[Nancy Walton]

Franklin and similar books wanted

Our son has turned into an avid reader and is finally interested in something other than the Ikea book (he likes to look for microwaves). His favorite character right now is Franklin. I'd appreciate any books on Franklin, or anything else of that reading level and interest. For free or to buy.

Nancy
wiklo (at) shaw (dot) ca

[Nancy Walton]

Morgan Creek in South Surrey

Wanna-be therapist in Morgan Creek. Willing to work weekends. Is in grade 11 at Southridge. Call her number if you are interested (Please, only if you live in Morgan Creek area).

Nancy
604-538-8021

[Nancy Walton]

The Special Education Panel sessions in Langley School District have been CANCELLED or postponed because of the strike by BCTF employees.

They hope to have them again in Sept.

[Nancy Walton]

Free to a good home in White Rock area:

Bag-o-Polly Pockets coming with a slide and some other accessories.

Little Tykes kitchen with lots of cooking stuff.

Plastic bowling ball set

e-mail nancy at wiklo@shaw.ca

[Nancy Walton]

There will be six meetings in Langley School District to discuss how to improve Special Education in Langley schools. The meetings are May 23 at George Preston Recreation center, May 24 at the Aldergrove Legion Hall and May 29th at the Fort Langley Lions Senior Hall. All meetings on these days are 3 – 5pm and 7-9pm. Please attend if you would like to give input on how you think services could be improved.

[Nancy Walton]

Sorry, just want to add one more comment that has been on my mind lately.

I was a facilitator for ASBC meetings for 3 years and met many parents. I want to warn everyone that there are service providers out there who claim to provide consulting for ABA, but do not have very good training. When a parent is not happy with an ABA program, it is more likely the consultant that needs changing, not the type of treatment.

What is qualified?? That is unfortunately a fuzzy question, especially since we do not have a university training center here in Canada.

But I would venture to say you would be in good hands if you have someone who was a senior therapist at a Lovaas Replication site, or someone who has a Masters Degree or higher in ABA (or specializing in ABA) in autism. You will find that people with that kind of training here in BC are unable to take new clients!! That is because they are good. Parents are not unhappy with the treatment protocol and stay long term with such consultants.

Poorly qualified ABA consultants give ABA a bad name. This is very unfortunate.

It is too bad we do not have a proper training center here in BC. Good quality ABA is very effective. I speak from experiences given to me by many parents.

nancy Walton

[Nancy Walton]

Dear Anne-Josee,

I agree, we parents should not comment one what any other parent has chosen to do.

However, I would like to point out to you the inaccuracy in that newpaper article. I was seething with anger when I saw that statement. I can tell you that I have been at almost every meeting with the government as a feat representative and NEVER did we EVER say that the government should ONLY fund ABA therapy. We simply state that the government should fund ABA therapy because there is research that proves it's effectiveness. The government can fund any thing else it likes to.

Where did the newspaper get that idea? Not from feat members. They got that idea from non-ABAers. People who want to taint our message. Why would they want to taint our message??? Because their livelihood is at stake. It takes a lot of low-paid training to become a truly qualified ABA consultant. There are many people in the autism business who can not do ABA (although they will happily tell you they can do ABA if that's what you really want…ha ha). What would happen if all of you chose to do quality ABA in BC? These people would be out of work!!

As for the number of hours you do ABA, the research shows that you should do close to 40 hours to improve chances of recovery. A well trained consultant (and the parent) should certainly decide for themselves what works best for that individual child. This has nothing to do with what kind of therapy should be done.

As for what KIND of therapy is out there for autistic children, feat administration would welcome any information about research done on other therapies. If you have such research that shows effectiveness of another therapy, please share that journal article with us so we can analyze it. Feat is not about ABA….it is about science based treatment. ANY therapy that has science to back it will be supported by feat.

Nancy Walton

[Nancy Walton]

Hi Lis,

Unfortunately, getting the BC govt. to make any changes is a monumental task. I recommend you contact your local Community Living Assoc and tell them what you want.

I have proposed that the Surrey Assoc of Comm. Liv. put aside some of the camp aide money and turn it into respite funds, targeted for camps only. So, you could apply for 2 weeks of respite for camp (I know, it really should be medically necessary treatment but that is what you are going to turn it into). So it would work exactly the same way respite works. The ABA therapists log their hours at a camp and submit them for payment.

I've been trying for 2 years now without success. But maybe if we all write in, the message will get across.

Nancy

[Nancy Walton]

SURREY RESIDENTS!!

I have been trying to get Surrey Assoc. for Community Living to set up a different system that would pay for our ABA therapists to go with our children into Summer Day Camps (and overnight camps for that matter). My arguement is that many parents do not send their children to day camps because they do not know who would be with their child throughout the day.

I was talking to Kelly McCafferty and she felt that there is no need for this. She was quite happy to have me do this posting this to find out if there is a need.

Could you please e-mail Kelly McCafferty at kmccafferty@commliv.com to let her know that you do not send your child to a day camp because of the current set up of having to take an aide who may not have ABA training (or because you refuse to hand your child over to someone you don't know). If SACL paid your therapist to attend the camp with your child, you would let them go. Just a brief note, nothing fancy.

Feel free to Cc the email to me too (wiklo@shaw.ca) and then I know how many responses she got. Or you can e-mail me instead and I'll forward your response.

If no one e-mails, then Kelly is right: there is no demand for therapists attending camps with our children.

Nancy

[Nancy Walton]

Thanks to everyone for your feedback on Dental Issues. So many people replied that I have not time to respond.

There have been pro and con arguements about going to a hospital and having it done in a clinic. I think that all reports about the BC Childrens' Hospital have been good. I'm going to be able to have the procedure done there by my pediatric office, but I plan to switch to the BC Childrens dentists in the future.

One thing I want to warn parents about, if you have a high anxiety child, going to BC Childrens hospital Dentists has a great advantage that all other things can be taken care of while the child is under GA. For example, blood work, immunizations….I may even have his wart treated

Nancy

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