[FEAT BC Admin]

This area is for discussions in general topics.

Topic

[Mike & Jean]

Hello Everyone –

The next F.E.A.T. meeting is on Monday, June 17th at St.Francis-in-the-wood Anglican church in West Vancouver (download a map from this website).

Our topic will be, "A.B.A. and summer". We will discuss programming for summer fun, summer holidays and summer therapy…

We start at 7:30p.m. See you there.

Jean

[Nancy Walton]

Do you have a non-verbal or pre-verbal child? One of the most important components of a good ABA program for younger children is "Manding". Manding is a way of eliciting speech (or sign language) from autistic children.

Amanda Raichelle-Clements will be giving a presentation on the Art of Manding at the next Surrey/Delta/Langley ASBC meeting, Thursday May 13.

Amanda has over 5000 hours of experience as an ABA line and lead therapist. She has attended numerous conferences on verbal behavior. I know from experience that she is one of the best "manders" in the province.

This presentation includes:

An introduction to Manding. (including video demos)
What is manding?
Why should I use manding with my child?
What about my child who doesn't talk?
How to get started.

The meeting is Thursday May 13, 7-9pm at the Semiahmoo House Society. The address is 15306 24th Ave, South Surrey.

To reserve a seat, please e-mail Nancy at wiklo@shaw.ca or call 604-538-8021.

[Deleted User]

Carol —

I can recommend 2 SLPs who work collaboratively with ABA programs:
1. Lesley Blok is fabulous and is on the North Shore. She also has 2 year + expereince working as part of a ABA team. I'm not sure if she is accepting new clients, but might be available to do an assessment. You can email her at mlblok@shaw.ca

2. There is also a Vancouver SLP who has trained as a line therapist and worked on ABA home teams doing ABA therapy under a consultant. She is located in Vancouver and is currently accepting new clients. She was at the last ASBC|North Shore meeting, but I do not have a contact for her….

Good luck to you!

t

[Carol Ramey]

Can anyone tell me who/where one goes for a GOOD
language assessment in North Vancouer? My friend is
concerned about her 30 month olds expressive
language.

Thank you
Carol
cramey@shaw.ca

[David Bridges]

Hi!

Can anyone fill me in on "language-based" ABA training? I have no idea what this is, or if there is any scientific backing for it.

Also, who is Suzanne Jacobsen? Does anyone have experience with her? Please feel free to email me at dbridges1@shaw.ca, phone me at 604-913-3343 with your input, or post on this board.

North Shore Neighbourhood House is proposing to start a program base on the former and guided by the latter, and I'm wondering what to think.

David

[Angie Robinson]

Hi my name is Angie. Me and my husband are looking for native children with autism to start a group. To try to receive funding through native affairs my number is 604 314 5682 we have ameeting on april 29 6 pm please call if interested.

[Angie Robinson]

Hi my name is Angie. Me and my husband are looking for native children with autism to start a group. To try to receive funding through native affairs my number is 604 314 5682 we have ameeting on april 29 6 pm please call if interested.

[Angie Robinson]

Hi my name is Angie. Me and my husband are looking for native children with autism to start a group. To try to receive funding through native affairs my number is 604 314 5682 we have ameeting on april 29 6 pm please call if interested.

[Jenny Obando]

I just wanted to let everyone know, there is going to be a Special on Autism and the therapy the parents of threee autistic children are doing (ABA);on Primetime Thursday at 7pm tomorrow April 22,04.

Jenny Obando

[Deleted User]

Ahhh, once again a post about the son-rise program…. I am not going to bother addressing this issue… new parents, do a search on it and you will see the members of this chat board have dealt with this program and its lack of evidence or scientific backing many times. There have been many eloquent posts about this issue, none of which need to be repeated again.

And may I just say testimonials are not evidence… testimonials are neither objective nor based on data.

What I would like to state is that putting your child into an ABA program is an important step however you must ensure that your ABA program is of the best quality. There are many people, qualified and unqualified who provide "ABA consulting services". Some are great, some are good, some are mediocre and some are appallingly bad.

Its also important to note that ABA is a large umbrella under which many therapies exist. Not all are equal.

I am not an expert but in my opinion, as a parent and a therapist, some of the qualities of a good program include:

1. accurate, systematic, consistent data collection (and by accurate I mean trial by trial and this means writing down a data point for each sd delivered. Estimated data has its place and there are times when this is appropriate and there are times when it is not. It is however not accurate data and should never be regarded as such.)

2. analysis of data collected – what good is data if no one looks at it? someone should be computing the numbers, analyzing the patterns and identifying concerns. Data contains many answers if you just look at it. Lovaas ABA is based on science. Science is not about feelings, it is about providing hard evidence to back up its claims. (Son-rise, has been around for almost as many years as Lovaas' research, and yet they still can not back up their claims with science.)

3. consistent and regular workshops with your consultant. Some consultants travel great distance, some can see their clients monthly, or even weekly. 6 months between workshops is probably too long – again that is just my opinion! But a lot changes in 6 months. A lot changes in a month!

4. Consultants design programs, they monitor programs, they design interventions. If you are not a consultant, you shouldn't be doing these tasks. If you are a sr. and you are doing these tasks, you need to understand that you have overstepped your bounds. You are not helping your client and you could very likely be harming them. And if you do not understand why that is the case you need to get out of this business or speak to someone at FEAT as to why that is the case!

5. regular communication between the parent/sr. or team leader/consultant and whole team is essential. The parent and/or the sr. on the team should meet with the team at least every other week to discuss questions, concerns etc as well as lead a team meeting (see below) and take concerns to parents as well as when necessary to the consultant.

6. regular, consistent team meetings attended by all staff and preferably at least one parent. Team meetings are an opportunity for additional ongoing training. The allow the parents or sr. instructor to monitor staff on issues of consistency, follow through, reinforcement, data collection, as well as answer questions, review and introduce new program procedures. Demo's at meetings are always important, paricularly if the sr. is not able to overlap the team members on a regular basis.

7. The quality of your team also makes a huge difference. This is a hard issue to control sometimes as their seems to be a shortage of instructors and challenges to effective training.

8. But most importantly, the quality of your program is based on the quality of your consultant.

Not all ABA programs are created equally. A poorly designed, poorly implemented ABA program is no better than any other ineffective program… quality counts.

Just my thoughts
Michelle Karren

[Author]

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