[FEAT BC Admin]

In this topic area, discussion is on all issues relating to setting up and running a home-based intervention program. Please feel free to bring up any problems or suggestions. Parents can help each other greatly by sharing information and giving suggestions.

In addition to parents helping parents, A.B.A. professionals on in the Discussion Group can also help provide insight and guidance.

Topic

[Theresa Jouan]

EAT of BC is presenting a workshop on Basic Theory!!!

Date: January 26th, 10-4pm.
Location: Strawberry Hill Public Library (see map on registration form for directions)

Seating is limited to please reserve your spot now!

Registration forms can be found at:

http://www.featbc.org/downloads/abtwsl.pdf

Cost is $30 per person.

This workshop would benefit parents, therapists, senior and lead instructors, SEAs and other professionals.

This is a new and improved basic workshop with a focus on video, teaching and applying the concepts with group work!

Hope to see you there!

[Theresa Jouan]

Mark January 26th on your calendar because FEAT of BC workshops are back!!

January 26th, from 10-4pm at Strawberry Hill Public Library in Surrey, BC.

This new and improved workshop will focus on the application of basic theoretical constructs such as:

1. Reinforcement
2. The Discrete Trial
3. Prompting
4. Behavior
5. Data Collection
6. Instructional Control
and more!

There will also be video to illustrate concepts as well as hands on components to apply what we are learning with individual feedback from the presenters.

Come ready to learn, participate and have your theory knowledge refreshed! It is possible that edible reinforcement may be available contingent upon quality of response, of course! :-O)

Please bring a lunch or be prepared to purchase one off-site during the lunch break.

Stay tuned for workshop registration forms- we will post as soon as the new registration form has been added to this website.

Hope to see you all there!
Theresa

[Jennifer]

Dear Parents,

I would appreciate any opinions regarding Michele Fagan. Thanks for your input. Please email at: suayya@yahoo.com

[Kim Harding]

Oops! I forgot to give my email address so that everyone could let me know about the starting wage.

My email is:

mybad8@telus.net

Thanks
Kim Harding

[Nancy Walton]

Hi Kim,

We are not supposed to post wages on feat, so you may not get an answer for this on the chat. You can give your e-mail address and people can respond privately to you.

In my 8 years of experience hiring ABA therapists, I must say that it is definitely getting harder because there is such a high demand for employees now. The more "help wanted" signs you see in stores, the harder it is for us to attract therapists to this field.

If you do not have any special requests (can play piano, has sign language, can teach skiing…) then you can probably offer what ever the local stores are offering for unskilled work. Also, if you hire a student, you can pay almost min wage, and you can keep them longer.

Most important is that you have a good place to work. That your therapists feel appreciated and supported. That is the best way to keep people if you are not paying them a lot.

[Kim Harding]

Hi Everyone,

Just wondering what everyone is giving inexperienced line therapists with no training as a starting wage.
I would appreciate any responses as I have been having difficulty finding anyone at the rate I have been offering.

Thanks in advance

Kim

[Deleted User]

Anyone know of any behavioral consultants available to take on new case? The child is 7 years old and high function with high IQ.

There are waiting list we are on and in all honesty it is not until late 2008 before we may see one.

In the meanwhile I don't want to go without any therapy at all? Please share any good referrals with ability to accept new case. We are not very complicated people and the child should be easy to manage/work with.

We appreciate any referrals right now.

Cheers,
pls reply to :bubblepiggy2@hotmail.com

[Deleted User]

Hello everyone,
We have been seeing Ron Schmidt at Able Clinic for our 7 yr old diagnosed with PDD-NOS. Please advise what your experience is with him and all comments are appreciated.

Also, if you have a high functioning, Asperger type (high IQ) child, how has ABA helped you?

I appreciate all suggestions, comments and respectful opinions.

You may post here or email me at yipee@shaw.ca

** as a new mom on the scene I want to research EVERYTHING I do.

Thx again all.

[Debra Antifaev]

There are alot of people who have made alot of money on the backs of our special needs children, Catherine.
When the Government was trying to stop the public outcry of parents demanding treatment for their children many were told that ABA was "bad". Parents were told how Ivar Lovaas used to hit the children as an "adversive" for bad behaviour. This was, in fact, true. It was also the 1960's when kids were not in car safety seats, people smoked everywhere, husbands could hit their wives (without a public outcry) and parents were actually encouraged to discipline (read "hit") their kids.
All of the above are now considered unacceptable but there is a small, determined pocket of people who like to drag up the past to discredit the present.
I have five children. They all have been unruly periodically.
They are all now relatively well behaved.
The principal of ABA is that if you do things correctly you will be rewarded and if you are rude/unruly/lazy, etc you will NOT be rewarded. The "rewards" are varied. My 12 year old, who craves attention, is rewarded by the A he is now receiving on his report card in grade 7. My 8 year old loves being chosen to read in front of the class because he is now a good reader (this was not easy…I might add!!!!!)
My autistic son loves Wiggles movies and tickles. My children "work" for these rewards.
Ask the speech path how this common approach (endorsed by all parenting experts for normal children and called Positive Parenting, by the way) can be HARMFUL to children with autism?
My best friend is also a speech path and she admits that she was a sceptic a few years back. She had been trained in a very child-led "pragmatic" approach to teaching. Over the last 5 years she has been forced to admit that the ABA children are not only easier to teach now, they also are a better fit in the classrooms as they get older.
You cannot let a severely autistic child "lead" you. They don't know where they are going!!
The problem lies in the fact that our children are all so darn adorable when they are first diagnosed. I will be the first to tell you the ugly truth: they do NOT stay adorable and soon the world will start to reject them AND their families. It is amazingly heartbreaking to watch.

Sorry, I did not mean for this to turn into a long winded rant…..I am supposed to be working!!!

Summary:
ABA…..good, effective and kind
SLP's…..very good at teaching speech….not so good with behaviour
OT's….effective if you have a good ABA program going first.

Neandertals who have not read the current (30 year old!!!)research and are trying hard to get your money….um….neandertals….

Good luck!

Deb

[Super Dad]

Hi Catherine,

During the few months that it took to complete the diagnostics, my son made similar progress. (The only treatment we were using was a bit of speech therapy.) When we went in to get the test results, we were very sure the doctor would say he was not autistic.

After we got the diagnosis, the SLP put a huge effort into convincing me that behavioural therapy was the wrong thing to do, because my son was "well behaved." Instead, I should put all my autism funding into her team of SLPs, OTs, PTs, dolphins, etc.

The fact is, there are tens of thousands of people out there who are willing to destroy your child's future, for no other purpose than to compete for the money. When the truth was revealed to me in the form of scientific literature (thanks to FEAT BC), I wanted to kill the SLP. I still feel bad about letting her live and continue to harm other children, like your child.

Don't get me wrong; I am not against SLPs, OTs and PTs. I am only against the ones who lie. There are some SLPs/OTs/PTs out there who care more about helping our children than staking their turf, and I have great respect for them.

Joanne Gerenser (Executive Director of the famous Eden II Programs for autism treatment), who is an SLP herself, tells us ABA is the only way to teach language to autistic children. She says other SLPs tend to get angry at her, but she insists that if they want to work with autistic children, they must embrace ABA, because "autism is the core problem, and you will not get very far without an approach that directly addresses the autism."

I am so glad I listened to the right people. Even though my son was "well behaved" at 27 months, his confusion and frustration grew as he got older. If we had not started the behavioural therapy early, he could be so out of control that I could have jumped off a bridge by now.

Please find a good behaviour consultant, and then replace the dishonest SLP with an honest one.

Tony

[Author]

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