[Julie Ng]

In response to Erik Minty's post I asked our daughter's (our son is autistic) Montessori Directress to add her thought's on the subject.

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molehillmontessori@yahoo.com

Hi Joe,

I've tried responding to the items about Montessori,
but there is no instant registration for me. Perhaps
you can add this in:

As a Montessori directress/administrator, I must admit
that good schools (Montessori or not) are difficult to
find. Indeed, many "Montessorians" seem to equate
having a ideal class as being one that operates with
pin-drop silence. This was not what Maria Montessori
intended. In fact, a Montessori environment should
have a healthy "buzz" of activity, allowing for both, individual work as well as group interaction. As a parent, one must decide on the educational philosophy that best suits the family's needs and philosophical inclination.

Montessori is not a play-based system. Maria
Montessori observed that the reason why children
wanted to "play house" is because they were keen on
learning how to do "real" things like adults. A good
Montessori school would facilitate this, using it as a foundation for helping the child achieve independence as well as empowering the child to actively participate in the "care of environment". Indeed, many Montessori schools operate on the assumption that parents will arrange playtime for their child with other peers outside of school hours. Unfortunately, in our highly competitive society many parents send their children to Montessori school not for "play" but for "education". As an educator, I often have to explain to parents that helping a child socialize is just as important as learning how to read and write, etc.

A good Montessori school should educate the whole
child, taking into consideration, each child's
developmental needs and abilities. However, it also
has a strong community component. Besides
participating in tasks that meets it's own individual
needs, each child is also expected to participate
within the classroom environment in a socially
appropriate manner: respect for self, others and the environment. As such, "Grace and courtesy" lessons are given to children when they enter Montessori to help with communication and appropriate behaviour management. Unfortunately, the definition of "appropriate" varies greatly from one class to another. A good Montessori school will use defined guidelines based on safety considerations rather than the desire to "control" a class.

Much of Montessori involves children interacting with
each other as well as self-directed behaviour. In a
large class of children who are mixed(autistic and
not), the interactions with the standard Montessori
staffing ratio may be difficult for both the autistic
children and their non-autistic classmates. Some
Montessori schools will take a limited number of
"special needs" children, but it would depend on the
class and child.

Most exercises/activities for younger children are
geared for individual "work". Children have the option
of choosing a familiar activity (one which the
directress has "presented") and be engaged in it until
the child's interest expires. This aspect of having
limited choice and freedom can work well with autistic children.

However, Montessori activities/exercises are rarely
found in multiples. As such, children have to wait
until a particular exercise/activity is "free" before
they can use it. This waiting can be a challenge for
many autistic children and the re-directing of such a
child may be difficult for unskilled Montessori
directresses.

Many lessons given in Montessori such as "three
period" language lessons which allows a child to
manipulate materials, while learning about them seem
to parallel to some ABA lessons and Montessori's the
"freedom" within a structured environment can be
ideal.

I strongly suggest you "interview" Montessori schools individually as each one is unique. Trust your gut and go with a school (Montessori or not) that best understands and suits the needs of your child and family. If you wish to provide a social environment for your child, I would suggest you seek out a play-based program and not Montessori. However, if you are keen on having your child in a Montessori environment, then choose one that has staff and administration who have exposure and training in dealing with autistic children.

I hope this helps! Wishing you best of luck in this
endeavour.

R.Weinstein

[Julie Ng]

I believe the "Center for Ability" on Kingsway in Vancouver might have a toy library.

Joachim Pang

[Julie Ng]

I just received this info and thought this might be interesting for everyone.

Joe

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March 7, 2001

Dear Community Group Facilitator:

This week representatives from the Ministry of Children and Families presented to the Board of ASBC on the subject of MCF’s Initiative on their Early Intervention Program. They provided a basic outline of the Program explaining that they are somewhat limited in the amount of detail they can provide because they are currently in litigation regarding this program.

I would like to share with you this information so you, in turn, will have some information you can share asking in your community. I’m sure people are you what is happening in response to the Auton case and the court order that an ABA program must be made available for children on the autism spectrum who are 6 years and under. I hope that the information that follows can help in someway to help keep our members and others up to date on this issue.

The name of the Program is currently PCARD, The Provincial Centre for Autism and Related Disorders. Note that this is not likely to be the permanent name nor will there be a specific physical location for the Program. This is a Program that will eventually be operating throughout the province in every community where there is a child 6 years and under with an autism spectrum disorder.

The Provincial Centre will have four different but coordinated functions including:
1. Diagnosis and Assessment
2. Intervention
3. Training
4. Research and Evaluation
Included in the Program, of course, will be a community based ABA program.

The current plan is to have a Provincial Coordinator who will be contracted to provide expert leadership. This person will not be a MCF employee rather he/she will be an external person with fewer constraints on him/her since he/she will be outside government. There will be four consultants, each responsible for one of the four functions as listed above. At the same time that this Provincial Centre is being developed MCF will be developing parallel structures regionally to build community capacity to provide the program locally.

The first phase of the Program is underway now. Last summer a Request for Proposals (RFP) was circulated to service providers and a selection process was undertaken. A panel was involved in reviewing the proposals from the applicant organizations. Panel members included: Dr. Jill Calder, member of the Ministry of Health’s Expert Panel on Autism and ASBC Board Member, Dr. Pat Mirenda, UBC Professor of Special Education, Deborah Pugh, Executive Director of ASBC. This group met with proponents and was extremely vigilant in the selection process to ensure that the focus was on getting the best program for

children and families. From the original 11 applicants three contracts were awarded. Negotiations with the selected proponents are now complete and the successful organizations were announced. The organizations and locations are as follows:

§ Thompson Okanagan – four child development centres have joined forces to provide a program that serves Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon and Kamloops

§ Delta Association for Child Development – serving Vancouver, Surrey and Delta

§ Queen Alexandria – serving the Greater Victoria area

These three programs will serve 75 to 100 children six years and under and will begin in the near future. We were not given information as to how families living in these communities can access the programs. I would suggest parents make a phone call to Enquiry BC at 660-2421 in Vancouver or 1-800-663-7867 outside the Lower Mainland and ask to speak a contact person regarding PCARD. This person should be able to provide the necessary information.

The next round of Requests for Proposals will be issued in April 2001. The RFPs will be shared on the Public Service Commission website. This second RFPs will be adapted to address new information that MCF has regarding this process and best practices and another selection process will be undertaken. Once that process is completed service will be made available to another group of children and families.

The program will be a year-round intensive intervention for children and their families. It will be a minimum of 20 hrs. per week and will consist of highly supportive structured teaching using a variety of strategies. It will be 1-1, planned and individualized. A multi-disciplinary team will be involved and will include speech and language pathologists. The program will involve integration with typical peers of the same age. It will have a functional, proactive, positive approach. The plan will be reviewed overtime to determine its ongoing appropriateness. A baseline will be established with ongoing monitoring and review of outcomes. The family will be an integral part of the team.

Professionals involved will be highly trained. Expertise in Applied Behavioural Analysis will be imported from the U.S. and Alberta as well as relying on domestic autism specialists.

The program format will be three-tiered similar to the Promising Practices. There will be core training on positive behavioural support and specific research and evaluation criteria. Both the child’s individual program and the service provider’s provision of service will be evaluated on an on-going basis.

A child will have a maximum three-year involvement and the transition in and out of the program will be dependent on evaluation by a multi-disciplinary team. If a child is over 4 years at diagnosis there could be a delay in entrance into kindergarten.

Assessment and diagnosis will happen at the regional level. There will be more than one or two teams to diagnose in the province and then refer to MCF for treatment. The Ministry of Health wants to build a regional capacity for diagnosis and assessment.

PCARD will have an advisory committee and ASBC will be one of the groups on that committee.

The MCF personnel at the meeting emphasized strongly that existing MCF programs available to children over age 6 and their families will not be siphoned off to support PCARD. The money for PCARD is new money. They indicated that there is a commitment to review the current system of behavioural support and this process will happen concurrent to the development of PCARD. We can reassure families with children over age 6 the current support they receive will not be compromised to support PCARD.

I hope that this basic overview of PCARD is helpful. As I am sure you are aware, having read this, there are many questions to be answered yet. ASBC is cautiously optimistic that this program will be a positive one for children 6 and under and their families. We will make every effort to keep you informed as we are given more information by government and we will continue in our role to advocate for the provision of appropriate treatment for all people with spectrum disorders regardless of their age.

Best wishes.

Clair Schuman
Program Director

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