[FEAT BC Admin]

This area is for discussions in general topics.

Topic

[Mike & Jean]

Subject: April FEAT Meeting

Hi everyone!

Just a reminder that the next FEAT meeting is on Monday April 21st at 7:30pm at St. Francis-in-the-Wood Anglican Church in West Vancouver

The agenda will be the big topic of "Advocacy – How to do it".

April 21st is Easter monday – so some of you may be unavailable. Please email me at jean.lewis@telus.net if you plan to attend.

Thanks – see you on the 21st.

Jean

[Barbara Rodrigues]

Hello to everyone:

I came across a great editorial in last summer's ASAT newsletter and thought I would share it with the group. It is written from the United States. Although, to tell you the truth it inspired me and says so much about what is still needed here in Canada. I found it very powerful and hope that you will also.

Education? Health Care?

In some states, Medicaid and other health care programs will not fund science-based autism treatment because such services are allegedly really "education."
Let's explore that. If an adult has a stroke and loses the ability to talk, walk, use utensils, and care for himself, health insurance pays for intensive, competently-delivered rehabilitation that does not look much different from science-based interventions used for children with autism who have the same skill deficits. Are we suggesting the adult stroke victim should go back to college to learn these skills? Of course not. Yet some of our children with the medical diagnosis of autism are thrown only to the special education system for services.

Schools are not required to maximize a child's potential. Nor do they necessarily know how to do so, until they receive proper in-depth training. An emergency room physcian who has a child with autism sat at her child's Individualized Education Plan team meeting. She was seeking the documented 30-40 hours a week of science-based treatment for her son.

"That's optimal", the special ed professional said. "Therefore, we really only need to do 10-20 hours."

The physician, a professional trained to think competently under horrific stress, paused. Then she quietly said, "Let me tell you how I heard that. You come into my emergency room riddled with pain from a horrific accident. I should give you 10 milligrams of morphine to dull your pain while we help you, but I will only allow 5. – Which, by the way, will not stop the pain."

There's a lesson here. We just need to figure out what it is, and how to use it. One lesson may be that somewhere along the line we lost focus on the distinction between medically-necessary treatment for children with autism, and a 'free and appropriate education' for children with autism.

Medically-necessary treatment is calculated to help patients recover from illnesses and disorders. If recovery is not possible, the medical community seeks to maximize a patient's potential. The medical community evaluates its excellence, and ethics, based upon the patient's outcome.

In contrast, and according to many Medicaid manuals, education consists of academic services in those traditional subjects such as science, history, literature, foreign languages and mathematics. The education community evaluates its success in educating children with special needs based upon the child's progress – not outcome. This progress is measured with varying degrees of accuracy, and is determined to be of educational benefit within a very broad range of interpretation.

The health care community, including all forms of health insurance, should ensure that our children receive autism treatment calculated to achieve aggressive outcome objectives pursued for individuals with other other medical diagnoses. Education should supplement autism treatment, not substitute for it.

When treatment provisions are in place to maximize the outcome of the patient's diagnosis, then we can talk about excellence in education. We must also ensure coordination of services across educational and treatment domains, so that educational practices do not interfere with treatment.

Anything less does not serve our children.

Lora Perry, MS, Editor

[Joelle and Leighton]

We're looking for an ABA Therapist for the Chilliwack area with preferably one or more years experience. We have an 8 year old boy that's been doing therapy for 4 1/2 yrs. He's high functioning and enjoyable to work with. We have 2 therapists and are looking for another one to join our team.

Contact Joelle at joelle10@shaw.ca or call 604-858-4470.

[Deleted User]

ABA SQUARED – MORE FUN THAN A TWO RINGED CIRCUS!!

Fun loving, hard working and energetic therapists required…

We are in the process of getting underway with not one, but two ABA programs for our boys, ages five and nine.

Both boys are mildly affected with Autism. They are great kids who are fully conversational (wow can they talk!!). They both have a keen sense of humour and love to have fun. Although the use of discreet trials will make up a portion of the program the emphasis will not be on discreet trials, but rather applying behavioural principles Lovaas ABA curriculum to teaching my children.

Although each child's program has a different focus, key elements for one or both of the programs include; social skills and relationship training, life skills and independence, peer and sibling play, academic/homework/music practice support, organizational skills, and self regulation and self esteem building. During the summer there will be lots of community-based activities, particularly for the nine year old (who likes "extreme" sports like mountain biking, skateboarding, rock climbing, roller blading etc.)

We are working with EAP under the guidance of Jennifer Newland and Michele Shilvock. We live on the bus route in West Vancouver. Qualified ABA team experience and/or education background, drivers licence and vehicle are not essential but helpful.

If you would like to join our team, please e-mail your resume with a contact number to abasquared@hotmail.com

[Deleted User]

ABA SQUARED – MORE FUN THAN A TWO RINGED CIRCUS!!

Fun loving, hard working and energetic therapists required…

We are in the process of getting underway with not one, but two ABA programs for our boys, ages five and nine.

Both boys are mildly affected with Autism. They are great kids who are fully conversational (wow can they talk!!). They both have a keen sense of humour and love to have fun. Although the use of discreet trials will make up a portion of the program the emphasis will not be on discreet trials, but rather applying behavioural principles Lovaas ABA curriculum to teaching my children.

Although each child's program has a different focus, key elements for one or both of the programs include; social skills and relationship training, life skills and independence, peer and sibling play, academic/homework/music practice support, organizational skills, and self regulation and self esteem building. During the summer there will be lots of community-based activities, particularly for the nine year old (who likes "extreme" sports like mountain biking, skateboarding, rock climbing, roller blading etc.)

We are working with EAP under the guidance of Jennifer Newland and Michele Shilvock. We live on the bus route in West Vancouver. Qualified ABA team experience and/or education background, drivers licence and vehicle are not essential but helpful.

If you would like to join our team, please e-mail your resume with a contact number to abasquared@hotmail.com

[Deleted User]

ABA SQUARED – MORE FUN THAN A TWO RINGED CIRCUS!!

Fun loving, hard working and energetic therapists required…

We are in the process of getting underway with not one, but two ABA programs for our boys, ages five and nine.

Both boys are mildly affected with Autism. They are great kids who are fully conversational (wow can they talk!!). They both have a keen sense of humour and love to have fun. Although the use of discreet trials will make up a portion of the program the emphasis will not be on discreet trials, but rather applying behavioural principles Lovaas ABA curriculum to teaching my children.

Although each child's program has a diffeernt focus, key elements for one or both of the programs include; social skills and relationship training, life skills and independence, peer and sibling play, academic/homework/music practice support, organizational skills, and self regulation and self esteem building. During the summer there will be lots of community-based activities, particularly for the nine year old (who likes "extreme" sports like mountain biking, skateboarding, rock climbing, roller blading etc.)

We are working with EAP under the guidance of Jennifer Newland and Michele Shilvock. We live on the bus route in West Vancouver. Qualified ABA team experience and/or education background, drivers licence and vehicle are not essential but helpful.

If you would like to join our team, please e-mail your resume with a contact number to abasquared@hotmail.com

[David Bridges]

Tamara or Mike Leger:

I lost your email address and phone number! Could you please call me at 604-913-3343 and give me the name and phone number of your boy's dentist (again)? Sorry to bug you again about this!

Dave Bridges

[Ben Martens]

The New York State Department of Health Report on Best Practices for Children with Autism, which Dr. Freeman cites, can also be accessed online from the New York State Department of Health website, at:

http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/eip/autism/index.htm#Table_of_Contents

This version, being on internet, is not the 'official version', yet being on the NY DOH website, it has sufficient credibility for any concerns you may have.

It is also important to note that this report came out in 1999, 4 years ago. While I am in no way speaking regarding the specific issue of sensory integration (which I have not looked into at all), I do know that some areas that were poorly researched at the time of the report's publication have since been the focus of much scientific research. Some of these studies have been fairly solid, with good control groups, replicable and replicated designs and multiple established measures for quantifying improvement. This is to say that while the NY Report is an invaluable source of useful critique by very informed individuals, it is getting dated in some aspects. As should always be the case, use caution in any sources that you use.

[Elna Sund]

Hi all:
This post is in regards to ABA therapists and possibly new parents to the field of ABA

I have been an ABA therapist for over 3 years and I know that when I first started ABA I grabbed any information i could get my hands on regarding DTF and running an ABA session.

I am wondering if there is a need for some kind of therapist guide on ABA–for example, introducing behaviourism, reference terms used in ABA, how to run a therapy session, what is involved in your session, learning to read the child for appropriate reinforcement, additional resources on ABA etc…

I know that FEATBC sets up workshops dedicated to teaching newcomers to the field of ABA, so perhaps this guide im thinking about can act as a supplemental text or just more information on ABA.

I would like to hear from therapists (and parents) that are interested in a guide to ABA therapy and if there is a need for this guide.
Please feel free to email me: elna4@yahoo.com
Thanks

Elna Sund
ABA Lead Therapist

[Sabrina Freeman]

Hi all,

Someone mistakenly advertised a Sensory Integration workshop on the FEAT Chat Board today. As most of you know, this is a discussion forum for science-based treatment, which, in the current state of the science, is Lovaas-type ABA. There are a number of other chat boards and E-lists for discussions about a wide range of scientifically unsubstantiated treatments, including Sensory Integration. For these types of discussions we ask that members of the group please use those alternate groups and keep this forum for its intended purpose — discussions centered on ABA related issues.

Since the Sensory Integration workshop was advertised here, I feel obliged to speak to the generally recognized lack of scientific evidence behind this method. I'll keep comments brief and simply cite the New York State Department of Health Report on Best Practices for Children with Autism. The New York Report states the following regarding Sensory Integration.

"(1) It is important to recognize that there is no research evidence that intervention approaches using sensory integration therapy are effective as an intervention for young children with autism. [D1]" p. IV-59

"… There is currently no adequate scientific evidence (based on controlled studies using generally accepted scientific methodology) that demonstrates the effectiveness of sensory integration for young children with autism. Therefore, the use of this method cannot be recommended as a primary intervention method for young children with autism." p. IV-60.

For those interested in obtaining a copy of the New York Report, it can be purchased in B.C. from Kids Tools, Ph. 604-924-5437.

Please do not respond to this post in the interest of avoiding an inappropriate "thread" on Sensory Integration.

Thank you.

Sabrina Freeman, Ph.D.
Executive Director
FEAT BC

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