re: School Time AGain, getting ABA type therapy at public school

[Guest guest]

Bottom line: there is A LOT of prejudice in the public schools about what

autistic children can learn. Reading and math is usually not included.

You'll have to call another ARD and have prepared a letter stating exactly

what your child reads now, and a list of about 150 - 600 (not as many as it

sounds) common, age appropriate words that you feel he will be able to read

by the end of the year.

You said your child can count to 100. That's fantastic. Does he

demonstrate understanding of the concepts of longer than, shorter than,

more, less, same, different? Can he sort objects into any kind of groups?

Ex. My child loves vehicles. I cut out vehicles shapes from various colors

of felt. I teach him addition and subtraction using these felt shapes. He

loves playing with them. So I frame it in " Here's a red bulldozer. Here

comes a green bulldozer. How many bulldozers are there now? " I've started

added equations with this now. My child just turned 5 about 3 weeks ago.

See if you can get ahold of a copy of " Behavioral Interventions for Young

Children with Autism " . One chapter is a fabulous checklist of a variety of

skills that will help keep you on track and assess what are the most

important skills he needs to be focusing on.

Also and MOST IMPORTANT. The best way to get close to having ABA in the

classroom without calling it ABA is to include in the IEP arequirement of

daily data collection that you the parent has access to upon request.

Examples of the type of data would be to check if he's on task (good during

inclusion time) say 20 minute period, check every 5 or 10 minutes to see if

he's doing what he's supposed to be doing. Or in reading, have them keep

track how many times they have to redirect his attention, or have them track

how much time your child spends in academic type learning versus being

entertained.. . .

For those of you interested in ABA in the Classroom. . . . .

TxABA SIG in Houston August meeting focuses on just that topic.

Bivens, a teacher with Spring Branch ISD ia pesenting the topice Topic:

ABA: It's Just Good Teaching Creating a Classroom for Young Children with

Developmental Disabilities Utilizing Effective ABA Principles

Ms. Bivens has experience as a private in-home ABA therapist working with a

BCBA consultant, and as a public school teacher. The past two years she

taught a pre-school class at the Bendwood School in Spring Branch ISD. Her

classroom was an excellent model of practical application of ABA principles.

The meeting is August 6, 2003 ; 6:30-8:30 p.m. at U of H central campus.

The contact person is listed on s event's calendar.

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