left at Westview Dr, and then turn right at Queens Rd.

Coffee/Tea and snacks provided. Donations are greatly appreciated.

Please RSVP to Carol at colemanmoser@hotmail.com

Carol and Tony
(Co-facilitators for ASBC North Shore Group)

[Mike Wong]

sorry, my email address is matchywong@gmail.com

Mike

[Mike Wong]

Hi all parents,

Has anyone had experience with kindergarten at Diamond Elementary in Langley OR SouthPointe Academy in Tsawwassen OR Southridge in South Surrey?
Good or Bad? Any feedback will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Mike

[Dione Costanzo]

Hi everyone,

Anyone at Ocean Cliff Elementary?

Email me dione@directfocuslmi.com

Thanks
Dione

[Francine Nicols]

Hello all

I'm posting in the hopes of getting some honest advice from other parents. I'll try to cut out details and get to the point… my situation is this: We are in the burnaby district and my daughter has had some challenging behaviours over the past few months. She did not recieve a level 3 aide (level 3 means with 1000 hours experience in a home-based ABA program) although my understanding was that she was entitled to one. The school has sent her home on many occasions because of behaviour (not aggressive toward others) that the school was having difficulty controlling. I quickly established the functions of the behaviours and gave them some effective tools to use at school to diminish the behaviour, and they have been relatively successful. They also had another EA work with her in the afternoons (for a total of three) who does have some ABA experience and she has had great success keeping our daughter in the classroom and getting her to finish lots of work and participate in class. However, now the school is trying to refer us to a program offered at Cascade Heights for children with Autism who have challenging behaviours. I don't know much about the program yet except that they do use ABA and it is behaviour/language focused, and that the goal is to integrate her back into her home school once behaviours have been controlled. My consultant and I feel that they have not come close to exhausting efforts to keep her integrated at her current school, and we don't feel her behaviour is severe enough to need to place her in this program. We kind of feel like we're being pushed to put her there even though it is obvious how much potential she has when her EA is right for her. So my questions are:

1. Has anyone had any experience with this program at Cascade Heights School?

2. Has anyone had a similar experience in the Burnaby district?

3. Can we insist on having a properly ABA trained EA for our daughter (a level 3)?

We are going to check out the program next week and trying to keep an open mind, but the school set a day to go when the students will have a pro-d. We will not be able to make an informed decision if we can't see how they run the program with the students there so we're a little apprehensive.

Please anyone who has any advice or info for us we would greatly appreciate any feedback, good or bad. We just need perspective from other parents. My email is kevandmaddie@telus.net

Thanks,
Maddie

[Author]

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