Kathy and Calvin's Home Page

Quick Training Tips

1. Know CK's maintenance skills: Eye contact, hands down, 1-2 word sentences.

2. Only prompt up to 3 times, then go back to a maintenance skill for praise/reward.

3. Use toys as a reward with social praise. Eventually phase out toys/food for social reward.

4. Reward immediately with toy or turn.

5. Do not reward when he is screaming. Only when acting and talking calmly.

6. Do not reward or say anthing to "My turn", repeated words or phrases, or when CK alters a prompt.

7. Better pronunciation may lead to more language because then he will be better understood and get what he wants quicker.

8. Do not prompt with same phrase or tone of voice. Alter to avoid connection to specific prompts. Try whispering or speaking a little louder to help generalize.

9. Do not prompt with a question. Prompt with a statement. If you ask a question, make sure you then prompt with a "Yes" or "No". This will help him begin to understand tone influctions with questions and appropriate answers to them.

Schedule November 19 thru December 1

Sunday Nov 19

• 4-6pm Jackie (house)

Monday Nov 20

• 9am-11am Jackie - tenative (kindercare)
• 2-4pm Katrina (kindercare)
• 5:30pm-7:30pm Jackie - tenative (house)

Tuesday Nov 21

• 9am-11am Jackie - tenative (kindercare)
• 1-3:30pm Lorna at IFSP meeting (Lincoln)
• 2-4pm Katrina (kindercare)
• 4-6pm Team meeting (kindercare)

Wednesday Nov 22

• 9am-11am Jackie - tenative (kindercare)
• 3:30pm-4:30pm Joy (kindercare) - Speech Therapy
• 5pm-7pm Jackie (house)

Thursday Nov 23

Thanksgiving

Friday Nov 24

Thanksgiving

Saturday Nov 25

No sessions

Sunday Nov 26

When you need another way to say "good job" there are many creative ways. Here are just a few examples:

• Right on!
• You're so smart!
• Nice going.

(http://www2.addr.com/~me-list/)

1. Give "go play" and pull child back to you by back of shirt. Do several times. It usually builds a smile and a lot of times when you don't grab the shirt the child will back up to you to do so.
2. "I'm gonna eat your toes!" take child's foot toward your mouth with pretend chomp with sounds-- every kid i work with likes this one. Doesn't seem to make a difference in child has rec. language or not--just the anticipation. after first or second time of trying to pull away with laughter, child usually gives you other foot.
3. Say "do this" and make roar sound. When child does, act terrified and fall off chair. May take a few do thises but most kids love the idea of making you react.
4. Instructor head into child stomach, tickly burrowing of head--real laughter zone.
5. Wind up your hand like its a toy til your wrist hurts (almost)--use cranking sound effects-then let it go and flap your hand wildly over the table and child in flip flop motion.
6. Fall asleep and snore loudly on child's lap then wake up suddenly for the school bell--ding ding ding.

It is a fancy term for teaching and there is a method to the madness. Yes, it can take up to 6 month to a year to be proficient, but many find that after learning the techniques and understanding the principals, you can apply ABA anywhere in your life.

Plus, children with autism (and many other cognitive disabilities) learn.

Calvin's team is comprised of his wonderful caring, intelligent, well-paying parents, talented therapist, and Wonder Woman consultant from Texas. Our team goal? Help Calvin learn thru fun activities, repetition, and the natural environment that he/she finds "motivating." We do constant training, modeling (showing you) how to teach this and that, with team meetings and video reviews. It's a tough job but one with lots of support and rewards.

Is this a sales pitch? You betcha! Can it be difficult? Yes, at times, especially on those "off days". Is it rewarding? Uhuh, I often get calls from excited therapists telling me Calvin did "xxx" for the first time. It's like having a child walk or talk for the first time everyday.

Join Calvin's team!!!

From Me-List (http://www2.addr.com/~me-list/)

1. Give "go play" and pull child back to you by back of shirt. Do several times. It usually builds a smile and a lot of times when you don't grab the shirt the child will back up to you to do so.
2. "I'm gonna eat your toes!" take child's foot toward your mouth with pretend chomp with sounds-- every kid i work with likes this one. Doesn't seem to make a difference in child has rec. language or not--just the anticipation. after first or second time of trying to pull away with laughter, child usually gives you other foot.
3. Say "do this" and make roar sound. When child does, act terrified and fall off chair. May take a few do thises but most kids love the idea of making you react.
4. Instructor head into child stomach, tickly burrowing of head--real laughter zone.
5. Wind up your hand like its a toy til your wrist hurts (almost)--use cranking sound effects-then let it go and flap your hand wildly over the table and child in flip flop motion.
6. Fall asleep and snore loudly on child's lap then wake up suddenly for the school bell--ding ding ding.
7. Do emotions like mad---rrrrrr---sad--real sappy boo hoo hoo and drip water on face for tears (all very fake) happy----with the happy song and dance. Sad has been number one requested for the last three years--I guess I got the drama right.
8. Say give me five or high five but lose your hand in your sleeve--have child help you find then lose other hand, etc.
9. Poland spring water bottle above child's head---tilt ever so slightly in anticipatory way--drop droplet. Most kids dig this big time. Fair play however is allowing them to get you and they are usually less reserved about the amount they drop!
   

• 3 week trial period to include intensive training & application
  of the principals of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) up to 15 hours. 
  Often trial periods do not last that long as training can be completed
  anywhere from 5-10 hours or even less depending on prior experience. To qualify as a trial period week, therapist must work a
  minimum of 5 hours for that week. Trial period pay is $5 per hour, this is to reduce training costs for parents
  and also because individual gains life long behavior analysis skills.
  
• Ability and willingness to read materials (books, manuals, excerpts)
  and be videotaped and critiqued.

1. CK is safe with himself
2. CK is safe with other and nice to others
   1. Understand that he wants to do bad behavior (CK sees Cimmeron's pig tail and is near the back of Cimmeron. Tell CK BEFORE he pulls the hair "Do you want to touch Cimmeron's hair? CK should say "yes". Then tell CK that it hurts Cimmeron and that he shouldn't do it.
   2. Teach Cimmeron to say "Stop it" or appropriate words. Have him say "Stop" AS CK has a hold of the hair. If CK does not let go of the hair immediately, make sure you remove CK's hand from the hair immediately. This is to reinforce Cimmeron asking to "Stop" and that CK should follow directions from Cimmeron.
3. CK doesn't damage stuff
   • If CK throws a toy in anger, it is put up on a shelf for another day. Child expected to hand toy over.

To "Independent" ABA/DTT Consultants and Therapists:

This is an open letter to all of you in the field working with children with autism. There are lots of people out there who, after working with an agency providing ABA programs for children with autism, are striking out on their own as independent consultants.

As a parent of an autistic child and an advocate for children and families I have had a lot of contact with people in this field and I have some advice/requests for all of you.

Here goes:

Provide the specifics of your education, training and experience. This is a challenging and ever-changing field and it takes a lot of training and study to be effective. Working for 1-2 years in an agency supervised program, as an undergraduate does not qualify you upon graduation to develop and supervise programs and curricula. It is not appropriate to call yourself a consultant or senior therapist after having only worked with a few preschool age children.

If there is any formal certification, licensing or credentials in your area pursue them. This could be a teaching credential, certification as a behavior analyst, licensing in psychology, speech therapy, OT etc. These are the tickets that allow access to working with the school systems and also show a commitment to making this a "real" career.

You only have your professional skills and integrity to carry you in this field. Many parents can be described as desperate when they are trying to get a program started for their child. You may indeed have the skill to get them started, but if you don't know what to do 6 months or a year or 2 years down the road, people are going to find out about it. Word gets out quickly when families are not satisfied.