Educating the Experts

[Guest guest]

Hi List,

Here I am asking for help from the list without having been a

contributing member--sorry about that. I joined this list to try to figure

out whether these methods could help my son improve his language skills. I'm

still not sure (of course who ever is?) but I'm encouraged by what I have

read on this list. Vince Carbone is coming to Madison to present Workshop #1

in less than a month. We are pretty excited but I am writing to the list

because parents here in WI. Face a challenge that may be unique to our

situation but I'd like to ask those on this list for ideas.

In WI. any child with a disability can apply for a medical assistance

card through the Katy Beckett waiver. MA will provide an intensive in-home

ABA program through one of its certified providers. I think there are about

a half dozen providers but location and other factors make a choice of one or

two the realistic situation most families face.

These providers are not eager to change their programs and retrain their

therapists in these new methods. If there was a lot of parent demand that

could be a factor but there are only a couple of us who have even heard of

Carbone, Sundberg or Partington. Mention B.F. Skinner and they think that

you're giving an ABA history lesson.

So my questions for the list are:

1. What should I tell parents to get them excited to come and get their

ABA providers to come?

2. How can I motivate the local providers to want to learn this new

stuff?

I will appreciate any and all suggestions on or off list.

Thanks!

[Guest guest]

,

In response to your question about what to tell people to encourage them to

go to the conference put on by Dr. Carbone:

You can tell them that the course Dr. Carbone is offering is a course most

specific to teaching children language. If they want to learn more about the

science of behavior analysis as it relates to language acquisition, come and

learn. It's not magic, it's science. If the language component of the

programs they are working in or that their child is in has not been producing

the language acquisition results they want, then this course teaches some

wonderful strategies.

That being said, I can tell you that it offers all this as well as some other

great overall program strategies. For me, it was my need to learn more ways

and better ways to teach language that persuaded me to change my work

schedule, find childcare for my 3 children as my husband was out of the

country on business, travel out of town and pay for a hotel and meals as well

as the course to try and learn more about how to teach my son to even

communicate his basic needs and wants. He hod only 2 - 3 words a day of

spontaneous language (at 4 years, 8 months of age) when I went to this course

last February. Today, a year later, he has gained over 8 months of language

skills on standardized tests. He uses sign language with poorly articulated

voicing, but makes at least 100 spontaneous requests a day and another 200 -

400 prompted requests a day. He is beginning to make some 2 word requests

now.

Go and see for yourself. The focus on whether to go or not needs to be on

learning more about the ABA science for your child or the kids you serve.

The politics and the finances are issues to be figured out later. First, you

need to determine if you think it makes sense.

Tammy

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/27/00 4:35:15 PM Central Standard Time, TIS716@...

writes:

> The politics and the finances are issues to be figured out later.

Tammy, Excellent point. Thanks for your encouragement.