[Deleted User]

Just wondering if anybody had any thoughts on the upcoming workshop put on by the Autism Society "postitive behaviour support with families of children with autism spectrum disorder" Oct 5/02, Joseph M Lucyshyn, PhD. and Anne T Kayser.

There is mention of it's roots in ABA?? Just wondering if this is worthwhile spending $70.00 or not?

Thanks

[Deleted User]

Re: Filling out communication logs

I am a high school teacher with a 15 year old son with autism. As a parent and an educator, I CAN see the picture from both sides and will share my perspective.

Daily communication logs are extremely important for successful implementation of an ABA program. We had the good fortune of having a very dedicated SEA who took on the task of writing in the communication book in elementary school. My son's high school SEA also does this task. It makes the best sense to have them do this….they are quite often in an one-on-one situation with the child (as opposed to a 1:30 ratio with the teacher)…..they know their strengths, weaknesses, can detect subtle behaviours, etc. They also have more time to do it (not that they aren't busy). I greatly respect my son's SEA and buy them small gifts/cards for Hallowe'en, Christmas, etc. Why? They certainly don't expect it. I do it because I want to have a positive working relationship with them for the sake of my son. As a result, the SEA is more willing to go the extra mile for me because they know I appreciate them. (My son's SEA even came with us to Victoria for an entire weekend to attend Operation Trackshoes…and paid for it out of her own pocket.)

On another note, all people (yes, even teachers) deserve to be treated with respect. Voicing your concerns in a rational, respectful way to the teacher will yield greater results than berating them and picking apart their grammar. Whether or not you think they are excuses, school HAS changed from when you and I were students. Students with behaviour problems, FAS, Tourette's, ADHD, learning disabilities, Down's Syndrome, etc. are integrated into classes with minimal support. It is worse this year. The number of SEA hours and support for special needs students have been cut (thanks to the Liberal government). Teachers have to pick up the slack. In high school, we teach over 120 students per day. We try to do our best but we can never accomplish all that we would like to do.

[Deleted User]

To Nancy Walton

I read your post about reinforcers and found it enlightening. I am intrigued by the fact that you found your sons language improved after he went back on gluten. I am considering this for my son and I would really like to find out more info from you on this subject, however I know that the feat chat is not the place to discuss gfcf diets.

Would you be so kind as to send me your email address so I can correspond personally?

Thank you
Allison Lillies.
caneng@columbiacable.net

[Deleted User]

To the teacher.

Your child is younger, so for you to understand personally the school issues of an older child with autism – it is not there "yet". I know that you do have a child with autism and therefore you do understand to a point. It's alot different issue when it's your child that doesn't get the daily logs, or it's your child with behaviour difficulties. Many teachers cannot understand because they haven't experienced what we have personally gone through. Right now you can see the teaching side of it, however when your child is 5 you will want what we want and understand more clearly.

You just assume that we parents haven't called or dropped by the school? Most parents of children with autism are the most proactive group out there. Part of the reason is ABA as you need feedback. What do you do when teachers find it an major incovience to update? Personally three weeks into the school year and we already have complaints. It's pretty sad actually. We all want to look forward to school with our kids, we all want to have them fit in, and we all want to work as a team. It's just pretty hard when teachers don't take that extra time to work with us.

I understand teachers' are overworked and they aren't the enemy. However they are educating our children and need themselves to take a more proactive role. Writing in a daily log how the child did, what concerns they felt the parent should know is not alot to ask since many teachers especially in the younger grades don't have homework to mark yet. As one of many parents going through this I can speak personally on this issue.

Thank you.

[Deleted User]

To the 'Anonymous' who apparently must live in a glass house:

As a therapist, I am keen to read the many and varied posts on this chat board. However, I am disheartened by the bickering that sometimes occurs. How does criticizing one member's grammatical errors support 'effective behavioural treatment'? And if in some convoluted way it does support the purpose of this forum – could it not have been done in a more positive tone?Perhaps I was wrong in assuming that the idea of this chat was to bring people together, not to push people away with negative energy. Shouldn't posts try to be more reinforcing to others, while still maintaining separate opinions?

Moreover, the introduction to this chat room, states that any insight by SEAs would also be meaningful. I would imagine that the insight of teachers should be just as meaningful.

[Deleted User]

To the anonymous teacher with the 3-year-old autistic child of his/her own:

There's a part of me that wants to be kind to you because you are one of us. There's another part of me that wants to pick apart the tired old excuses teachers always seem to trot out about their class loads and how hard it is to do the job for which they are compensated quite well. But in the end, the part of me that can't help but answer is the part that is rather shocked and saddened that as an educator, your command of the language is so poor.

How can you educate our children or anyone else's in a professional manner when you apparently cannot string together a simple post in this chat board without endless errors of spelling, grammar and syntax?

"all of us teacher's"
"and an aid to help me"
"Now, today,"
"IEP's, adapted or modified curriculum's"
"I have no aid!!"
"it isn't just the kids with a "disability" that needs attention."
"a more pro-active role"
"putting the blame of teachers is absolutely unfair."

There are errors in each of these quotes from your post. Your assignment is to find and correct them, before your students do.

When teachers lack the basic skills of the language, the skills taught in my day before the end of grammar school, that is certainly a sad statement on their fitness for the profession.

[Deleted User]

To Anonymous:

As a parent of a 3 year old boy who is autistic, and as a full-time teacher I want to clarify a couple of things. First of all, while we were on job protest last year, all of us teacher's were wondering where the parents were to support our position of keeping our support staff, and to limit class sizes. A few years ago I had time to do communication logs when I only had 24-26 kids in my class and an aid to help me with the children who did need extra attention. Now, today, I have 38 kids in my class with 5 of them on either IEP's, adapted or modified curriculum's and guess what. I have no aid!! It sure isn't that teachers "don't wish" to keep in contact with parents, we just don't have the time. I would recommend for you to take a more proactive position to find out what is going on by dropping by the school and talk face to face with the teacher, or do the phone thing. It is very time consuming to do communication books, and considering that I only have 1 minute and 15 seconds to spend with each child individually, if I tried to do a communication book for even 5 kids in my class it would almost be impossible. and that I am up until 10:00 pm marking everynight and going into school on the weekend for 6-8 hours… I'm sure you can get the picture. Again be assured that it isn't because we don't want to. Another thing, we are also dealing with children who have been abused, neglected, bullied, etc. etc. etc., each child has their own needs, and it isn't just the kids with a "disability" that needs attention. Parents need to have a more pro-active role in the schools so that not only do you know what is happening in the school, the classroom but also in terms of your own child's progress. Very rarely do I have parents initiate this, it is always me that has to do this. And putting the blame of teachers is absolutely unfair.

[Deleted User]

Teachers seem to be not communicating daily logs with parents anymore. I have spoken to a few parents who are going through this.

Excuse me aren't these children with this medical disabilty more benefited with proper communication from school/home?????????? I am not sure what the powers that be are encouraging, but families know their child best and have the 'RIGHT' to know how their child is doing.

We are parents of children with a disabilty and we must stick together in regards to this issue. Parents should and must be updated daily with any issues that our consultants can work out. Are any other parents going through this?

Teachers that don't wish to update parents are not helping the child. We are not parents of children who have been abused, or children who are just bad behaved, these are kids who have a medical condition and should get the same respect as children with cerebal palsy. The press may need to help us on this issue folks…..

[Deleted User]

Having reviewed some of the Anonymous postings regarding the qualifications of SEAs in our school districts I think misinformation is not helpful. Firstly a teacher is responsible for every student within their classroom . SEAs are not specifically trained to just work with children with learning disabilities and children with learning disabilites are as entitled to specialized teaching methods as our children with autism are. Ideally SEAs implement programing with students developed by the students support team. Until we all came along the disrticts have provided inhouse training for students specialized needs through integration teachers and nursing staff as well as professional development and my over all feeling is that they wish to continue to do so. This to me is what we are really fighting more so than the union. While there is no doubt that our children in ABA programs have a right to and deserve specially trained ABA qualified aides I think it is not helpful to give missinformation. This is a much more complex issue than simply let anyone into classrooms districts must still assume liability for our schools. Even when we get our trained therapists and consultants into schools they must still work collaboratively with the classroom teachers. Unforunately School Districts for all children with disabilities currently use a limited number of resources to develop programs for all children with diabilites. If you think that children with learning disabilites recieve much SEA time sadly you are mistaken. We must continue to fight for our children, however I think our fight is enhanced by truley understanding the system we are up against than by making assumptions and giving one another misinformation. I have gotten further in helping my son by knowing the actual rules of the districts than by making assumptions. I have 5 years experience as both a Senior and line ABA therapist as well I also work as an SEA. I am the mother of a child with autism and have great faith that given the opportunity my excellent consultant will provide my son with both an awesome school and home based program. We continue to fight on his behalf for this and for the children that will follow him through the school system

[Deleted User]

Here is a interesting site that breaks down IEP http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/iep_guidance.html It is US based but it gives some pratical tips.

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