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MemberASBC North Shore Group Lecture Series
Tuesday June 17; 7-9 pm
West Vancouver Memorial Library
Story Book Room in Kids SectionReleasing the Great Houdini: Getting the Autistic Mind to think "outside the box"
A Venture into Theory of Mind, "Mindblindness", Critical Thinking and Inferential ReasoningA "Theory of Mind" (or TOM, for short) is something that all people must develop in order to understand the minds of other people. We call it a theory because we can never actually connect with another's mind. There is no objective way to verify the contents of their consciousness or to assess their motivations and desires. Instead, when we interact with other people we can only guess at these things, using our TOM to work out what they know, think or feel.
"This is Sally. Sally has a basket. This is Anne. Anne has a box. Sally has a marble. She puts the marble into her basket. Sally goes out for a walk. Anne takes the marble out of the basket, and puts it into the box. Now Sally comes back. She wants to play with her marble. Where will Sally look for her marble?" (Frith, 1989)
Many researchers have argued that lack of TOM is the fundamental impairment at the root of autism. If a child is unable to tell what another person is looking at, they will never fully understand that they have a different view of the world. If they cannot associate this view with desire, they will never understand the motivations or intentions of others.
Join us as presenter Mary Hopton-Smith, EAP Senior Consultant, takes us on a two hour journey into the advanced levels of an ABA Therapy Program where autistic tendencies are being overcome as children learn "typical behaviour".
We will help you slay your giant!
tamara leger + anissa lalani
MemberHi
we are into our first month of running a program and are going to pay our therapists. we are paying them on a contract bases, which i have been told is the easiest way to do it. i am interested in other thing i should be thinking about ie) wcb/insurance etc. does anyone have any advice.
thanksMemberHi all
I wonder if anyone knows anything about wellfare rights?
I'm on wellfare and I have an autistic child. I'm having a hard time to prepare all the stuff that my consultant needs in order to start my child's program. I called my wellfare worker and asked for help but she said no.I also called her supervisor about that but there was no help either.I don't know what to do if I can't have enough all those things .I wonder where I can get help.If someone know something about wellfare rights, please give me advice.Thank you so much.My email address is trinht28@hotmail.comMemberYeah, the Dix article was nothing but partisan crap posing as fact. Undoubtedly the 'facts' reported therein will be cited by the NDP and others of their ilk to bolster their bogus claim to moral superiority.
A pox on all politicians!
MemberIn my opinion, as long as greed and complacency dictate people's decisions at election time, they will also dictate government's policy, no matter which party happens to win. No ideology, communist, fascist, or whatever, can substitute for compassion. By not understanding that, people allow themselves to be manipulated, and the result is evident in our plight.
MemberSo why should we be surprised? Joy MacPhail the same former NDP Minister who was every autistic childs worst nightmare when she was the NDPs Social Services Minister — and then promoted to Health Minister — now apparently seeks to reclaim the NDPs tired, self anointed title of party of the disadvantaged by trashing the Liberal Finance Minister over MCFD budget cuts (via proxy: the former NDP government strategist, Adrian Dix, now writes for the Victoria Times Colonist — article reprinted in full below). With apologies to Joy the argument that Liberal MCFD cuts are somehow hurting ALL kids with disabilities is misleading and inaccurate. Families with children struggling against autism — who got squat under her NDP government — know better.
> > Times Colonist
> > Ministry shambles is Collins' babyGee, now there's a 'fair and balanced' title for an article.
> > By Adrian Dix
> >
> > The Ministry of Children and Family Development restructuring plan
> > is in a
> > shambles — budget targets missed, child protection service levels
> > slashed
> > and outside consultants imported to make sense of it all. Finance> > consider these facts: the largest single spending
> > cut in
> > total dollars implemented by the B.C. Liberals is to the Ministry of
> > Children and Family Development.Interesting article, but there's some budgetary alchemy she missed. Autism is exempt from the budget ax! Let's give SOME credit where due.
Comrade Dix forgot to mention that the only MCFD programs NOT cut (actually, they're seeing huge proportionate increases) are those related to autism treatment (amazing what a bit of court action can accomplish ;-)
As inadequate as autism treatment funding and policies still are, the new budget-cut-proof dough for A is courtesy of the same small (but enthusiastic) group of advocates that badly undercut Dixs party's much vaunted claim to virtue and moral purity over social issues. The sharpest possible contrast of Liberal vs. NDP autism policy is this: an individualized funding proposal for autism treatment — the CIAT brief — is hand delivered to the new Liberal Premier and presto, two weeks later a program is announced entitled IEII (or some such). Despite Syme's best efforts, 500+ families are now getting significant (although far from adequate and age limited) funding. Nevertheless, this still represents HUGE progress over the barren landscape of the NDP's autism policies — but Ms. Dix forgot to mention that.
The Libs have lots of issues (major flip flops, broken promises, etc.) but there's no question that autistic kids are FAR better off now than in the darkest days when Joy and Co. were in charge.
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Article from the Times Colonist, 05/20/03Ministry shambles is Collins' baby
By Adrian Dix (Adrian Dix was a strategist with the NDP government)The Ministry of Children and Family Development restructuring plan is in a shambles — budget targets missed, child protection service levels slashed and outside consultants imported to make sense of it all. Finance Minister Gary Collins is pointing fingers, and this time it is not at the NDP. Like a perpetrator in a rerun of Murder She Wrote, Collins has been leaking and spinning his self-interested version of events at the expense of his cabinet colleague Gordon Hogg. Not surprisingly, Collins is diverting attention, because this fiasco is principally his responsibility, followed closely by the premier.
In June and July 2001, the finance minister announced tax cuts targeted at the wealthy and B.C.'s largest corporations totaling some $2.2 billion annually or more than $8 billion over the government's mandate. The tax cut was implemented without any analysis of its fiscal impact and the minister's comical projections of economic growth were soon being revised downward. Collins was breaking new ground in budget-making. No government in Canada had ever implemented such dramatic changes to the revenue side of the ledger without even considering the impact on government programs or finances. Imagine a parent who chose to quit his or her job, without even considering the fact that he or she might not be able to pay the family rent, and food bills. This is Gary Collins budget-making 101. Having dramatically reduced revenues and created the largest deficit in B.C. history, Collins and his Treasury Board staff sought to slash government expenditures: their biggest target — the Ministry of Children and Family Development. With the exception of health and education, all ministries were expected to submit budgets with spending cuts between 20 and 35 per cent. Hogg's ministry faced a cut of 23 per cent.
Given the Treasury Board-imposed targets, Hogg had little choice but to reduce the number of children in care, to slash dangerously the number of investigations of abuse and attempt to devolve services to regional entities. However, devolving responsibility to the regions while simultaneously cutting funding was bound to fail, in spite of Hogg's evident energy and passion.
Treasury Board and the finance minister approved the ministry's original plan to cut expenditures and service levels. They had the responsibility to analyze ministry budgets, consider options and ensure the proposals were realistic.
On the face of it, a radical restructuring of services and a 23 per cent cut to resources meant that children-in-care would not be adequately protected. There was no way the targets could be reached. Yet, Gary Collins and Treasury Board staff signed off on these plans without offering to the ministry the opportunity of exemption from this severe level of budget cuts.
Now, two years into the B.C. Liberal mandate, Treasury Board staff has conducted a review of the ministry's performance and discovered that the restructuring plan will not meet its budget or service targets. Where was Treasury Board two years ago when it might have mattered, especially to children suffering from the impact of government policies?
For four years, Opposition Leader Gordon Campbell attacked the NDP on issues of child protection. Specific tragedies and children's deaths were blamed on cabinet minister and government policies. A cursory review of Hansard for the years 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000 shows more than 30 requests from Gordon Campbell and B.C. Liberal MLAs for more spending on child protection. One example raised by Opposition Leader Joy MacPhail last week is from May 13th, 1997 when opposition leader Campbell stated: "It's clear that to do the job of protecting children, more resources are going to be required."
Outside the House he added, "Big changes cost money if we're going to protect kids." In reading these comments by the premier — repeated again and again prior, to his election — consider these facts: the largest single spending cut in total dollars implemented by the B.C. Liberals is to the Ministry of Children and Family Development. Single parent families received a cut in income assistance rates. This is worse than a broken promise. It is a betrayal of the interests of children. The responsibility for the resulting fiasco rests with the minister of finance and the premier. There is a direct line from the ill-considered tax cuts to the troubles of the Ministry of Children and Family Development. The only direct beneficiaries of these the ministry changes are accountants and consultants: those who proposed the restructuring and those now tasked to undo it. As the premier prepares to shuffle his cabinet, Hogg should not be forced to carry the can for the government's bad faith. If a minister should be dropped from cabinet for this fiasco, it ought to be Collins. No wonder our finance minister has been so quick to point fingers.
Adrian Dix was a strategist with the NDP government.
MemberVery good article and well put. I like the comment that if it were cancer we wouldn't be having this discussion. How true. MSP would be available to them without question!
I personally believe that MSP should fund treatment…. I live for that day!
MemberFEAT of BC is sponsoring an upcoming training workshop on the basics of Lovaas style ABA.
The workshop will include general information on autism and behavioural theory but will focus primarily on the practical aspects of delivering effective behavioural autism treatment.
DATE: June 7, 2003
TIME: 9:00am – 5:00 pm
COST: $25.00The workshop with be presented by Senior Instructors Theresa Tournemille and Michelle Karren.
More information and registration details will be posted within several days. In the meantime mark your calendars…
MemberCalifornia has released a report showing very dramatic increases in the prevalence of autism.
Get it at; http://www.dds.ca.gov\autism
requires adobe acrobat readerMemberIs there any interest out there in developing a community-based residence/work/school program, based on Lovaas-style ABA, for teens/adults with autism?
I would like to kickstart the building of the 'autism infrastructure' here in BC, and I am in contact with a possible source of PRIVATE (non-profit)funding for it.
We are brainstorming at this point, and do not have any real concrete plans yet. But one idea was a 'learning home': a residence that could serve as a resource for autistic people, their families, therapists, and consultants. It would probably be based on models developed in the US.
Anyhow, just a thought for you all to ponder. Anyone who likes this idea, and thinks they have the time and energy to commit and see the project through (a 5 to 10 year timeline is not out of the question)please email me at evilprinceweasel@msn.com.
Thank You
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