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[Deleted User]

IEP Parent Panel + Therapy Materials SWAP MEET

Come One, Come All – School is NOW in Session!

On Mon September 22, 7-9pm at the WV Library we are pleased to present School is NOW in Session: A Parent Presentation on Writing Hardcore IEPs and School Treatment Plans; Effectively Managing the Home/School Relationship; How to Take Data/Track ABC Charts at School; and How to Find the Best School Shadow for Your Child.

This is also a Therapy Materials SWAPMEET, so bring your old therapy materials in good condition to sell or trade. Entrance is by donation; coffee and treats supplied. PLease note that this is a "PARENTS ONLY" session — Parents, we hope that you can join us for this very educational session.

Sharpen your pencils and bring your notebooks – We will help you slay your giant!

Tamara + Anissa
ASBC North Shore Co-Facilitators
_____________________________________

Monday September 22; 7:00-9:00 pm; Peter J. Peters Room

School is NOW in Session: A Parent Presentation on Writing Hardcore IEPs and School Treatment Plans; Effectively Managing the Home/School Relationship; How to Take Data/Track ABC Charts at School; and How to Find the Best School Shadow for Your Child.

Intro to Panel + topics; 10 min 7:05-7:15
Tamara Leger + Anissa Lalani

1. Writing Hardcore IEPs and School Treatment Plans 20 min 7:15-7:45
1.1 What Should Be In Your Child's IEP
– how does this fit with a home based program and how does it differ
– what goals go to school
– who writes the IEP
1.2 What Does a Great IEP Look Like
– show a great IEP and a lousy IEP, explain why they are great/lousy
– setting goals, measuring results
– mastering items and resetting goals
1. 3 How to Take Data/Track ABC Charts at School
– recess/lunch, circle time, academic vs. social skills
– who is responsible for covering the ground (teacher/SEA)
– who evaluates the data
– behaviours vs. learning

2. How to Find a Great School Shadow 20 min 7:45-8:15

2.1 Setting the SEA Criteria:
– SEA + IEP goals
– what is a good SEA, what is not so good
– should they work on the home team + why
2.2 Finding a Good SEA:
– finding someone in the school system
– bringing someone from your home team in
– general "great qualities" of a SEA

3. Effectively Managing the Home/School Relationship 20 min 8:15-8:45
– communication + meetings
– working with the school case manager
– accountability: who is responsible for covering the IEP ground (teacher/SEA)
– testing + SLP services: private or let the school test/provide service
– field trips, SEA and reporting structure

4. Conclusion 15 min 8:45-9:00

[Mike & Jean]

To All Parents

Subject: F.E.A.T. Meeting

Hi all, our next F.E.A.T. meeting is on Monday Sept. 15th, 7:30 – 9:00pm at St. Francis in the Wood Anglican church in West Vancouver.(map downloadable from the FEAT web-site)

The topic is "I.E.P.,s"
"It's the most wondeful time of the year"

Please bring your school communication book if you have one.

See you on the 15th

Jean

[Deleted User]

Hi. What can people tell me about the Able Clinic? I've heard good things about them. Anyone care to comment?

[Barbara Rodrigues]

Hi:

I haven't used the Laurel group but from what I have heard from parents who have – it has been only negative. These people are not trained in Applied Behavioral Analysis – to my knowledge.

The fact that they are calling the ABLLS a 'new' teaching program is such a joke!!! The ABLLS is a curriculm guide based on the principals of ABA utilizing Skinner's Verbal Behavior – it is NOT a 'new' program. You can not just be able to fill out the ABLLS charts and voila you are a consultant. Sure it has some great points for people to gage areas that need work, etc. but it is not new and is ABA based! You still need to know and understand ABA in order to achieve the goals and skills necessary – in order to analysis behaviors and target behaviors. Just because you have a 'map' you still need to know how to drive.

Verbal Behavior has been around for years and years – Skinner wrote the book in 1957. I went to a workshop on the how to fill out the ABLLS put on by Dr. Partington in 2000 – he certainly is very pro ABA and does NOT call the ABLLS a 'new program' but an easy guide to see what areas you need to target.

Unfortunately many people using or working for the government run agencies seem to be fed a lot of misinformation about what they are doing and how it's so much better than ABA – when what they are doing (in MY opinion) is a bunch of eclectic huey and they keep trying to justify it and say it's better than ABA – they steal bits and pieces of ABA and destroy it and mess it up and then throw in some Sensory Integration just to make themselves feel all fuzzy. UGGHHH!

Excuse the rant but these people are unbelievable and the fact they are so misinformed and ignorant and they feed this crap to new parents and the people they hire is just so annoying to me. Plus they feed these new parents the line of how much better they are and nicer than those mean Lovaas ABA FEAT types and how the parent is such a better parent and person for using them (the government hacks). I was fed the same BS from the so-called experts in my sons life and I am still dealing with the damage they caused to him from not doing the right thing and allowing him to have ABA.

This is my opinion and my views.

Barbara Rodrigues
Jeremy's Mom and Advocate

[Deleted User]

I noticed that most of the posts re: Laurel Group are very critical and negative. I wanted to ask other parents what specifically you might say about Laurel either good or bad. I received an email from a parent – part of which I will attach below this post – extolling Laurel. Would anyone care to respond to these comments and also to say anything you care to about Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills (ABLLS)??
….
The following is the email message:
We have a 5 1/2 year old girl with
autism
and have been running an ABA program for two years. She has gained so
much.
When she was diagnosed at 3 her developmental levels were 9months to
12months. At age five they were at the 3 year old level!!! Very good
gains… We are currently training the local school staff as
therapists, as
the school as agreed to try discrete trial for 4 out of 5 school days
for
her kindergarten year…

The reason why I am emailing you is that we use Laurel House or MAPCL
we
have always used their services, I have not tried another agency. I
know
that on FEAT they are not popular. However, I have found them to be
excellent. If your very clear that you want discrete trial not just
behavoiur intervention that is exactly what you will have, remember
with
any consultant to be clear about this. In addition they have just
trained
their consultants in the ABLLS Ciriculum. Go and look at the website
"Learning to Learn with Stars" or Behaviour Analysis Inc. It's James
Partingdon's new school/program. I have used EAP"s program, Maurice's
program and A work in progress. All I can tell you is that ABLL"S is
by
far the best yet. It's clear, concise, you know exactly how your child
is
doing and what to do next… it's a language based program and it's so
much
better the rest..it is much more natural, uses errorless learning,
manding,
etc.

I love the way this program charts the drills, you see immediately
where the
problem areas are or where something might have been missed. As well
it
starts off with an assessment process where the child is tested on
everything so that they are not repeating any work or "get stuck" on
things
they already know. I really wish I had this two years ago, it would
have
made life so much easier..

[Deleted User]

Does anyone know of a great speech pathologist that you can recommend? Our child is almost 3 years old.
We would prefer someone who is ABA friendly and is in the Burnaby/Vancouver area.
Please email me at magnolias@telus.net if you know of someone.

Thanks

[Deleted User]

This post is regarding the question of shift lenghts. Your consultant is the best person to determine the length of shifts, but I'll present a few options and some pros and cons of each. It comes down to your consultant's style, your needs, your child's ability to handle a long shift, schedule juggling particularly if your child is in any type of school program and last but not least the availability of your team.

Juggling act indeed!! (ahhhh, in a few months you will be all too familiar with the nightmare of scheduling! ;-)

2 hour shifts
young children often start out with 2 of these a day. I'm afraid I am not sure of the age of your child. Some kids stay at this, others increase the length of their shift once the child has adjusted to 4 hours a day.

40 hours a week is a big jump at first and not one I would recommend. Personally, and this is just my opinion, I think it is good to start out with 2 hour shifts and build up. For a child who is say 4 I would think building up fairly quickly would be possible. but again that is very dependent on your child.

2 hours shifts can be either built up to 2.5 then increase one to 3 then the second to 3 hours long or a third 2 hour can be added in the afternoon. I have some familiarity with teams who do 3 two hour shifts and the day looks something like this.

9-11
12-2
3-5

The cons to this (in my opinion only – no flaming please!) is that

1.) therapists/instructors are only in for 2 hours so if you are not centrally located you may have difficulty attracting people. 2 hours is a short shift if you have to drive for 1/2 hour to get to work.

2.) you have three people in your hourse every day. That is a lot of coming and going.

3.)there is a lot more admin time for that setup

4.) this is not great for the parent's ability to get out of the house. 1 hour breaks are incredibly short. There is not enough time to do anything. However if your child is difficult to manage that is a good thing as parents have an incredible burden and workload when running an aba program. Also the 2 hours that your child is in therapy may seem long but it is hard to squeeze in chores, errands and all the other things in life that may be difficult to do with your child.

the pros might be
1.) if someone cancels their shift that day, you still have 2 people coming in and quite possibly one of them might be able to fill in the open space

2.) more variability across staff

another set up is the 3 hour shift

9-12
2-5

this is a common example. Advantages are less admin time, less people coming and going, shifts are a decent length so therapists are a bit more willing to commit, a bit more freedom for the parent.

disadvantage is to meet 40 hours a week you have to do this schedule (as you would with the above) 7 days a week. It is nice to have a day off from having people in your home.

Another disadvangtage is that some therapists find this long shift. that depends on your team, the number of programs, the programming itself.

another con, some children find this too long.

and finally there is another option that I am familiar with and that is four hour shifts.

The model I am familiar with has 50 minutes of therapy, 10 min break where child is not in therapy room.

Disadvantages:
if one therapist cancels, child misses a lot of hours and if team is not flexible scheduling wise, there may be no one to fill in.

4 hours can be long for child and instructor. Again this depends on child, programming, etc etc etc. Personally I work 4 hour shifts on some teams, and it is long but those 10 minutes allow some refuelling in the form of a food that helps with energy. (It is amazing the amount of energy that is burned in this job! kids are incredibly energetic creatures!)

Advantages:
When done in the above format 4 hours is not actually 240 min of therapy so it is a good format for the child to get consistent therapy while allowing them more breaks (ie the 10 min breaks out of the room).

as an instructor myself, I find that getting started is a fair amount of work, once I have started I am efficient with my time and as I hit a program more than once in a four hour span, I am very familiar with the programs througout my session. I think I am a bit more efficient in this format. (but the first few shifts I did I was exhausted!!)

scheduling wise it is easier. 2 shifts a day means only 2 people in your house vs three. therapists are more likely to be able to commute longer so you have a bigger pool to hire from. If child is difficult out side of therapy, this schedule is easier for the parent. parent gets a longer break, particularly useful for families with other children etc.

I'm sure with more time I could list off more ideas but this will give you some idea of the various schedules. Your consultant will have specific reasons as to why they want to use the schedule they prefer and my recommendation is follow their schedule guidelines. I'm sure they would be very happy to explain the reasons behind their recommendation

Michelle

[Erik Minty]

We originally started with only 2 hour shifts, but we now have shifts ranging from 2 to 3 hours.

For us it really depends mostly on trying to coordinate the schedules of five therapists, a consultant, a researcher, two working parents, one grandparent, preschool, and anything else I've forgotten to mention (like vacations). Good management skills for the resume …

Some supervisors or consultants may have specific recommendations for some children, but I can only speculate as this has never been an issue for us. My feeling is 3-hour shifts might be too much for some younger kids, or those just starting a program (see previous post).

[Kimberley Yoshihara]

Hi – we do both 3 and 2 hour shifts. We do two 3 hour shifts during the day (830-1130am and 1230-330pm) and then 3-4 days a week we run a 4-6pm generalization shift. The lenghth of shifts really depends on your child – if you are just starting a program maybe you start with two or three 2 hour shifts and build up to a 3 hour shifts. Ask your program supervisor what they recommend. We started with 6 hours per day and slowly built up to 8 hours.

[Jenn Ralph]

Hello all! Well we're finally hiring therapists and getting this going! My question to you all who have run programs is with regard to scheduling. I guess I just assumed shifts should be 3 hours, but I see alot of posts for 2 and 2.5 hour shifts. For those who schedule shifts for LESS than 3 hours, please share with my why you choose to do that. Also ,if you schedule 2.5 hour shifts, does that mean you schedule 3 of them in a day to get 7.5 hours of therapy in a day as opposed to 6 (2x3hour shifts)? I'm not sure which way to go, or which would be best for our daughter, or how well she'll do etc. etc.! Please feel free to post your response or email me directly at jenn.ralph@shaw.ca. Thanks so much. Jennifer

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