Longer days mean waking up to sunshine and birds singing.  My children both love birds – watching birds, making bird sounds, pretending to fly, building nests with old Easter grass, etc.  One of our favorite summertime activities is feeding the ducks at a local pond. 

If you too have a budding ornithologist, May’s Smarty will be a hit.  This month the activity is making bird feeders!  Made with birdseed, unflavored gelatin and a few common kitchen items, this is a simple project with an impressive end product (I’m thinking, Mother’s Day gifts for the grandmas!). The birdfeeders are formed with a cookie cutter and can be made in almost any shape.

Like all Smart Art, making a bird feeder is a great way to work on conversation skills with your child.

There are many many strategies for teaching conversation skills to children with autism, I like to break the skills into three primary areas – language skills used in conversation (commenting, asking questions, etc.), social skills used in conversation (eye contact, proximity to others, not dominating the conversation, etc.), and motivation to engage in conversation.

Conversation skills are often challenging for children with autism because the intrinsic motivation behind most conversations is the desire for social interaction.  If a child is not especially motivated by social interaction, or finds it uncomfortable, conversation will not be a rewarding activity.

When any child (or adult!) is learning a difficult skill it helps to make the learning processes rewarding.  You can do this by selecting learning materials that will be reinforcing (e.g. using Lightning McQueen silverware or teaching spoon skills using pudding rather than split pea soup.) and / or by making the teaching environment enjoyable (e.g. working on table manners during a pretend tea party).  How do you make learning conversation skills rewarding?  Initially, select conversation topics that will be of high interest (eventually all children need to learn to how to talk about “boring” or non-preferred topics too) and/or go to a favorite location or engage in a favorite activity while having the conversation.

A craft is an excellent activity for working on conversation skills because many children find crafts enjoyable and because the craft provides a concrete basis for the conversation.  It is easier to talk about something present that can be referenced than to talk about something abstract.  You can discuss the elements of the project (materials needed, next step, etc.), ask questions about each other’s projects (asking for information), tell each other about your own project (descriptive labeling), exchange compliments, and use the project to ask about preferences and past experiences, and more (e.g. “What’s your favorite cookie cutter shape?,” “Do you remember what we did with these cookie cutters at Christmas?,” “What else could we do with these cookie cutters?”)

An activity, like a craft, is also helpful for teaching conversation skills because it more accurately mimics real life conversations.  Most conversations occur in the context of an activity (e.g., while eating, drinking, playing, working, or shopping.)  Children almost never sit still and just have a conversation.  Practicing a conversation in the context of an activity helps to eliminate some of the physical awkwardness that arises when one has to stand or sit still and converse.  Having a workspace helps to establish physical boundaries and the work itself provides natural pauses in conversation and eye contact.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but I hope it gives you some ideas for building on your child’s conversation skills.  Skills® has extensive conversation training lessons covering all of these topics and much more.  To learn more about Skills®, visit SkillsforAutism.com

We have a new office in Woodland Hills, CA! Tour our new treatment center. Meet our clinical and assessment team. Childcare will be provided.

 OPEN HOUSE

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

5:30 pm – 7:30 pm

6330 Variel Ave. Suite 102

Woodland Hills, CA 91367

RSVP by May 20^th – D.Plump@centerforautism.com

 SCHEDULE

5:30 pm – Reception

6:00 pm – Presentations by Evelin Garcia, PsyD, Director of Assessment Center; Evelyn Kung, Clinical Director and special welcome by CARD Founder/CEO Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh

6:30 pm – Facility Tour and Meet & Greet

Yesterday, April 17th, advocates from around the state joined as they met with elected officials to advocate for the over 15 proposed bills (one of which CARD was sponsoring) for the 2012-2013 legislative session impacting the autism, special needs and disability communities. Bill topics include: extension of SB 946 (autism mandate), diversity and equality of services through regional centers, consumer safety, increased accessibility to services, and more.

CARD Public Policy Analyst Julie Kornack was on KCRA News in the morning, and spoke on the Capital steps with Senator Steinberg later in the afternoon!

Senator Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) with CARD’s Public Policy Analyst Julie Kornack.

CARD even had some parents join the effort after seeing Julie Kornack on TV!

ACT Today! was there as well! Thank you to everyone that came out and especially to Senator Steinberg for pushing to extend the California Autism Mandate! With our efforts hopefully we can help push more legislation for autism.

Last weekend CARD sent a team to San Francisco to be Senseis for a Hackathon put on by AT&T and Autism Speaks. You might be asking yourself ‘What’s a hackathon?’A hackathon is an innovation marathon where developers and non-developers alike come together for 24 to 36 hours to build a prototype of an app.

This year, in appreciation of Autism Awareness Month (April), Autism Speaks and AT&T have partnered to develop an app for autism! A team from CARD was invited to the hackathon to act as teachers or Senseis  (as they call them), giving the developers guidance for what children and parents are looking for in an app for autism.

At CARD we use tablets all the time for our in-home therapy sessions. Therapists use the apps mostly for administrative functions (scheduling, etc,…), but in the future we hope to implement data entry for clients; so the therapist spends less time filling out paperwork and more time with a child.

Beyond administrative tablet use, CARD came out with it’s own, in-house app for autism called Camp Discovery. According to CARD BCBA Peter Farag (pictured above), Camp Discovery gives kids a fun way to learn. The app itself is less structured an intrusive then a therapist, and typically more fun for a child. As well, the costs of having a therapist come out to a child’s house is very expensive. In the future CARD hopes to develop an app that automates what a therapist does in the form of an app. While this is far off in the future, and nothing can replace a therapist, it will be a step in the direction of lowering the costs for families.

“Camp Discovery is going to be the first of many apps that CARD produces”, says Alva Powell, CARD CTO (pictured above) who will be attending the SF Hackathon as a Sensei. CARD understands the awesome tool that a tablet can be for kids on the spectrum, especially those that are non-verbal and CARD wants to capitalize on its uses.

Want to check Camp Discovery out yourself? Download it on iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/camp-discovery-objects/id585678823?mt=8

Play has always had an important role in teaching Jack Riley. They have used play to teach him how to use items functionally – like when they use pretend food and place it on a plate. Jack Riley has now graduated to doing socio-dramatic play with his therapists where they take on different roles. They have been playing ‘restaurant’ for the last two months, where Jack Riley pretends to be the waiter, costumer, or the chef. Now that he has played  out these roles, Jessica and Mike are taking him to an actual restaurant to see how he behaves in public.

Follow The A-Word on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/theawordautism/

You might be looking at this picture and wondering “Why”? On Monday April 8th the Autism Live crew was joined by Glee actor Mark Christopher Lawrence, the author of Cowboy & Wills Monica Holloway, Wrong Planet founder Alex Plank, the director of ACT Today! Nancy Alspaugh-Jackson, and from Onyx Salon Lorenzo the stylist came to help Shannon Shave her head as an act of compassion for a young dad with brain cancer.

This April is Autism Awareness Month (as probably most of you know) and Shannon wanted to do something extra for the community at large. She wanted to impact someone positively, not just by talking about helping others, but by actually ‘doing’ it.  Shannon’s niece tolder her about a young Dad that had brain cancer at her church. Through that church they were raising money to give to the  family for everyone that shaved their head as an act of compassion for the young Dad. Shannon saw this as an immediate action she could do to actively help someone else.

This month as we all look to promote awareness for autism, Shannon is calling us to show compassion to others. This month the autism community is asking the world for understanding and compassion towards autism. What better way to promote autism awareness than to show others compassion! Big or small we can all make a change!

And so Shannon is calling on all YOU to join her this month by showing others compassion. Shannon shaved her head this month, what are you going to do?

It’s Autism Awareness Month! This month CARD would like to recognize two online programs that are making it easier (and cheaper) for parents to bring quality therapy into their home based on ABA principles.  

The best part about it is that the training and curriculum are online! So YOU can use them when YOU have time! The Skills® curriculum for autism and the Institute for Behavioral Training (IBT) are both offering huge sales this month as a way to promote Autism Awareness Month. Skills is offering 20% off for the lifetime of the subscription when users purchase during the month of April, while IBT is offering 50% off ALL courses purchased online in April.

Don’t miss out! This is an awesome opportunity!

Want to learn more about Skills and IBT?

Visit them online at:Skills ANDIBT

There were a lot of ridiculous tutorials posted on my favorite crafting blogs on Monday…embellished disposable diapers, hand sewn ruffled toilet paper, meat disguised as cake and cake disguised as meat.  Even Google got in on the fun, promoting their newest product, “Google Nose Beta,” which allowed users to search their “Aromabase” and download “scentibytes.”

Smarties has a goofy craft for April too, but this isn’t an April Fool’s Joke! It is a homemade chia buddy!

The instructions are simple and the results are adorable.  With a few household items and some chia seed (try your local health food store) you can make a basic chia buddy form that can be decorated to look like a person or animal.  Children of all ages can participate in making their chia buddy.  If your child is (or will be) working on one of the Skills® sequencing lessons take some pictures (before assembly, before decoration, after assembly and decoration, when the seeds 1^st sprout, and with a full head of hair).  These photos can also be used for the following Skills lessons: “Concrete Cause and Effect” in the Cognition Curriculum, “Same/Different” (make two chia buddies) and “Tell a Story” in the Language Curriculum, and “Episodic Memory” in the Executive Functions curriculum.

I love how silly these little guys turn out!  The growth of the seeds adds some unpredictability and humor to the final result.  Once the seeds sprout, you may find a stray “hair” growing out of the chia buddy’s ear or mouth.  If you’re up for the task you might even try to plant a beard or mustache!

Goofy objects and absurdities (e.g. a sprout growing out of the Chia’s nose) are an excellent starting point for teaching humor.  Humor is both a developmental process and cultural experience.  Many children with ASD have difficulty appreciating or understanding aspects of humor.  Practical jokes can be particularly challenging.  Children with ASD may perceive the joke as a lie and therefore inappropriate.  They may feel scared or anxious when something is not as they expected or they may miss the humor altogether.  When children with ASD do understand the humor in a practical joke they may not have the inhibition skills to keep the secret or play along with the joke.

The Skills Social Curriculum has an entire domain devoted to teaching children to understand and use absurdities in speech and action.  One of the lessons in this domain is humor and jokes.  The lesson is extensive (31 lesson activities!), and covers many forms of humor.  It starts with teaching concepts related to humor (e.g. what does it mean to be funny?) and moves on to teaching children to recognize when other people are responding to humor and how to recognize and respond to humor.

Because humor is both personal and cultural, your child will have a different sense of humor than you or her friends.  Humor is also continually evolving as people are exposed to new things.  (For example, my 4-year-old has recently discovered the joy of potty humor.) It is important to teach generally accepted “social norms” of humor, but teaching humor also involves helping your child discover what they find humorous.  Finding (and laughing about) environmental oddities and things that are visually amusing (like a funny billboard, a car painted to look like a mouse, a tree growing sideways, or your child’s new chia buddy) is a great place to start.

PS – Happy ASD Awareness Month!  There are puzzles and blue everywhere on facebook!  I love all the attention ASD is getting!

What’s happening? Two things. First, on April 17th, there is an autism and disability rally at the Sacramento State Capitol! Second, CARD is co-sponsoring a bus to take advocates to Sacramento – if you want to come, let us know!

DETAILS:

 Wednesday, April 17, 2013

State Capitol

Sacramento, CA

 Join advocates from around the state as they meet with elected officials to advocate for the over 15 proposed bills for the 2012-2013 legislative session impacting the autism, special needs and disability communities. Bill topics include: extension of SB 946 (autism mandate), diversity and equality of services through regional centers, consumer safety, increased accessibility to services, and more.

SCHEDULE
8:30 am
Welcome Meeting

9:00 am – 11:00 am
Legislative Meetings

11:00 am – 12:30 pm
Rally on State Capitol featuring special appearances by Senate President pro Tem Hon. Darrell Steinberg, Hon. Curren Price, Hon. Lou Correa, Hon. Holly Mitchell, and other elected officials and guests. Musical performance by Dream Achievers.

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
No Host Lunch

1:30 pm to 4:00 pm
Assembly Budget Committee Hearing on Human Services Budget (Topics include: regional center payment of co-pays and deductibles, early start eligibility, consumer safety and more.

CARD is co-sponsoring a bus to take advocates to Sacramento. If you would like to ride with us, please let us know. Seating is limited. To reserve your seat, contact: Daphne Plump at D.Plump@centerforautism.com

The Institute for Behavioral Training (IBT) launches its one-stop training site this week to provide parents and professionals who work with individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) customized training based on research-proven techniques using applied behavior analysis (ABA). IBT offers four types of training programs, including  eLearning, face-to-face training, Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) supervision and continuing education. 

“As the number of individuals affected by autism spectrum disorders continues to grow, we want to offer a service where parents, educators, caregivers, and practitioners can receive high-quality, affordable training,” says IBT director Cecilia Knight, MA, BCBA. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released research last week showing that one in 50 children in America is diagnosed with ASD, demonstrating that autism remains more prevalent than juvenile diabetes, pediatric cancer, and childhood AIDS.

IBT is powered by the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD), the world’s largest provider of effective, early-intensive behavioral intervention for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). IBT uses CARD experts to provide innovative training programs that meet the current and emerging needs of parents, caregivers, and human service professionals across the globe. With over 22 years of training experience, CARD launched IBT to expand quality services for the autism community. IBT functions as its own separate entity, utilizing CARD’s extensive supply of qualified BCBA supervisors to create diverse training programs.

“We execute this commitment through high-quality programs that feature diversity in content, convenient access, modern technology, and an expert instructional staff,” says Knight.

 IBT’s components include:

 eLearning Training offers:

• Online ABA training presented by experts in the field of ABA

• Courses offered for practitioners, educators, direct staff, and parents/family members

• Note-taking feature included for creating notes to save and reference later

• Courses available for CE credit (indicated with CE)

 Face-to-Face Training offers:

• Quarterly trainings sessions at the CARD headquarters in Tarzana, California

• In-depth, intense supervisor-level training

• Training designed for Master’s-level clinicians who provide supervision services in the field of applied behavior analysis to individuals on the autism spectrum

• 10 full days of training with the requirement to attend all 10 days

 BCBA/BCaBA Supervision offers:

• One-to-one and small-group supervision formats with an experienced clinician

• Professional guidance and support from experienced supervisors

• Supervision from your home or work through video conferencing and other Internet tools

• Personally tailored supervision for your area of interest

• The opportunity to earn supervision hours from anywhere in the world

• Over 60 BCBAs from a variety of backgrounds to assist you

• Access to our extensive online assessment and curriculum, Skills®, with over 4,000 lesson activities

 CE Courses offer:

• Options for quality continuing education (CE) courses

• Programs designed for professional growth and refinement

• Ability to earn continuing education hours from the comfort and privacy of your home or workplace

• Live webinars, article reviews, and eLearning modules

For more information about IBT and its products, visit http://www.ibehavioraltraining.com.