[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

[Jenn Ralph]

Does anyone know anyone in the Saskatoon area who is using good, local consultants and/or therapists?
Please email jenn.ralph@shaw.ca if you have any info for my friend there.
Thanks.

[Lorhainne Ekelund]

Hello

Anyone who uses or has used Vancouver Island Behavioural & Educational Consulting Services, Inc, could you email me at, lekelund@shaw.ca

Thank you,

Lorhainne Ekelund

[Nancy Walton]

The following items will be on sale at the Garage Sale/Pizza party, Thursday July 21 at 15306 24th Ave, South Surrey. To be able to buy these items, you must reserve a ticket ($10 each) which will buy you wine(or pop), pizza, salad and access to the garage sale.

Little People Lotto
My first Lotto
Bingo Lotto
Discovering Sounds
Colored clothes pins (fine motor)
Large string and beads (fine motor)
puzzles
Lucky Ducks
xylaphone
talking Winnie Pooh in zipper rain coat
Barney Videos
Winnie Pooh videos
Mechanical bug with remote
Barnyard Bingo
Catch the fleas (fine motor)
Spill the beans
mini alphabet books
2 Mr. Potatoe Head with matching pictures (kind of like block imitation)
Lengthen the Dinasaur Neck game
1 Lg and 1 Sm Pon Pon ball

Please feel free to post any items you might bring to the party. Remember, items are donated to raise money for the Parents fighting the appeal of an ABA law suit in Ontario. A good win for them, will be a good win for us.

Nancy Walton
wiklo@shaw.ca for reservations

[Jenn Biddlecombe]

Toilet Training – Aaaahhhh!! – Give me strength!!!!

I don't recall seeing posts on this subject before so I hope no one is offended by talking about the potty…

My son is 7 years old and is severe on the spectrum. He has been in an ABA program for 3 years and has made very steady progress in all areas, including other independence skills. However, toileting is the area that completely eludes us. We have been targeting this skill off and on for 2 1/2 years without success. As my son will be attending school full time in the fall, I'm feeling panicked and frustrated that we are not able to make progress in this area.

We have done the "Big Day" (several times); habit training (ie going through the routine every hour); targeting one time per day; cutting holes in diapers; MEGA REINFORCEMENT for each little step towards success; simple social stories; etc. etc. Nothing is working.

I believe the problem is that he doesn't understand the expectation. The reason for this is he hasn't really made the "connection" due to lack of success (ie peeing in the toilet – heck anywhere near the toilet would be a good start!). Because my son's cognitive functioning is on the low side, it takes a long time and a lot of repetition to build a connection. For some reason that we have not yet been able to figure out, he chooses to demonstrate his amazing bladder control whenever we target toileting. Today after a long stand-off (ie lots of juice, no diaper, only short breaks away from the bathroom – and no success), we both ended up crying!

If you have had success in this area with a child who is on the low functioning/severe end of the spectrum, I would love to hear from you! Thanks!

Jenn Geddes
(Jaiden's mom)

djgeddes@telus.net

[Sabrina Freeman]

Hi All,

I have great news! I recently received a letter from the Wisconsin Early Autism Project informing me that a new consultant has moved to town. I've reproduced the letter here for your interest.

Sabrina

June 24, 2005

FEAT of BC
20641 46th Avenue
Langley BC V3A 3H8

Dear Dr. Freeman,

I am pleased to announce that Early Autism Project is expanding its services to families in B.C. Margot Squire has recently relocated to Vancouver where she will work with Buffy Paul, Clinic Director of EAP, to provide quality services to children. Ms. Squire has many years of experience providing practical application and supervision of intensive in-home behavioural therapy for children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Under my direction, Margot worked as a Senior Therapist from 1996 through 1999 for the Wisconsin Young Autism Project, which was part of an N.I.M.H. grant to replicate Dr. Ivar Lovaas’ 1987 study. Preliminary findings stemming from the third year results of the research project show that the Wisconsin Early Autism Project, Inc. has achieved similar and in some cases more promising outcomes than Dr. Lovaas’ 1987 study. The results of the 3-year study are due to be published in November 2005 in the American Journal on Mental Retardation.

In 1999, Margot was transferred to London to help supervise programs at the newly opened WEAP affiliate, London Early Autism Project. There she supervised individual programs and, as a Clinic Supervisor, trained and supervised local consultants. Margot relocated to Sydney, Australia in 2001, where she developed WEAP’s second international affiliate clinic, the Early Autism Project, Sydney. Under her guidance, the Early Autism Project now provides intensive ABA services to children in the greater Sydney and Canberra regions.

Ms. Squire is a skilled and compassionate clinician who has a passion for teaching children with ASD. She brings valuable experience and knowledge to our EAP team as well as a great deal of enthusiasm.

Regards,

Glen Sallows, Ph.D., BCBA
President
Early Autism Project

[Catherine Cooper]

Hi All
A family in our community is moving to Calgary in 2 months. They have just received a diagnosis for their 3 year old and have approached me for information about services in Alberta. I would like to assist them by providing them with contacts/information regarding services in the Clagary area. If you can be of any help or have any info that may be relevent please contact me at ccooper@dccnet.com. and I will forward the information to them.
It has been suggested that they immediately apply for funding in BC even though they are moving in 2 months.
Thanking you in advance.
Catherine Cooper

[Erik Minty]

To Mike Goetz –

First of all I'd like to say THANK YOU for providing the link to your ABAOnline application. I took a look at it and I believe there is tremendous potential there for streamlining the data collection process — more ABA per precious dollar!

I tried contacting you through the feedback link from the website, but I don't know if you received it (or if you've just been busy). I'm wondering if you have any plans to, or would be willing to, share your efforts with others. (I also work in the computer industry and have some idea of the number of hours that have clearly gone into your work, so believe me I don't ask this lightly!)

In case you care to reply privately, ewminty@shaw.ca is my regular email address.

Cheers!
Erik

[Nancy Walton]

Wonderful responses everyone, yes this is a wonderful topic. I heartily agree with all said. I'd like to add that we now do the "each program on a clipboard" system and it is wonderful. I had to laugh at Michelle's story, as I picture in my head a previous male therapist running, along side my son on his bike, clipboard and pen in hand.

Anyway, to add to the topic, when my son was younger, we had really keep on him on task all the time and entering data into books (which we did before the clipboard system) took too much attention away. So we had a "cheat sheet", with a section for each program for taking data. The therapist would spend 15 minutes before the shift, setting up the session cheat sheet (writing in what prompts to use, what targets etc) and then data would be taken on the sheet and at the end, they would take up to half an hour transfering the data into the book. This was expensive, but the therapist time with my son was highly focused. He would spend a little less time in therapy, but he would be watched and interacted with non-stop.

As he grew older, we had tokens, which made it easier to keep an eye on stims without taking data on the spot. But also, he was able to entertain himself better (this should always be a progarm anyway), so we are now doing preparation, data, and graphing as he does each program.

Nancy Walton

[Deleted User]

regarding data collection:
Applied Behavior analysis (Lovaas or otherwise) is the science in which procedures derived from the principles of behavior are systematically applied to improve socially sigificant behavior to a meaningful degee and to demonstrate experimentally that the procedures employed were responsible for the improvement in behavior.
(not my definition, but an excellent one!)

ABA is effective because it is based on science. A scientific decision is based on facts and those facts are determined in our field by our data. Science does not factor in our opinions, it is not based on emotion, it is based on facts. Having worked in this field for over 5 years and having a child of my own (ABA exposure 24/7) I know that emotions are not reliable.

Its easy when an intervention is difficult and the progress is slow to "feel" as though an intervention is unsuccessful. It is also just as easy to think that a child's behavior has greatly improved or that they have mastered a skill when in fact they have not because we "feel" good about what is occurring. But this is not fact. If we base decisions on these feelings it is easy to discontinue an intervention that is effective too early or to move on to more difficult tasks too early. Ultimately the error will resurface, and no benefit has been gained. Our kids easily get stuck or run into learning, we don't need to create more roadblocks for them.

To maximize time (which is always in short demand) every decision about our child's program should be based on science. Fortunately science is easy to achieve through accurate, efficient data collection.

Data should be recorded for programs and behaviors immediately after it occurs. As Theresa mentiond, a data point should be recorded in an ideal world, immediately after the response:
SD-R(esponse)-Reinforcement/lack thereof for incorrect R – Data point

Sometimes this is challenging! There are times we decided to take anecdotal data (i.e. not trial by trial) because it isn't possible. When data collection is challenging, we can opt for solutions such as the tape on the leg that Barbara mentioned, taking anecdotal notes or estimated data (acknowledging that it is estimated and therefore not a final say for decision making) or using data systems such as checklists that can summarize what occurred. Even anecdotal data should occur as soon after the event as possible i.e. end of the sitting instead of during.

Trial by trial data is not only the most accurate it is the most efficient! When a data point is recorded immediately after reinforcement (i.e. during the reinforcment, prior to the next SD) it means that there is no wasted time at the end of the sitting where the child is unengaged while the instructor tries to remember what just occurred. A simple +/- system or circling the data point is quick and easy to do. It takes practice but proficiency is possible.

A dear friend of mine on the island told me a great trial by trial story about a male instructor who was able to take txt (trial by trial data while playing frisbee with a client.
inst: throw frisbee to client, take clipboard out from under arm, pen is attached with string, make data point as to whether frisbee is caught
client: throws frisbee
inst: catches frisbee, throws again, makes data point on throw and subsequent catch.

Now that is a work of data art!

Data should be collected for all behaviors that are being targeted by an intervention. Initial data should consider antecedent information, an objective description of the behavior that occurred, and the consequence that followed (the true consequence, not what SHOULD have happened but didn't). Sometimes we reach a point where we know the common antecedents and they are no longer relevant so we focus on simple frequency or duration data only.

We (in my humble opinion) ALWAYS graph this information because it visually demonstrates the effectiveness or lack thereof of our intervention.

Regarding data collection and the need for accuracy and the problem of paperwork… great promise lies ahead in the use of technology. Much of the research being produced utilizes laptops and PDA's for data collection. And even more exciting – a PDA based system is being developed here in Vancouver by a FEAT family. All of the sto's (instructions for programs) are online and accessed through the PDA, all data collection occurs quickly and efficiently using the pda, the pda graphs it for you, tells you when mastery is achieved etc. the information is stored on computer and can be accessed online, allowing consultants to access client information quickly. I have not personally gotten my hands on this system (yet!!), have only seen it via an overlap client but I have looked at similar systems in the US. On some systems, behavior data can be recorded using frequency information or through duration measures where the computer stop watch is used to simply time each occurrence.

Exciting!

Okay so this was a very LONG post but my point is that we claim ABA to be scientifically proven and argue that it is essential because of the science behind it, therefore we must practice the methods of science. However we do so, not simply to be able to say "look we are using science" but because our data should guide our decisions. We should use our data to tell us whether an approach is effective, ineffective, whether gains are being made at an optimal rate, whether there are problems across instructors, whether we are seeing greater success in therapy but not outside of therapy…. the answers we need should be in our data. The answers should be sleuthed from our data.

We should collect it but more importantly we should analyze it. Be very wary of someone who tells you that data is not important or who collects it but never looks at it. THis is not optimal ABA. As the definition says we can not simply say something works, we must be able to prove, to demonstrate that it occurred because of ____.

THe most effective programs I have observed, have accurate data that is analyzed and understood by those who make decisions. I have also had the opportunity to see some poor quality programs in place, run by those who fight against the families of this board… their data collection, when collected is poor, inaccurate and rarely if EVER analyzed. The clients stagnate, progress is not achieved and I would argue that these programs are not true ABA programs… after all there is no analysis.

(A good program should collect and analyze its accurate data but should also be based on sound programming decisions. If your data is excellent but your programs come from a cookie cutter book… well at least your accurate data will demonstrate stagnation in progress.)

I am always happy to answer any questions anyone has about coming to grips with data collection and if people have specific challenges, I'm sure if you posted your challenges to the group someone will have a solution! Hope this was helpful,

[Mike & Rachel Goetz]

Our family uses both trial-by-trial and anecdotal data taking methodologies, depending on the program. We used the clipboard system and while it was a good way to manage data for individual programs, I found that the general notion of doing all your data with pen and paper cumbersome.

My background is computer programming and so I began to devise a system that our team now uses for data taking. We use a handheld PDA (AKA 'Palm Pilot', about the size of a large cel phone) to take trial-by-trial data, where each program is stored on the server and accessed just the same as a web site. Our therapists only need to enter minimal information about each trial, and the system handles the rest — percentage calculations, graphing, mastery, moving on STOs, etc.

We still do anecdotal and behavioural data on paper, as this is more convenient than using the PDA. Overall, I would say that our therapists can be done in less than 10 minutes after a session. In addition, our senior therapist and consultant can access our data via the internet, allowing them to manage programs and make adjustments without having to be in our home.

If you want to have a look, you can go to http://www.onlineaba.com — login as 'guest' with password 'guest' to see some sample data.

Mike

[Author]

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