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[Deleted User]

I highly doubt that the Community Living transfer has anything to do with the Training proposed by the government. I have been at Community Living meetings and that has not been on the agenda. On the other hand, they did take note of the fact that many parents were complaining about the lack of trained Speech Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, Behavoural Consultants and Individual Therapists.

I spend all of my personal time training therapist, interviewing therapist, etc, only to have them leave. I mention OT, PT and Speech because they were on the list for Individualized funding. I haven't been able to use my $1667 every month because I haven't found the staff. I know if I get on the 'wait list' of one of the expensive foreign consultants, they would gladly relieve me of this extra money. But since someone asked this of Dr. Kysela, I put this to ALL Consultants: have ANY of your clients ever 'recovered'? It seems the kids are in therapy for years (sometimes indefinately). Do they ever get better (and is it in the best interest of the Consultant to 'cure' a child)?

Yes, parents must learn ABA and no, we can't do it all by ourselves. My concern is that everyone profits except our kids.

The government wants to increase the amount of trained (Canadian) professionals in the province. That may not be a bad thing, but will the families profit? Families have proposed that the government set a mandate that everyone working in the field of autism must be trained and certified by a criteria of best practices as determined by parents. I pay a great deal for my education and training, so should professionals who want to work with our children. The fee required to be trained and certified should go directly back into autism services, and this should be parent controlled. Why doesn't government love this idea?

MSP has no idea of how to provide for our kids. I think irregardless of how we look at it, training has to be involved. The question is: by WHO (and who profits)? We don't have the staff in the province but we don't need more of the same stuff we already have (EIBI made in BC).

We need to be realistic as to how to proceed. We need a plan because throwing more money at the problem will just attract all the wrong professionals. Remember what happened in Alberta? They have expensive services but the services are crap. Overnight people were becoming experts in the field. The kids don't get better by money alone.

On the other hand, I know the government is not without a plan. They could impliment services AND training if they wanted to. Parents are not without skills. Those who have not been out fighting in the courts have researched, pooled together all the right professionals (including a certified Behaviouralist as the last post mentioned), using proven models known to work in the States, only to be told Dr. Kysella is the man for the job.

Perhaps all parents should have been fighting it in the courts. But enough already, we been down that road and our kids just keep getting older. Government has all they need to go forward with training AND services. We need to pressure on them to scrap IBI Providers and go with what the parents want.

[Deleted User]

I am disturbed by many posts in the past few days. In particular on the subject of training and parent participation.

On training: I would suspect that govt. supplied training is tied to the direction that govt. wants to go with moving IEII funding to Community Living groups. This is an obvious move to divide and conquer which ultimately pits differing special needs groups individuals against each other to fighting for a piece of the Community Living budget. Our children will come out losers if this scenario happens as ABA would (if properly funded) take too big a bite out of the budget.
Furthermore does the govt. have qualified people to train? No. No more than they employ qualified ABA practitioners. If this was a morally valid attempt by govt. to meet our childrens medical needs they would be working with local post secondary institutions to attract some of the best academics in behaviour analysis to fill this void and establish a more pro ABA treatment approach by the psychology departments. To draw an analogy; would govt. hire a doctor to teach us parents to perform heart surgery on our children (suffering with heart disease) if there was a shortage of open heart surgeons in this province? No. See, its just another attempt at minimizing the validity of treatment and saving $s while pretending to do something.

Parent participation. If you are a therapist who thinks ABA goes out the window when you leave the home, have the guts to share this in a team meeting. I know that I , as a parent have to work 60+ hours plus a week to pay for ABA. I do however live and breathe ABA strategies in free time with my child though few people would recognize that at a glance. My spouse however is very involved with all aspects of the program, including discrete trials. She was trained and continues to receive training by our treatment provider. This is how it should be, we (parents) cannot become expert treatment providers by attending a govt. supplied course(s). Unfortunately some Community Living Groups are jumping at the chance to do just this because the govt. has directly tied their cooperation in this to maintenance of their budgets.

[Deleted User]

Just want to support that last Anonymous post.

It's vital that what we therapists do during 'therapy hours' is carried over into everyday life by the parents and other caregivers. It's how skills are truly learned and generalized.

To use a really practical example, let's say I'm working for you, with your little boy, and we decide to start teaching him how to tie a shoelace. Well, I and the others on the team teach him to tie a shoelace in about 16 sittings. That's awesome! We now have a target list that shows he can tie a shoelace. The thing is, if you as a parent continue to allow him to wear only velcro shoes or tie his shoes for him, he's not going to retain or generalize this new skill, and it is quite likely that he will eventually stop doing it even in therapy sessions, because once an item is mastered it does not get targetted every day anymore.

Training for parents is important. I think that's part of why consultants require at least one parent to be at all workshops, and why the parents are basically 'in charge'. (The consultant gives programs, but usually asks the parent if that's something they want their child to learn. We also consult parents on appropriate language.)

However, parental training does not and cannot replace the value of having a well-trained, qualified ABA consultant in charge of training therapists and developing programs. An appropriately trained and qualified consultant is going to have the background necessary to assess behaviours and design appropriate intervention, never mind actually developing appropriate curriculum for the child.

If the government is planning to train parents in an attempt to forego the costs of hiring actual consultants, I have to wonder if any of them were actually listening to Tristram Smith at the Autism 2002 conference. He was very clear on this point.

-Janna (*full* ABA Therapist on the North Shore)

[Deleted User]

There have been a lot of postings lately with parents stating that they want ABA, and that they DO NOT WANT TRAINING. I whole-heartedly hope that all families with children who have Autism get ABA, no matter what the age of the child is. Nonetheless, I find it quite disturbing that so many parents are refusing to take training. I used to work as an ABA therapist, and now work with parents of children who have Autism. Yes ABA works, but we all know that the child is going to progress the fastest if their skills are generalized into all environments. If there is one thing that I have seen over and over again, especially in homes where there is an ABA program, it is that the ABA stops as soon as the therapist leaves. Sure there are families out there that have the time to learn the ABA (which I have to say is the training that you are saying you don’t want) and follow through with it. There are also other families who do not have the time and energy to do this. In these families, I have seen great progress during the ABA sessions, and great loss of skill as soon as the therapists leave the home. My point is, that if parents do not receive training, the therapy ends after each session. If parents aren’t trained in how to work with their Autistic child, that child’s skills will regress after the trained therapists leave. On the other hand, if parents receive training, they are able to follow through with the lessons from the ABA program and the 40 hours per week becomes 24-7.

[Melodie Pilloud]

Hi there, I was wondering if someone could please tell me if there are any consultants that are working out in the Valley ( Chilliwack area ). We are wanting to start our 2 1/2 year old sons ABA ~ Lovaas therapy as soon as possible but so far have not had any luck finding a consultant that has other families in this area. Please if you could give me some names / numbers / e-mail addresses….. anything that would help! Thank you so very much for your help. (as always) :o)
Melodie (Ty's mom) m_pilloud@yahoo.ca
P.S. could someone tell me what I should be asking to find out if the people I am talking to really are doing the Lovaas ABA or not. Thanks!

[Deleted User]

Ive been hearing different stuff about Dr. Kysela. What are his qualifications and background as a Consultant?

I heard government say they are setting up a training program. Is this instead of therapy?

Someone suggested Dr. Kysela.

[Melodie Pilloud]

Hello Everyone, I was hoping that I could get a little help from the group. I have talked with a few people and have been given some names of different consultants to call to start things for our son. I have called and talked to Andrea Sharp and also Racheal Russelle. Racheal is full and not taking on any other families right now. I was told that some families have been using Lisa Wincz and I was hoping to get some feed back on her. I have been given Andrea's name by almost everyone so far so I am guessing she is very good. I am hoping to start our program between Dec/02 and Jan/03. I am not sure how we are to write this up for the ministry, so I could also use some help with that too. Also when I was talking with Racheal this morning she had told me that there was a family looking to share the cost of Lisa Wincz. We live in Chilliwack area. I am not sure if that is a concern but I thought I should give our area. Could you please e-mail me at m_pilloud@yahoo.ca Thank you all so much for the help you have given to us. Best wishes to all, Melodie (Ty's mom)
P.S. Also any info from the families that use Andrea Shape would be great too. Thanks again.

[Deleted User]

Sorry, I realized after I posted that I forgot to tell you what time the workshop is.

The workshop is from 6:30pm to 9:30pm.

Leslie Bowling
Facilitator

[Deleted User]

The ASBC Mission/Abbotsford Community Group is hosting a workshop on Thursday, Nov. 7th at the Fraser Valley Child Development Center 34081 Cyril Street, Abbotsford, B.C.

The Workshop is titled:

Sexual Abuse Prevention and Response

This workshop offers an overview of the issues related to sexual abuse of children and youth with disabilities. Strategies to prevent abuse and how to respond to abuse will be presented.
Topics to be addressed include:
myths, risk factors, barriers to disclosure, responding to disclosure and effective prevention strategies.

Audience: parents, caregivers, teachers, and service providers.

This workshop is presented by:

The Sunny Hill Hospital Sexual Health Resource Network.

Admission to this workshop is by donation. Seating is limited, therefore registration is required.

To register for this workshop e-mail: maarg@telus.net

Hope to see some of you there.

Leslie Bowling
Facilitator

[Carol Ywan]

Hi there,
I'm looking for recommendations for children's dictionary for primary grades kids. My son is in grade 2 and we are starting to teach him to look things up in a dictionary.
Thank you very much for your attention and help.
Carol Ywan carolywan@hotmail.com

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