Discrete Trial Training

Hi,
Does anyone have information on a workshop in Pa. Lehigh University I
think. I would like to see the Koegels speak and they are there I believe
with Bridget Taylor, Mary Jane Weiss etc. For those of you who have not
discovered the Koegels yet, they give some very incredibly helpful
information on kids esp. in school settings. They have ideas that tie in
with VB programming, but what I like even more is that they address
children's needs for self management and independence in the community.
They talk about the need for these kids to be exposed to and learn from
nondisabled peers. I have found their book incredibly helpful, and
definitely the next step for those of us with school age kids. They have a
chapter on parent's performing Functional behavioral assessments etc. Take
a look when you get a minute.
It can be found on www.brookespublishing.com along with a lot of other very
good books.

Hello fellow listers!
I am new to this group (joined it today as a matter of fact). I have
a 6 years old daughter. She is autistic. We are doing traditional
Lovaas ABA at home. She is some-what verbal. She can request what
she wants but has no spontaneous speech otherwise. She can repeat
almost anything but is very soft spoken and her speech is not clear.
Very often nobody can understand what she is asking and it is causing
a big frustration on both parts. I would like to work more on her
speech. Where do I start? I have read some of the messages but do
not understand some of the terminology. What method shall I use?
What resources are available? What programs are available to help
develop spontaneous speech? What can I do to help her combine
words. She knows about 300 words, 10 colors, 9 shapes, some basic
attributes, numbers from 0 to 20 and all alphabet. I think she has
enough components to start. What to do to help her combine them
together and make her talk loud and clear?

Hi, this is my first time posting to this group. I am a therapist in need of
some advice. The family I work with has been trying to do a VB program for
almost a year now. Unfortunately, we have not had very good consultants come
in and set up our program. I have attended Dr. Carbone's Intro to VB
workshop and have seen a few videos so I have a very basic knowledge of VB.
I have been working with a 6 year old nonverbal child who has lately been
having a lot of behavior problems during therapy. He has been rather
non-compliant, constantly getting out of his seat and avoiding all tasks. He
went without therapy for several months and is just starting again. His most
reinforcing item is watching videos, however, using this as a reinforcer had
proved to be difficult for all those involved. He would constantly mand for
video and we could not get anything accomplished, so the TV was taken out of
the therapy room. He did fine without it for about a week. We used music and
food reinforcers instead. However, in the past two weeks his non-compliance
has become a major concern. I have tried to assess the teaching strategies
and the pace of instruction, but that doesn't seem to be the problem. Please
e-mail me directly with any advice. I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you,
Luticia

Hello!
Any suggestion on resources where I can find samples of data /target
/probe sheets? As well as the basic HOW TO ?
I would really like a CLEAR example of how to start incorporating this
technique for my sons language programs.
I am particularlily fond of the RFFC.
Could someone perhaps email me a sample trail..
ie: what the teacher would say and what the child would say. Showing
examples of what they are asking and how they are prompting and
correcting?
There was very few examples of this in the TEACHING LANGUAGE book.
Since I have been doing ABA we always taught things SEPERATE..
So now that my son was already taught in this matter, when we have him
try and do FLUENCY by mixing all the SD's up..
He has a hard time discriminating what we are asking him.
We know he knows the answer.. Just doesnt know which question we are
asking.
He can request things that are out of site and he can also recall
things that are missing from a table..
SO I know whis memory and recall are strong.
Is it the theory that if he has ENOUGH practice doing it this way
(RFFC) of answering questions and filling in blanks and doing
expressive and receptive tacts , mands and interverbals
That he will AQUIRE it concretely?
Also, now that my son has over 200 labels and attributes to items..
how do we start?Do we take 3 words a day and make them targets, do we
take 10 and rotate them out along the day.
I get about 7 teachers a day in here.. so he would probably be probed
and trailed all day long..
What is the best way to run a program like this?
How do we choose the words to start with (I know words that are
important to him.. :))BUT DO we mix the old ones in WHILE teaching
new attributes and interverbals about the old items as well as new
ones ? How do we access that he know something? So could someone
PLEASE Send to me a sampling .. I would would really appreciate any
resources ...
I would want my team to be confident in delivering the goals and
targets.. I would just like ot have some more ideas
Thanks a bunch.. Nicole

hi,
new and wanting to connect with others in pa,
vince is 11, hfa.
thanks
shar

I spend hours each week reading about DTT and VB. My internet service is
almost my lifeline but the rate just went up again and now it's $21.95/
month.
Can anyone recommend a good service?
Thanks

I have a daughter who will be two next month. She has just been
diagnosed with mild to moderate autism and the DTT program was highly
recommended. What I need now are therapists. If you know of one or
are one, please call me at (408) 924-0406. Thank you!
Laura Kneedler

Hi,
I don't know if this is what you are looking for--but here's another idea
that some of the therapists who have worked with my daughter have used. I
hope this doesn't sound too strange. We got wide masking tape and some
would put it on their thigh. +,-, P notes would be made on the masking
tape--under brief initials describing the program. The masking tape served
as a portable pad.
Also to minimize looking at the data book, I got stacks of 4 by 6 index
cards. For some, they would write down targets for several programs before
proceeding. Generally, I tried to have enough tools and techniques
available so no one would feel a need to look at the data book in between
each program.
Also about trial by trial data--we never did that for every program--every
time. New Jersey Life is our consultant and they do have formal data
sheets. The rule was to take trial data 3 x a week for each program. The
rest of the time was generally estimates. If the therapists remembered
exactly what she did, she would put it in one blank for correct and the
other blank says correct estimate.
I think it is important to minimize worry over data taking. As a parent, I
have said in several meetings, "The data should serve Helen. Helen
shouldn't serve the data."
Hope this helps.
Nancy

My son's tutors recently approached me to say that they feel very restricted by
the data taking that we do during his sessions. We use the 10 trial formats and
take data at every single session. They say that at times they tend to
concentrate on taking data and lose their focus when teaching him. Also because
of this they tend to do mass trials rather than mixed ones. Currently during
sessions they record +, -, or +p on a data sheet during each trial. At the end
of the session they summarise what skills they taught and how Jaocb did.
I am just curious as to what kind of data everyone takes or does anyone take any
data. If you do not take data how do you measure improvement? What kind of
format do you use? A while ago someone on the list sent me a recording sheet
but I lost it when my computer crashed.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Prue
Sabah, Malaysia

This message may have been posted before; I just saw it on a New Jersey list
I am on.
Kristina Chew
Message: 6
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2001 02:08:08 -0000
From: heathbehavanalyis@...
Subject: ABA/Verbal Behavior Therapist/Consultant Available
HI,
I have veen working with children with autism for 6 years and my
schedule has changed. I have more time available to help families
setup and running Verbal Behavior programs and ABA programs. If
anyone is interested or has any questions please feel to email me or
to call me.
Thank you,
Heather Law
Consultanting Behavior Analyst 6 years
610-348-9212 cell
856-241-1819 home

Dear fellow listers,
I am overwhelmed by the support I received following my question (moaning may be
more accurate!) about sleep problems with our son. It was helpful to know I am
not the only one in that boat! Fortunately, one of the suggestions in
particular seems to be helping as our son has slept through the night for three
straight nights! It would have been four, but I had to wake him one morning at
4:30 for a sleep-deprived EEG. But, 4:30 is later than he usually awakes in the
night.
In case you are interested in what plan seems to be helping, I'll describe it,
though it really does sound like common sense. We adjusted bedtime back from
7:30 to 8:15. The time he goes to bed and gets up must be very consistent,
within 15 minutes. We have arbitrarily set wake up time at 7:15. So, even if
he's still sleeping at 7:15, I've been waking him up. No naps either. We are
still giving him Melatonin 15-30 minutes before bedtime. We are crossing our
fingers that this will continue to help him to sleep through the night! (It
doesn't seem like enough sleep for a little boy who just turned three, but I
guess we can adjust that later...)
Thank you so much for all of your help and support! It meant so much to me and
was quite therapeutic! Thank goodness for the internet and the ability to talk
with folks like you all!
Karen
P.S. I am aware that my original question was not really about verbal behavior
ABA, but sleep deprivation was truly interfering with our son's ability to learn
effectively. Since he's had a few better night's sleep, he started singing
"BINGO" (with either claps or sound effects for claps, letters correct)(he
sings many songs but this was the first I heard BINGO), indicated he wanted his
beach shoes off yesterday by saying, "I want feet dry." And desire to get into
pool, "I want swimming pool." These are significant for us because they were
truly unprompted. Aaron can be a bit prompt dependent, and both of these mands
were new and original with no modeling from us. The shoe one was especially
good because he started off by saying, "I want shoes." I responded, "You have
shoes on." He then responded with, "I want feet dry." I was very pleased!

Hello,
I'm Nancy, mom to a 6 year old. We've had a home ABA program in the state
of Maryland for about 4 years. Carbone really blew me away. I didn't think
I could be that impressed with anything anymore. (yes, I'm feeling a bit
burned out.) For a variety of reasons, we do need to move. I e-mailed
Carbonne's assistant and asked about Verbal Behavior classrooms that could
complement a home program (which we have been incorporating VB into). She
said that this is quite a problem and the best thing to do would be to try
the listservs. She explained that even if someone set them up on a VB line,
who knows if the teachers are going to do it next year?
So here I am. If you are a parent who has your child in a VB classroom and
our happy with it, I'd really like to know. I'm particularly interested in
possible locations in Florida and the southeast.
Thank you
Nancy Riley

Dear Cate and others,
Once again I read your post Cate and thought "Yes, I could have written that
exact same post". We too are dealing with issues for inclusion and I would
dearly love to back off and leave it to others but it is just not an option. I
would recommend the book "Inclusive Programming for Elementary Students with
Autism" by Sheila Wagner and available from Future Horizons.I only received it
this week but I love it. It has PRACTICAL advice on behaviour management with
both tracking forms and also examples of self management sheets for students to
use.It also has great ideas for promoting social skills with peers.I would also
like to say that we have found a reinforcement system for my son's peers to be
invaluable this year.This kind of system is also described in this book. My son
repeated preschool this year. Last year there was very little progress made with
peer interaction-largely due to the fact that we were not motivating the peers
to approach him.This year after 6 months the progress has been so much better -
with the children approaching my son so much more frequently and also following
up when he ignores or doesn't answer them, the "Opportunities" for interaction
are so much greater.This book is not only great for parents but would be a
great resource for any teacher with a genuine interest in making inclusion work.
Best of luck,
Robyn

Hi,
So I've been researching this and am thinking of giving ABA a try.
The school district disagreed w/me re the autism label (background: my
4.5 y.o. daughter has a tentative AS diagnosis). I think I'd have a
fight re getting them to fund ABA, but I'm interested anyway, and time's
a-wasting. So how do I get started? I've got the Teach Me Language
book and some others, but I'd like to be working w/a consultant. I'm on
Long Island--the Lovaas satellite in N.J. is $$$$. Do I recruit some
students at a local college to learn how to do ABA while finding a local
consultant???
Sorry if this is too basic--I just feel like I'm starting from a
strange place and don't know how to proceed.
Emily

Cate and list mates:
I would like to respond to your post Cate and also share my recent
experience as well. I am going to copy sections from your post and add to
it.
"starting at the beginning of my autism journey I was happy
just to know about Lovaas and ABA and D.T. and grabbed onto those
principles like someone drowning at sea."
This was exactly how I felt as well.
"only concerned about what program was
next, working hard and fast and furious to help him acquire new skills and
move forward especially in the area of language."
This is how I felt as well only being that my child's compliance was low,
verbal (but not like now) and physically behaviorally challenging we did
program that were too easy for him (so we saw LOTS of behaviors) but we had
no idea AT THE START those things would be easy because testing always was
unsuccessful. I will not make any further comments of the "after" I
realized those programs were too easy. So in my son's best interest I
educated myself.
"like the rest of you with kids who are school aged, I move on to
Step II learning again new things and trying to increase my learning curve
to keep up with challenges that now face me which are daunting."
And THEY ARE daunting to say the least!!!!!!!!!!
"How do we parents do it all? And more importantly how do we not? Every time
I try to back off and let someone else educate my son, I find that
unfortunately they don't know how. So, despite the fact that we are
parents would like to "take five" catch our breaths it's not possible."
Cate, this is EXACTLY what I am dealing with right now. I have been told by
the assistant special ed school administrator
that he doesn't feel I am ready to trust them with my son, I've heard things
like "all kids are the same" from his summer school teacher, I walked in on
her yelling at my son EVEN THOUGH I wrote out a "behavior plan" and
explained what works for my son, I've been TOLD by his summer school teacher
who has never worked with an autistic child that she and his aide that have
only worked with my son for one and a half weeks feel that since my son
doesn't ask for his tokens that THEY decided to not use them and try
something else AND that in regualr education classes they don't reward kids
like we are doing with my son, after explaining to the aide what her role is
as his aide/shadow wathc her do everything she shouldn't be doing and then
wathc his summer school teacher yell at another child by getting right in
his face (this is a summer school regualar education kindergarten readiness
class). I've done everything I have been allowed to do and have been told
what NOT to do. I trusted them and "took five" and this is what happens. I
haven't sent my son to school since the yelling incident. What I keep
hearing is that "Michael is doing SO WELL...you must be so proud" which
things had gone well and I AM PROUD.....BUT that doesn't mean I should
disregard what I saw and what they believe and I believe are two different
things. What I know and what they are are two very different things. IT'S
SO HARD!!!!!!
"LANGUAGE IS KEY, Language is a pivotal behavior"....what I keep hearing my
son's aide say are things like "don't push me please" or "don't do that
please" after I explained to her that she needs to teach a replacement
behavior by teaching him how to verbalize HER unwanted behavior. She
doesn't get it apparently.
I haven't done a FBA yet but we will and I could give them all the answers
they need!! But I guess we have to wait until school starts and then others
will do the FBA and then I will be interviewed. If I can get an extra FBA
copy I will let you know and you can have it!!
Good luck Cate and anyone else dealing with these issues!!!
Rose

Obviously I feel that time is hanging idle on my hands and that I lack

My 5 year old daughter needs a shadow for her typical
preschool class from July 9-August 17 in Ashburn, VA
from 9-12 am. Pay is competitive based on experience
and how much training we need to provide. PECS, ABA,
VB, and shadowing experience are the big pluses. July
9 is approaching fast, so if anyone knows anyone in
the area looking for a rewarding summer, please have
them call or email me:
Jennifer Lassiter
703-737-3899
=====
The lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.

Folks:
For those of you who have responded to our web based poll, thank you, for
those of you who have not yet responded, please take the time to stop by the
site and respond to the poll.
The first of a number of web based opinion polls has been posted at
www.tclc.com please take the time to visit and fill in the poll for us.
Additionally, we have created a web board for folks to use if they so
choose. Even should you decide not to use the web board or other resources
on the site, please take the time to fill out our web based poll.
Many regards,
C. A. Thomas, Ph.D. Board Certified Behavior Analyst
The Childhood Learning Center
www.tclc.com
"Why do people behave as they do?" (BFS)

Sorry forgot to attach the mail!
Prue

I received this mail from another newsgroup. Its is long. A family from
Indonesia needs help with their non-verbal son with autistic savant syndrome.
Prue

Hi,
I am writing this more to express myself than even to specifically ask
questions, kind of a "state of the state" address. I will try to make it
non-tedious, and to the point.
Since this is a verbal behavior list I will say thank you to this list and
to this style of programming that I believe is incredibly helpful in
letting parents have a feel for where they should begin with their child,
how to do and interpret an ABLLS, and get a feel for where your child is
sitting in terms of overall development and how importantly you can use
this assessment tool to steer IEP goals using this. A great help for me,
and a great way to see how your child falls in terms of his overall
development, and what areas need to be addressed pronto.
That being said, starting at the beginning of my autism journey I was happy
just to know about Lovaas and ABA and D.T. and grabbed onto those
principles like someone drowning at sea. Feeling at that time so grateful
for this vehicle to help my child and for awhile basked in the glow of just
keeping the D.T. program running, only concerned about what program was
next, working hard and fast and furious to help him acquire new skills and
move forward especially in the area of language.
The old saying that ignorance is bliss is incredibly true, and IF only I
could have stayed in my little cocoon of d.t. and home programming. But
that was not meant to be and not in my child's best interest.
So, now like the rest of you with kids who are school aged, I move on to
Step II learning again new things and trying to increase my learning curve
to keep up with challenges that now face me which are daunting. I cannot
retreat into the D.T. trenches anymore this is a brave new world, but I am
not that brave.
So now I embark on terms like pivotal behaviors, functional assessment,
self management techniques, inclusion, mainstreaming etc.
How do we parents do it all? And more importantly how do we not? Every time
I try to back off and let someone else educate my son, I find that
unfortunately they don't know how. So, despite the fact that we are
parents would like to "take five" catch our breaths it's not possible.
If I had to share some of the things I have learned and put them in laymans
terms, LANGUAGE IS KEY, Language is a pivotal behavior. The theory behind
this is that if you teach one pivotal behavior it is a ripple effect and
other good things will happen. If you teach a child to mand for instance,
you are giving them power, that power in turn will decrease unwanted and
inappropriate behaviors such as tantrumming for items they cannot
label. (Thank your Robert and Lynn Koegel from Univ. of Calif.), they
taught me about pivotal behaviors. Secondly is you cannot extinguish an
unwanted behavior without replacing it with something more appropriate. If
the child is screaming at the door, you cannot simply say No, stop that,
you must teach a replacement behavior, i.e., manding so you replace the
screaming with an appropriate behavior.
Thirdly, I am embarking on learning how to perform functional behavioral
assessments since once you identify that your child has problem behaviors,
you must now figure out the why's of the behavior. What is the behavior
trying to accomplish and when and why do the behaviors occur and find a
pattern if possible, and after doing so, teach a replacement or provide
support for the child to help eliminate this inappropriate behavior, and
once again for me anyway, it bounces me back to LANGUAGE. If he is
tantrumming to have something removed-- Teach him to say NO, stop it, let
go etc. If he is screaming because he wants something, teach him to mand
for it, and if he cannot understand language well enough to understand not
now, or later, make a visual schedule to show him/her the sequence of
events of the day to alleviate the frustration that not understanding the
concept of time involves.
So, all that being said, does anyone have or has anyone performed
functional assessments using a certain form that I could beg, borrow steal,
buy, etc. I have made up my own behavior sheets, but if there is something
out there already I would prefer to use one that has already been found to
be an effective way to collect data. Even in doing my informal assessment
the behaviors we are charting are for the most part avoidance behaviors, "I
don't want to behaviors." So, now we will need to figure out what to do to
give him more control, but still maintain compliance.
So, signing off and hoping I didn't bore anyone, if you have any data to
share on functional behavioral assessments or how you have used this data
to formulate a plan to deal with behaviors I would love some help in this
area. My school cannot help me with this, I have already asked.
Thanks for listening to me ramble.
** Also if anyone is interested in a workshop on performing a Behavioral
Assessment I am in contact with someone who is willing to do a half day or
full day workshop on this topic. Let me know if you would be interested. I
would be happy to set this up if there is an interest. This would be in
Central, N.J.
Thanks
Cate

My child is 4, and is language delayed about a year. I'm trying to use
visuals - like for potty training, and for his daily schedule, but its going
kind of slow. I keep losing the boards and icons, etc.... I'm curious how
those of you who are using visuals for verbal children do so.
I picked up a thin book called something like, "Teaching Activity Schedules
to Autistic Children", and I also have a thick tome by Linda Hodg-something
called Visual STrategies.
In the activity schedule book, schedules are taught with each picture on a
separate page. The child points to the picture, completes whatever it
represents, and turns the page. The emphasis is on teaching independence,
on the child, when told "find something to do", being able to go through the
book unattended and keep productively occupied for 20-30 minutes at a time.
I love this idea, when I want to cook dinner for example, if my son knew how
to complete an activity schedule I could KNOW he was doing something other
than laying on the floor opening and closing the door to his toy van. But
what on earth makes the child WANT to do what is in the book?? I guess they
have to be reinforced for completing the book, and many of the activities
need to be very reinforcing. Does anyone do this with pretty high
functioning children?
The Visual Strategy book seems to be more about preparing a child for his
daily activities, like a schedule, or providing visual prompts for simple
daily routines - like a washing hands strip above the sink, for example.
The pictures are usually on a strip or a board, visible all at once, rather
than one at a time in a book like the activity schedule. I also like these
ideas too.
I guess I"m just trolling around to hear other people's experiences, and any
tips and guidelines you might want to suggest.
Also, I know that Dr. Carbonne isn't fond of PECS as a communication system
if a child has alternatives like signing or speech. But what about the
whole visual strategy angle? Does he support the use of visuals in that
context?
Thanks in advance for your time.
Angela

Hi,
My son is going through a big learning curve at the moment and his interactions
have increased a lot. He plays well most of the time and other children enjoy
his company he is even interacting spontaneously with adults. My concern is
that at times he can be very bossy esp. with adults demanding their attention
and telling them what to do and often calling out "Hey you come here" and
instructing them on what they can and can't do. He is 41/2 yrs old and
diagnosed with mild autistic features I think he might have asperger syndrome.
I recently watched him playing with a 12year old who couldn't speak any english
and he was instructing him on everything whenever the older child tried to do
something else he became very annoyed and told him to stop. It was obvious the
older child was getting fed up with him. He plays well with his peers and is
able to take the lead and also follow well. I have noticed older people
getting annoyed as you would if you had someone ordering you on what you can and
can't do. Has anyone else had this concern and been able to teach their child
how to get what you want in a more effective way? We have been working a lot
on increasing eye contact and he is doing this 100% in the trials and about 90%
with familar people and his new teacher told me he is trying really hard to get
eye contact with her. He told me it is hard to do and I have tried explaining
that it is sometimes hard even for adults but you have to keep trying. Has
anyone got effective ideas for increasing eye contact?
He is now starting to relate small details of what he has done at school,
telling people about future plans (we are planning a trip soon and he is
relating this to people), playing better with his peers as in initiating simple
games and talking with them, asking for things -food, books, videos asks wh
questions, recently he learnt about the planets at school and just loved this
and told everyone about it. He seems to be increasing his confidence and
awareness. He has also started counting a lot and loves singing esp. the
alphabet song. Has anyone else experienced this and can you tell me did your
child keep getting better and how did you deal with the counting and abc thing.
I would love to hear from other parents who are experiencing something similar
please get in touch We are going to see autismpartnership people soon does
anyone have anything helpful that I could ask them about? What do you tell
these people when you see them and what sort of help could I expect to get from
them?
Bye Jenny

we have a 4 1/2 year old son whose interest in "normal" toys is non
existent. i am afraid that when we started an ABA program 2 years ago
the insistence of our aba provider to (as an example)methodically
teach him to make the horse eat the corn then put him in the stall
and make the horse go to sleep has created an aversion to many
traditional toys. since moving to a VB approach i have managed to get
him interested in such things as ball hockey in the garage/driveway,
playing catch, kicking a soccer ball ,shooting basketballs, hitting
baseballs, throwing frisbees, riding his bike all of which are
strictly outdoor activities which creates a problem during inclement
weather. indoors we have the computer on which he is amazing (we are
starting in on the grade 1,2 educational games) and movies. we have
lots of toys all of which are spread around the house (literally he
has three siblings). his verbal skills are still only in the 100
label range although his receptive is off the map (when you can keep
his attention) and his reading/spelling comprehension is somewhere
between.
any ideas would be welcome thanks for the help
john & wendy @ warnott1@...

Hello everyone,
I am fairly new to this list and I have a question about changing the focus
on our home-based ABA program to incorporate DTT-NET/VB. Our program is
currently mostly Lovaas-based with a few tact/manding drills. I would like
to emphasize the VB parts much more.
Could I please hear some feedback (on the list or privately) about how to
go about doing this. I am aware of the Carbone/McGreevy workshops and I
would certainly like to attend one asap, along with my therapists.
However, I'm not sure that this would be sufficient to change the whole
focus of the program. It would seem that, as with ABA, we would also need
a consultant on the team as well. Since I live in Vancouver, Canada, this
is not quite as easy to come by.
Does anyone have any advice for me on how I should approach this. For
examply, should I look around for a consultant first, and if so, are there
any recommendations? Should I ask through the Carbone/McGreevy folks for
consultants before/after attending one of the their workshops? Should I
ask Behavior Analysts Inc. ?
Any/all feedback is greatly appreciated, along with any words of wisdom
("If I had it to do all over again I would......."),
Thanks,
Dale

Karen,
We went through the same thing about two years ago. We started out with
1mcg. of Melatonin, but had to increase it to 1.5 mcg. because she still
wasn't sleeping all night every night. Since the increase everyone is
sleeping snuggly and soundly. Good luck I know how hard it is to function on
little or no sleep.
Lisa in Fl.

Dear listmates,
I am sorry to cross-post like this, but I will claim sleep deprevation! Have
any of you experienced sleep problems (waking up in the middle of the night for
a couple of hours totally wired!) in your kids with PDD/autism? Our son, three
years old today!, was a wonderful sleeper for the first 2 1/2 years of his life.
For about 6 months now, he's been waking up for 2-3 hours at a time, 1-3 times a
week. At first he was relatively quiet, sang songs quietly or did his verbal
imitation ABA program by rote memory. For the past 6 weeks though, he's been
very loud with what seems to be verbal stimming since it's jabbering. Our
neurologist suggesting giving him Melatonin 30 minutes prior to bedtime to help
his circadian rhythm. That has helped a bit but not totally. Neither my
husband or I are able to sleep when he's awake anymore since he's become so loud
(especially frustrating because he's often a "low-talker" much of the time!),
and our little boy is clearly not getting enough sleep either! (His brother who
shares him room sleeps through it...) Does anyone have any suggestions? I
don't want to sound whiny, but I'm really tired!! We are taking our son for an
EEG this Thursday to be sure there is no seisure activity.
Thank you and sorry to whine!
Karen

Hi there,
I'm Emily, and my daughter is Miriam, recently tentatively diagnosed
w/Asperger's. I've been interested in ABA for awhile, but I'm being
told it's not "appropriate" for my daughter. I'm still interested in
pursuing it on my own, b/c I'm really concerned that certain weaknesses
are not going to get addressed in special education (she's currently in
a self-contained program and will be in self-contained w/some
mainstreaming next year. Or at least that's the plan right now). So
I've got these books that I'm looking through....
Not really sure if I'm asking anything or what, but thought I'd
introduce myself.
Emily

Folks:
The first of a number of web based opinion polls has been posted at
www.tclc.com please take the time to visit and fill in the poll for us.
Additionally, we have created a web board for folks to use if they so
choose. Even should you decide not to use the web board or other resources
on the site, please take the time to fill out our web based poll.
Many regards,
C. A. Thomas, Ph.D., Board Certified Behavior Analyst
Executive Center Director
Clinical Director
The Childhood Learning Center
www.tclc.com
"Behave; as if you could help it"

Hi all,
I am trying to write a job description for a teacher assistant to shadow
my son in school as well as provide some one-on-one ABA/Verbal
Behavior. I am trying to get the school to hire my ABA therapist, and I
need both general and specific qualifications, experience, training and
attributes. So far this is what I have:
The TA (teaching assistant) myst be able to work independently without
direct supervision, perform the one-on-one sessions in a structured
consistent format while understanding and using proper procedures for
prompting, fading, reinforcing, extinguishing unwanted behaviors, etc.
They must also be able to take data simultaneously while working on
specific IEP objectives, troubleshoot if they run into problems, review
the program on a daily basis and be able to interpret data to decide
what areas to work on, and deal with specific behavioral situations as
they arise during the day. Finally they need to know how to
effeectively support and aid my son during his classroom inclusion time,
with a minimum of intrusiveness.
What do you think - am I missing anything? Amy suggestions will be
welcome.
Barb

Hi,
I am looking for providers of DTT/NET/AVB in the Northern Virginia
area. In my experience, most of the ABA therapists in this area
follow the NNP strategy, etc. and I like what I am reading about VB.
As an SLP, this methodology appears to have its merits and has even
peaked my interest so I will be attending the Carbone seminar in NJ
at the end of the month.
Thanks in advance for you help,
Nikia

Hi,
Gee that was a rater distressing note to read since my son is 7 and is
having some emergence of aggressive behaviors that I pray do not escalate
but can and probably will at some point, and thinking of my child's size
when he will be 12 will make him formidable, and possibly frightening.
I have been reading a bit here and there on "teach the individual" and
techniques for self management and don't know that much about it yet but
these are techniques to teach the child to self manage behaviors. I hope it
has some merit for my son since I am looking for ways to help him
transition, and control behavior as well. We have found that some simple
things like setting a timer so he knows when his movie will be over helps.
We set it if necessary for five minutes and he knows when it rings that's
it, and it's bed time etc. We also have index cards with red
lights/green lights. Just green or red circles. When he gets a red light
for inappropriate aggressive whiny behavior or whatever behavior we have
targeted as troublesome, the things he holds near and dear are removed from
his sight. As soon as he regains control of himself, we flash him, the
green light and immediately hand him back his stuff. (my son has a love
affair with books, so to take them out of his sight is bothersome to him
and he immediately tries to get back in control to get his books back
again. I think having control of his "stuff" gives us some power. As soon
as I take his comfort measures (for him it's books), and he sees them
disappearing he immediately attempts to comply, and the books immediately
come back.
I don't know that that will help you but I do sympathize with what you are
going through and am worried about these same issues myself.
Thanks
cate

Penny and list,
Including my reply, three moms of twins replied. What's up with this? Is
this just a coincidence? I'm assuming Karla's twins, below, are identical,
and mine and the other set fraternal, but I'm very intrigued by this. Has
anyone out there heard anything about the study being done about pitosin,
the drug used to induce labor, and a possible connection with autism? I
read about it in a Newsweek magazine, but it was just a hypothosis at that
time. How many of you have children with autism whose birth was induced?
Just curious.
By the way, Penny, as we celebrated our boys' 3rd birthday tonight, though
Aaron didn't always seem to really be a part of the event, when he sang "You
Are My Sunshine" and "My Favorite Things" you could hear a pin drop. It was
a precious moment that I wish I would have taped. Amazing, isn't it, that
he has tremendous trouble communicating effectively, but can memorize
literally dozens of songs and sing them, without the usual shyness that
accompanies most children his age. I recently taught him "High Hopes" about
the little ant moving the rubber tree plant since it seems like his life
story. I hope he can truly understand that we do believe that.
Karen, in St. Louis

Oh, my God, I'm so sicking of singing the same old sad song. My son
will be five next month. We have been doing ABA/VB for over two years.
He is basically non-verbal. We have tried many different approaches but
he hates to work and I think I've killed our program. We've been using
cards and objects for a while now. I've been so intent on trying to get
language out of him that I'm probably screwing it and him all up. He
does pretty well on a few mands, I say few cause there's hardly anything
he ever wants. He can echo if he wants to but I'm sure he has apraxia
as well. He has the ability to memorize and by that I mean auditory
wise, in that he does well with IV skills. But that's simply a rote
memorization. He has no spontaneous language other than, "give me chip,
give me juice, swing." What does he like? Just to perservate on
movies. Not the least bit interested in animation on TV because he
can't rewind or fast forward. I know...take movies away. I've tried on
different occasions but I always break down. I have two daughters, six
and three. They are EXTREMELY DEMANDING (I know that's my fault). My
husband works all the time so I am essentially parenting on my own. He
sees them maybe two hours per day on a good day. We have a small retail
business and I do the books for it. I'm also trying to start a
foundation to pay for all this craziness. We've gone so far in debt
because in addition to the huge ABA bills with tutors and consultants,
we do lots of biomedical treatments, chelation, FGF therapy, etc. I've
spent a college education in the last two years. I'm sick of telling my
girls we can't afford this or that. I'm stressed out to the max and
I've even been on depressants for over a year. How do you all deal with
no progress? He has improved since he was diagnosed at two but very
little. He's still not even cognitively at a two year old. Has he
improved enough that I can justify $40,000. gone and my life miserable.
I'm not the kind of person to give up because I could never live with
myself if I did, but what do you do when a program is just not reaching
your kid? He has no imaginative play and only chews on toys so
floortime doesn't really seem to be a great option either. He would be
happy in a world of total video vegetation. Sometimes I really envy
those parents who put their kids in school and that's it. No ABA, no
diet, no supplements, no blood draws, no injections, just plain ignorant
bliss. Don't get me wrong...I'm not giving up on the biomedical because
I really believe personally that you need that in order to get through
to teach. But it all gets so exhausting. I'm tired of paying my tutors
to go off and do something fun somewhere with him so that they'll be
tied with reinforcement. It doesn't work when it comes to going back to
work. It's hard for me to go off and do the fun things with him unless
I still pay someone because my girls are always demanding all my
attention.
I guess that's it for the ranting. I know I don't have it nearly as bad
as some but I'm just so frustrated and burnt out and he's not even five
yet. How does everyone deal with no progress and the thought that your
child may be like this forever? Again, I am referring to a child who is
very low functioning. Even though you love them like crazy, how do you
accept that?
Thanks,
Penny

We have just started a Verbal behavior program for my son who is 12 and
moderately involved. Transitions and general compliance have always been
issues that have gotten worse only because of his size, now. We have brought
in a person in the process of getting their CBA and we decided that refusal
to transition ( task avoidance or seeking of tangibles) often shifted into
negative attention seeking in which is now getting aggressive. Given his
size we cannot restrain and have decided to just remove ourselves, as long
as he is not able to go back and get what it is he is creaming or yelling
about.
trainer - time to stop TV. Please turn off the TV we need to brush teeth.
child - ignored request - or yelled no
trainer - after 3 second wait - reaches over and turns off TV "Tv off, brush
teeth"
Child - grabs at TV or attempts to hit or bite trainer.
Trainer blocks child's access to TV and initiates a compliance request -
touch your nose - sit quietly
Child ignores compliance request and does not seem to be processing anything
and is intensley focused on doing what it takes to get the TV
child - grabbing at TV, attempts to bite, or hit
trainer - Unplugs TV and leaves the area
child - goes after trainer and follows trainer where ever she may go to
avoid him, and he continues his agresses.
As long as trainer stays where child can gain access, he will go after her
and escalate his behavior until he gets what he wants or someone distracts
him.
We have decided to run a program that starts with shaping the behavior of
turning the TV off on request and immed reinforcing it so that we can work
towards him turing it off w/ o a reinforcer while also getting some task
completed.
However, in the meantime, his negative attention seeking behavior is being
dealt with by just locking ourselves in the bedroom where he cannot get us.
He does not continue throwing things so have no fear of him or property
being harmed.
Any comments on how this might be better handled?
Thanks.

Listmates:
Here is some updated information on the workshop Dr. McGreevy will be giving in
NC on July 28-29.
I should mention that Dr. McGreevy is donating the proceeds of this workshop to
our school, The Mariposa School for Children with Autism, which is located here
in Raleigh, NC.
For those who are interested, Dr. McGreevy is working with The Mariposa School
as our Consultant. We will be opening on September 4, 2001.
For more information about our school, please visit our website at
http://www.rtphome.org/mariposa
We will be opening registration for new students shortly. In the meantime, if
you would like to be put on a list, please fill out the form on our website and
we will make sure you are contacted as soon as our application is available.
We will also be raffling a 2002 Ford Expedition to raise money for the school.
Tickets will be $100, and we are limiting the number sold to 1500. (It is my
understanding that the cost of the raffle ticket may be taken as a tax
deductible contribution.)
For those of you who have not been to a workshop by either Dr. Carbone or Dr.
McGreevy, I definitely recommend attending this. When I heard these two men
present in Greensboro, NC in March 2000, I was so inspired by the kind of
success they had had with what many people describe as "low functioning"
children, that I came back home and immediately started converting our ABA
program over to VB. By Christmas of 2000, my previously non-verbal son was
talking! And SO MUCH HAPPIER!
I hope to see some of you in NC on July 28-29!
P.S. Dr. McGreevy's website has not yet been updated with the online
registration (he's a busy man) so for now, I would suggest just sending a check
to him, and/or sending me your name and the number of seats you want at the
workshop.
Cindy (Cary, NC)
persistentC@...
http://www.rtphome.org/mariposa
Teaching Communication Skills to Children and Adults
with Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities
A Two-Day Introduction to Verbal Behavior
conducted by
Patrick McGreevy, Ph.D. and Colleen Cornwall, M. S.
July 28-29, 2001
8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Sheraton Imperial Hotel & Convention Center
Research Triangle Park (Raleigh-Durham), North Carolina USA
This workshop, which is designed for parents, teachers, speech/language
pathologists, in-home therapists, psychologists, and behavior analysts,
describes the Verbal Behavior approach to teaching communication skills to vocal
and non-vocal children and adults with autism and other developmental
disabilities. This approach, which is based on B.F. Skinner's analysis of verbal
behavior and the work of Sundberg, Partington, Michael, and others, begins with
expressive language and includes specific teaching procedures. Additional
procedures have been added by Drs. Vincent Carbone and Patrick McGreevy. This
approach, with these additional procedures, often results in young children who
spontaneously request and describe specific items and events, and initiate and
participate in conversations which include a variety of questions and answers.
Older children and adults often learn to make specific requests and participate
in limited conversations.
The registration fee includes a 300-page training manual written by Mark
Sundberg and Jim Partington, a set of guided notes written by Dr. Patrick
McGreevy, and refreshments. Proceeds will benefit Mariposa School.
Location and Directions -- a shuttle is available from the Raleigh-Durham
Airport. From Highway 70 East or West, exit unto 540 South; go 3 miles and exit
onto I-40 West; continue to Exit 282 -- Page Rd.; turn right on Page Rd.; turn
left at Imperial Center (Emperor Blvd.) and proceed one block to the Sheraton.
From I-95 South, exit onto Hwy 64 West; proceed to 440 North, Exit 7 (Glenwood
Ave. and Hwy 70 West); turn right and proceed 8 miles to 540 South; turn right
on I-40 West to Exit 282 -- Page Rd. Hotel rooms are available at a rate of
75.00 and 95.00 per night. Call the Sheraton for reservations (919-941-8111) and
indicate you will be attending the Communication Skills Workshop. Reservations
must be made by June 29, 2001 to insure availability and room rate.
Send this registration form with a check or purchase order to:
Patrick McGreevy, Ph.D., P.A.
(Federal Tax ID No.: 59-3388974)
P.O. Box 140251
Orlando, FL 32814 USA
Or register online at www.behaviorchange.com
* EARLY REGISTRATION (Must be postmarked or received online by July 15, 2001)
* Parent or professional: $195.00 per person
* Additional members of a family or in-home training team (paid for by a
parent): $170.00 per person
* Full time students: $140.00 per student
* Late and On-Site Registration: $210.00 per person

I am wondering if anyone ever formed a respite coop with other parents.
Everyone has such a problem with respite, that my cousin suggested we help each
other. Has anyone ever tried this and if so, does it work smoothly? I am
concerned about finding respite as my child ages. It's hard enough now.

Diana,
I have heard that the book "potty training in a day" by Doug Greer is very
helpful for some parents. The gist of it is that you spend a whole day in
the bathroom with TONS of drinks and reinforcers and maybe a TV, and you fill
he up and constantly put her on the potty so that she has lots of
opportunities to have success. And then when she does go she gets HUGE
reinforcers.
Good Luck,
Krista

That is a tough situation. Please post if you find a solution. My inclination
would be to send him with a shadow. The problem is expecting a general
preschool to be behavioral. The therapeutic approach rarely works with our
kids. If they are resistant to you having a shadow who uses ABA techniques then
you might have to find another school. You probably don't want him at a place
with such prejudice against the only known effective therapy for autism anyway.
If you have to keep him there, I suppose you will have to continue to beat on
the director regarding how they deal with his behavior. The peer interaction is
very important, and you probably should keep him there for the modeling. It's
tough, let us know how it works out.

My son went to Kennedy Krieger today for a speech evaluation/consult, and I
came away with two what I consider to be GREAT ideas that could serve as a
bridge to play boards, for those of you who are using visuals to teach play
scripts.
Basically, you make a simple book. On the cover, you can put PECS pictures
like "My pizza book", and then inside, you tell a story which is in reality
a play script with 1-3 related PECS pictures on each page. But the kids can
follow along with the pictures while you show them the book, its a table
activity really, and my son loves touching the picture (which also has the
word typed above it). But the beauty is that the PECS pictures acquire
meaning, so when he sees them on his play board he'll remember where they
fit into the play sequence.
The second idea which I loved even more was to use a 5 1/2 by 8 1/2
notebook, filled with laminated halves of file folders that have a velcro
strip across the top for a story line, a blue line below the velcro strip as
a page divider, and then a bunch of velcro strips on the bottom for choices.
It could still be "My pizza book" for example, but on each page of the
story, the child makes a choice verbally and moves the PECS picture to
complete the sentence on top of the blue line and then he could verbally
"read" the line. So the child basically creates his own play script, which
could be done concurrently on the floor with play or before play.
I could see all of this stuff being faded back to picture boards present
during play, and then eventually faded away completely once the child learns
the play repetoire. But I like the visual, non-directive component to these
ideas.
Angela

Hello all,
I would be thankful for any information that any of you can send my way for a
relative of a good friend who is living in Israel and has a 20 month old
daughter who is exhibiting many signs of autism or other dissorder on the
spectrum. She is awaiting a diagnosis of some kind but doesn't know where to
turn for help.
If you are able to let me know of any centers which provide DTT/NET/VBA/ABA or
the like anywhere in Israel, please respond to me at talkwithmebooks@... .
Thanks in advance for you assistance.
Also if you can recommend a good book or two that would be useful for a parent
just beginning their journey to provide programming for their child, please send
that my way also.
Thanks again,
Judy Weiser
Judy Weiser talkwithmebooks@...

Our insurance co. is looking for more information when considering our
claim. If anyone out there has won this battle, can you suggest how I answer
this?
"Provide expected duration of therapy and anticipated goals of ABA Therapy"
Does anyone have a good answer to this?
Thanks,
Linda

My son has been doing ABA for 16 months with great results. He is now talking at
about an age 3 level and is on his way. However we are having some trouble with
the pre-school. He has no peer relationships yet, but is willing to parallel
play and join in group play (especially if it is non-language based stuff like
chasings, or music like Ring a Ring a Rosy). However, a new director has started
at the pre-school and she is very critical of ABA and doesn't want too much one
on one with Jack being done in the pre-school as she thinks it will not teach
him to be included and gives the other kids a notion that he is 'special' in a
negative way. She is unbelievably politically correct and feels ABA doesn't
build up his self-esteem blah, blah, blah...you can imagine the rest. None of
this bothered me too much, as my therapists and i kind of went on anyway and
didn't get into it HOWEVER, it is now starting to effect Jack's behaviour down
there. I think he is starting to understand what he can get away with down
there, not only that, but everytime he does something wrong, they run to him,
lots of fuss is made and obviously is reoccurring and escalating.
The director refuses any ABA behaviour ideas like extinction, but also blankly
refuses Time Out. My son who has previously never been this naughty or
aggressive isn't going ahead there at all, but i am reluctant to throw the baby
out with the bathwater. This behaviour is not happening at home and he is
working better than ever in therapy. We have been starting to implement more AVB
methods with fantastic success, so it is a shame this is not being utilised in
the pre-school environment. The AVB idea of prompting him with language at the
exact time of the frustuation is great and he is know spontaneously using words
like "Can i have it" "I don't want to".
Has anyone navigated this path before and has anyone got any ideas for behaviour
management in pre-schools. I feel if it is not nipped in the bud, there is no
real point to him being down there, but he desperately needs peer interactions.
Any ideas would be much appreciated
Nicole Rogerson

Please note: this awesome workshop has had the date changed to June 30th
so there is no conflict with CycleUSA. We can do it all!!
These talented ABA therapist recently gave a program on playskills and
were so flooded with requests that they have organized a small workshop
like no other!
I am happy to recommend Nancy Wainscott and Cara Kelso's efforts to
teach children to play and be social kids! If you are interested in help
with play you might persue:
PLAYSKILLS WORKSHOP
June 30th, 2001
9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Presented by Nancy Wainscott and Cara Kelso with Therapy House, Fort
Worth, Texas
This workshop will include detailed guidelines with videotape
demonstrations on how to set up play and social programs. The day will
include lecture, overview of language sequence for play skills, and
small group consultation.
Groups will pair up based on skill levels of target child.
Attendants are required to bring a 10-minute compilation video of your
child's play and social skills.
Workshop is limited to 10 people. Reservations are first come first
serve basis. Workshop fee is 200.00 per attendant. Lunch is included.
RSVP to conzato@...
sincerely,
Laura

Stumbled on this - Looks pretty good ... any reviews?
http://autismsocialvideos.com/
Christina Droze
czd@...

Dear DTT-NET List.
I understand from Behavior Analysts that we will be getting our first
shipment of the new Partington video " Teaching Verbal Behavior: An
Introduction to Parents Teaching Language". It should be on my site by
Monday but if not, you can always call 1 800 853 1057 or email me directly at
julie@.... It's called DRL 208 for 49.95.
Sorry, I don't have more details on the video but all of our NET parents are
asking for videos on VB and I was thrilled that we were able to include it in
our catalog without an image.
Warmest regards
Julie at Different Roads to Learning, Inc.

The following is a new list for VB professionals. Please refer to the
following web site for more information.

My son has been saying the word for the object he is pointing to during
receptive trials for the last 6 months. We have been happy with the
"free" tacts to encourage sponataneous language but have now noticed
that most of these "free" tacts are said with sloppy articulation. We
have been giving full reinforcement for performing the receptive trial
correctly but now realize we may be also be reinforcing poor
articulation at the same time.
Articulation has and is a big sticking point in Michael's progress so we
want to look at this issue closely to see if anyone has experienced this
or have good ideas on how to deal with it. We are thinking of following
the reinforcement of the correct receptive trial with an echoic trial as
shown below and appreciate any comments on this plan.
Trainer: Show me your nose
Michael: Touches nose and says dose
Trainer: Nice touching nose (differentially reinforce with 3/4
enthusiasm of full reinforcement)
Trainer: Say nose
Michael: nose
Trainer: Nice saying nose (full reinforcement)
Is the plan to tone done our reinforcing voice a bit for the correct
receptive response a good idea when the spontaneous sloppy tact is
added?
Is one echoic trial enough after the sloppy tact assuming the echoic
trial produces Michael's best articulation for the word?
Thanks for any comments.
Dave Adams

These talented ABA therapist recently gave a program on playskills and
were so flooded with requests that they have organized a small workshop
like no other!
I am happy to recommend Nancy Wainscott and Cara Kelso's efforts to
teach children to play and be social kids! If you are interested in help
with play you might persue:
PLAYSKILLS WORKSHOP
June 23, 2001
9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Presented by Nancy Wainscott and Cara Kelso with Therapy House, Fort
Worth, Texas
This workshop will include detailed guidelines with videotape
demonstrations on how to set up play and social programs. The day will
include lecture, overview of language sequence for play skills, and
small group consultation.
Groups will pair up based on skill levels of target child.
Attendants are required to bring a 10-minute compilation video of your
child's play and social skills.
Workshop is limited to 10 people. Reservations are first come first
serve basis. Workshop fee is 200.00 per attendant. Lunch is included.
RSVP to conzato@...
sincerely,
Laura

Greetings-
For those who liked my What's Wrong With the Picture images, here is an
e-source:
http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=0EVP0JWRH6&mscs\
sid=VUGWSFL133D98HCDNM9SRMWP05DS8KXE&isbn=0486244857
Enjoy-
Laura Dyson

List:
At a recent conference I attended there was some interest in starting a list
for professionals who are currently implementing verbal behavior programs.
This list would be limited to professionals only. The list would be
moderated and your membership would have to be approved. If you are
interested in this please email privately and I will work on getting
something together.
Jenn
ABAqueen1@...

Also, try Super Duper Publications at www.superduperinc.com. They have lots
of "fun decks (of cards)." Including What's missing, what's wrong, what's
different.
Julia

Also, materials for what's
wrong/missing? Such as a picture of a bike without a wheel, or a face
without
a nose. We need to begin this program as well, but I haven't had any
luck
finding those materials either.
Thanks.
Michelle
Mom to Ian & Ethan,
4 year old twins
Greetings Michelle and Listers-
I have found a great inexpensive source. Dover Publication 'What's Wrong
With This Picture Coloring Book' ISBN #0-486-24485-7 . The price is
$2.50, you read right $2.50. Author is Anna Pomaska.
The book contains a series of charming (realistically drawn) scenes,
usually featuring children- at the beach, on a farm, enjoying the
zoo,...In each scene, however there are a number of things wrong-
objects that do not belong where they are,... The pictures can be
colored to make the odd things easy to see.
And get this! I scanned some of them, colored them on my computer paint
program, and can print them out that way. And I will send you the
attachments if you would like them to print out! The work is already
done by me to share!!! These are so much better than the cartoonish
cards of a silly duck wearing rain boots, or bear flying an airplane
with no propeller. My kids lives are filled with pretend, those just
weren't clear enough; these are!
Happy materials solution ($2.50, can you believe it!)
Laura

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone lives in Oregon, New Mexico or Arizona. My
husband my be transferred to one of these states. If anyone has information
or know of, please email me. I would like to know if there are any good
services there. Thanks Barbara

For all those interestdin the the development of behaviro analysis, the
Pennsyvania Department of Public welfare has put out a bulletin which I
believe will definately aide the profession in developing. I encourage all
on this list, whether in Pa or not to write:
DPW/OMHSAS P.O. Box 2675 Beechmont Building #32, Harrisburg State Hospital
Harrisburg, PA 17105

Does anyone have Dr. Patrick McGreevy's web site address or phone number?
thanks,
Jackie

I am a parent of a six year old son with autism and recently
attending Vince Carbone's workshop here in the Washington, D.C.
area. We are now implmenting the program for Eric and he is
responding beautifully. I am indebted to Dr. Carbone for sharing his
wonderful program that so effectively addressed some of the pitfalls
of tradional ABA (which we have being doing with Eric for 5 years).
I wanted to share with those of you who live in this information on
an upcoming workshop presented by the organization I founded last
summer: STEP Seminars. The workshop "Organizing the Home Enviornment
to Help Your Child with Special Needs" will be held June 11th at the
Women's Club in Bethesda, Maryland from 7:00 - 9:30 p.m. Our speaker
is Dr. Robin Allen, a behavior specialist who has been working with
individuals with developmental delays (with an emphasis on those on
the autism spectrum) for more than 20 years. In this workshop, Dr.
Allen will share strategies that can be immediately implemented in
the home to help foster better communication, increased independence
and safety for your child. Her lecture will be augmented with dozens
of displays of visuals to use with your child as well as
organizational tools to help you keep your home and your chld's
therapy efforts running smoothly. For more informaiton, or to
register contact stepseminars@... or call 3010495-8824.
Registration fee is $40 and includes a comprehensive packet of
materails to help you get your home organized for the upcoming summer
months and the years ahead.
Sincerely,
Cathy Dirksen
Eric's Mom and founder of STEP Seminars

My family is relocating to the Spartanburg/Greenville area of SC. I
have 2 children with special needs and would like to correspond with
any parent or professional that can provide me with information about
resources and schools.
Thanks,
Becky

Hi,
I've noticed that http://jerichoschool.org/ has been down for a few days.
Is it down forever? Has Dr. Carbone brought up his own webpage yet? Does
anyone know what his URL will be?
Thanks,
-Kathy Harris, parent
http://www.kathyandcalvin.com

Dear Listers,
I am finally getting to go to the National ABA Conference this year, being
held in New Orleans. I will be attending for the entire conference, and
staying in the Holiday Inn SuperDome, near the Hyatt where the actual
conference is.
I will be registered there under Jennie Ladew-Duncan, and would be
delighted to meet, have coffee, drink, breakfast, lunch, dinner or nightcap
with listmates I have come to know over the years through these lists who
might be attending.
I promise my spoken sentences are a little bit less run on.
I am excited to be attending and hope I learn a lot more, which I suspect I
will. While I am by no means a professional, I have outgrown most of the
related conferences and seminars for parents and the introductary &
intermediary level ABA workshops. I am looking forward to having to really
think again and be confused. ;-)
Jennie "Isaac's mom"

Hi everyone,
I am having difficulty getting across social skills and communication. My son
often misinterprets social situations. He often mistakes a sudden touch from
peers as a hit or push and this is causing problems.
Does anyone know of a videotape that teaches social skills and communication
aimed at 4-7yr olds. It doesn't have to be specifically made for autistic
children just something that gives him some idea of what is appropriate
behaviour. This would be a fantastic aid. Any suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks
Jenny Law

Hi,
We have been doing an in aba program for over a year and it is going
great,(getting close to finishing ABLS).
We are trying to find a social skills group for an almost 5 year old. We
are in central New Jersey.
Does any one have any feedback on Minding Miracles, in Old Bridge, New
Jersey?
Any info on any Social skills Groups would greatly be appreciated.
Thanks!

I just wanted to pass on this information to anyone struggling with
prepositions.
For a long time we tried to teach prepositions as a discrimination.
Which one is "on"
Which one is "under"
Using stuff on/under the table and chair.
For over a year we tried this program every couple of months. We tried it
both receptively and expressively. We used text prompts, verbal prompts,
hand over hand prompts, reinforcing items, etc... Nothing worked.
Finally I decided ok, lets at least teach him one preposition. So we taught
"on table" "on TV" "on chair" and had him say it. We expanded this to
"on nose" "on head" "on foot".
Then we taught "in box" "in shoe"
And then "under castle" "under book" "under bus"
I think the things that worked were:
1. no discrimination required
2. varied the locations and included the location not just the preposition
so it was not just "on" it was "on TV"
3. taught expressively first, skipped receptive, he needed to imitate it
verbally
Hope these tips save you from the struggle we went through.
Diana

Hi, we have a terrific ABA therapist that unfortunately (for us) is moving
to Layfayette, LA. I highly recommend her. She will be moving around June
8th. Please email me back privately if you are interested.
Thanks,
Kim
kedejong@...

Hi! I wanted to get in touch with parents who live in the Fresno area in
California. I am looking for information about their school districts
and programs available for autistic children.
Please respond to my address above or to my friend whose email address
is :
jlconti@...
Thank you.
Sara

First I don't fully understand the question.
The special ed director of my son school district said my son is 6 years old,
by law he should stay at school as long as any other kids does. In our school
it is 6 hours and 5 minutes.
Do you want Zach stay longer or shorter at school?
Dongfang (Dawn)

Hi, I'm a mom of a 3 1/2-year-old boy recently diagnosed as PDD-NOS
and SID. I'm creating a Web site to share resources about the autism
spectrum disorders. Check it out at http://www.asdcentral.org and
share your resources with me.
Janet Kalbhen

I am wondering if anyone else on the list uses
intellikeys as a keyboard for their child with autism.
Our school bought this keyboard along with the
Intellitools software for Jonny. It works with
Boardmaker, and you can put the pictures (or words)
right on the keyboard. So far, it seems like a great
teaching tool for Jon, and I am amazed at its
flexibility.
I am just learning how to use it and would like
to swap ideas with someone else. In particular, I am
trying to figure out how to make it work with other
software, such as Living Books or Labeling Tutor. I
am also trying to figure out how to do the frame
animation with it. Any one else out there using it?
What do you think about it?
Linda

Hi Helpful Souls:
My son has the worst time getting tacts. He does great with IV and
pretty good with RFFC but can't get tacts. His receptive is ok. To me
you should know the name of an object before you go into its functions
and the concept of it. First question regards number of targets. I
have three tutors. Each one has their own book with their own targets.
They took two targets to work on in each of the following categories;
noun/label/match, RFFC, tacts, IV, and ID people. This makes a total of
30 targets across all tutors. He is not getting anything to mastery.
We were figuring he probably only gets 20-30 trials per week on each
item. We also do alot of matching, imitation and some follow direction.
Is this too many targets? I'm beginning to think so. I don't want him
to get bored, we have LOTS of pictures but he's not retaining any of
this. We do probes first thing of the session and last of the session.
How many targets should we have and from how many different categories?
I have been doing this particular drill the last few days with almost
everything. He is good at matching and this helps him scan. I lay out
3-5 cards. Each card has a matching card. The card may or may not be
identical. I hold up the target card and say "give me _____" he
receptively gives me the card by looking at the match card. I then say
"good, what is it?". Hopefully he tacts. Then I give him the card and
say "match". He matches and I say "good, what did you match?", for a
second tact. Does this make sense to everyone or is it too many
prompts? I've begun to not show the match card right away when I do the
receptive but if goes for the wrong one I quickly hold it up.
My next request is for a video. I would love to see videos of other
people's programs with a child similar to my sons learning level. He is
nearly five, low functioning (sorry to use that phrase), has been doing
ABA for two years, has a pretty good echoic, good IV skills, ok on
imitation and is very hard to get his attention. I would really
appreciate ANYONE sending me a video of their child at work. You can
e-mail me privately and I will give you my address. I will send a check
for postage and the cost of the tape.
Thank you all, especially if you got to the end of this long-winded
tale.
Penny

We have had some luck in our program in organizing materials by using small
bins, labeled for programs, such as Tacts, RFFC, Categories, Actions, etc. We
found small about 4X6 bins at Walmart that are stackable and fit our cards well.
The trainers can use as many bins as they need at one time. It does require
some memory ability on their part to remember which card goes where, but I know
other programs have color dots on the back of each card to correspond to the
different programs. It's not perfect, but it does help. Michele Larrow

I just had to add my two cents and say that I agree wholeheartedly with
this. Yes early intervention is important, yes the more our children learn
early the easier it is later, BUT, learning is lifelong! As Joyce wrote in
her message, Clara Parks wrote a wonderful sequel to the Seige called
"Exiting Nirvana", and you should SEE the wonderful art her daughter Jessie
produces. She holds a job in the Williams mailroom. And as Clara was
writing the book, Jessie started showing the first signs of "mind reading",
that is, anticipating how someone else might feel - specifically, Jessie was
walking with her father on the beach, returned to the house to get a jacket
because she was cold, and brought one for her father even though he didn't
ask for one! In her forties!
Yes I HOPE that my own son will be one of the amazingly lucky ones, who can
lose his diagnosis through lots of hard work and his own talents, but there
is a part of me that takes such comfort in KNOWING that he will continue to
progress and learn and grow and do new amazing things REGARDLESS of his
diagnosis. And life will become easier to navigate, period.
I haven't read "There's a boy in here", but would love to if I can ever pick
one up off of EBAY since its out of print. If anyone has one they want to
sell me give me a holler :)
Angela

Hi - I was wondering if someone who uses sign with their child might be able to
help me out a little. I work with a little guy who has very poor fine motor
imitation skills. He seems to have "global" apraxia and has a very hard time
isolating finger movements and his low attention skills are further adding to
the imitation problems. Ex. NVI - I touch ears using both hands/pointers --
he touches eyes because that is the general gesture for that. I touch knee --
he touches thigh. He doesn't seem to pay much attention to details and is
picking up on the general motion. His gross motor program is pretty good for
items that have been taught and he can get novel ones most of the time while in
therapy. His verbal goes in cycles -- from great to mushy. Bless his heart,
he has worked very hard to produce the words. It is still difficult for others
to understand most of the words he has and he is not using them a great deal for
manding (except the biggies - like candy, cookie, juice etc...) At some point he
may benefit and need to add sign language in order to keep up with his receptive
language and programming. I wanted to ask some folks who have "been there and
done that". Questions: How can we work on increasing the fine motor/imitation
skills so that the signs won't be as mushy as the language? And if we accept
approximations for the signs - will we still be in the same situation of not
being able to understand what he is saying? Have you taught specific signs for
all the objects the child might request? Or have you taught a generic sign
ex."toy" and have that accompany the specific verbal approximation of the object
ex. "barney". Or did you have to come up with a sign for each item? I'm
thinking that you probably come up with a sign for each one -- ugh!!! That is
the daunting part - and I'm not sure the parent is wanting/ or the child is
capable physically (at this point) of doing this. Advice would be greatly
appreciated. Thanks so much.
Christina Droze
czd@...

I sent an e-mail to Jennie privately but also wanted to post because I think
the message here is important. I don't think any parent should ever "give
up" on teaching speech. The critical thing is to be sure the child has some
way to mand while speech is developing. The use of augmentative systems
(signs, PECS etc.) is not to replace speech but to teach the child the value
of communicating by allowing access to reinforcers for communicative
attempts. I've worked with hundreds of children and have never seen a child
stop trying to talk as a result of using an augmentative system. In fact,
the reverse has always occurred in my experience. We start to get more and
more vocal attempts because the words are paired with reinforcement. That
doesn't mean that you stop trying to shape the use of spoken words through
both the mand (as long as the response effort is not killing the reinforcer)
and carefully planned echoic trials designed to keep the child successful.
I do believe that intensity is the key, however, no matter how many hours of
therapy the child receives, the child needs multiple opportunities to both
mand for reinforces and to practice specific sound sequences throughout the
day in order for the therapy to be of benefit.
These kids (an parents) do work hard and need to be applauded (heavily
reinforced!!) for every vocal attempt they learn to produce under volitional
control!
Tracy Vail

I'm sure some of you were in the same position I am now. My son has been in a
traditional discrete trial program for 5 years. As you can imagine, we have many
maintenance and active drill materials, which we organized in labeled file
folders, in two separate file boxes (active & maintenance box). We always worked
one drill at a time, so organization was easy, just pull out the folder do your
drill and return folder to box. Now with intermixing drills (materials) I'm lost
as to what the most efficient way to organize our materials is. Today was our
first day, we pulled 2 cards from every different folder and used those as our
80% to intersperse with new introductions. It is too time consuming to refile
them in the same folders and we also don't know how to then tell what we've
covered and what is left to be covered. It almost seems like we should just
throw out all the individual file folders and throw all the cards in one big box
that labeled undone and then transfer it to a done box as we use the cards.
Help? Am I making too much out of this. I acknowledge we are discete trial
dinosaurs and data was so important that I don't know how to make this jump. Any
and all suggestions would be welcomed dearly.
Sincerely,
Sherry Mercer

Hi, my son is going to Kennedy Krieger in June. Does anyone have experience
with Dr. Allgood-Hill (psychologist), Melinda Sutherland (SLP), or Dr.
Gonzalez (psychiatrist)?
I understand Dr. Gonzalez will be administering an "ADI" test, which is
largely a parent interview, to determine my son's diagnosis.
Does anyone have any information about this??
Thank you. Angela

Dear list,
I just emailed one person on this list about this question, and
then decided to email the whole list.
My son who is almost seven, is completely nonverbal. He has no
spontaneous speech whatsoever, and he does not echo language. He
also has extreme difficulty imitating sounds. He gets stuck on one
or two sounds and those are the only sounds that he can say. Whenever
he adds a new sound, he also drops a sound. Right now, he says"ttt"
for everything. A few months ago, it was "ba". His speech
therapist says that he is apraxic. We have tried to get him to
vocalize sounds for what he wants, but he always just seems to say
the current sound of the week.
At age two, Jonny was speaking in sentences, and then he had an
autistic regression and did not ever regain his speech. Have any of
you ever used this program for an older child who is unable to
verbally imitate sounds? What did you do to help them make the
sounds?
Although Jonny is not improving at all verbally, he is
progressing in other areas of his program. He is successful using
activity schedules, and is beginning to learn to read (at least a
little). He has words on his choice board, which he uses
appropriately. He just seems to be unable to vocalize other than a
couple of sounds at a time.
Has anyone encountered this problem? Especially with an older
child?
Linda

Hi Jennie
Yes we do work on self help programmes - we are doing zippers at the moment
- after quite a while got all but the hardest part - I am also using the
ABLLS to check on things like fine motor and gross motor, and when I see
something that I think he can do we work it into daily life. So for example
my son pours the milk on the cereal for me. (which is a bit tricky)
I think the reason this list doesn't generally talk about it - is that it is
kept fairly free of discussions that are not about the VB component of
peoples ABA programmes. For me this is an attraction of the list.........
Catherine UK
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Hello Group,
I'm sure this has been asked before..........my 4 year old is on the milder
end of the spectrum(speech,cognitive skills are about 6 months behind
age,social skills are barely adequate).At present he is in a multihandicap
special ed classroom(7 students,1 teacher,2 aides).We(as well as his
doc,SLP)feel that he is ready for atleast some form of integration.Would
really appreciate to hear your thoughts on an appropriate educational
setting for children like him.
Thank you,
anjali

I have a question about how to deal with a child's verbal stimm. I work with a
seven year old child who is very bright and could do very well academically in
an integrated setting but has very interfering verbal behaviors that prevent him
from having success in inclusive settings. He giggles incessantly, sings songs,
shouts, babbles, and recites scenes from movies and T.V. shows. This behavior
occurs when he is excited, bored, scared etc... We have tried many programs to
help with this over the last several years. We have taught him to recognize and
discriminate between examples of "quiet" and "noisy" and implemented token
systems for quiet behaviors. We started an intervention that required him to
stay quiet in order to acquire very strong reinforcers. The program included a
digital timer, a personalized social story, and a visual "quiet" cue card. He
was very slow in increasing intervals of "quiet" and topped out at two minutes.
He also was never able to have success out of the very structured therapeutic
setting. I believe a great deal of his problem is probably physiological in
nature but as a strong behaviorist I feel that there has to be something other
than meds that can be done. He is already on Luvox and Depacane and I am not
sure than another medication would even help all together that much.
I have talked with other consultants and have had no success so I thought I
would throw it out to you guys!! Help!!
Shana

In a message dated 5/4/01 3:14:41 AM Central Daylight Time,

Hey guys,
I am way behind on my posts; it's Sat a.m. so i'm trying to catch up.
here's my thoughts on the april posts...if any one os still interested.
To Dianna (diabbagh @ home.net)- we started w/ a more lovaas style program
. it went great for about 3 weeks and then my son rebelled...would no longereven
go near the room (he was 3 at the time). i did some research and scouting
around, switched to a verbal behavior style program: eliminated the no-no
prompt, focused on errorless teaching (chid is prompted before he is allowed
to be wrong) and found heavy duty high interest motivators (at the time-anything
to do w/ star wars!) The turn around occurred in about a month. He loved the
new style...seemed more like play. He refe