Behavior Analysis Center for Autism - BACA

BACA provides ABA therapy to help children with autism.

ABA

April is also Occupational Therapy month and it’s not over yet!

by

Spring is upon us! A time of year when kids are excited to get outside and play. However for some kids, playing outside is difficult and it shouldn’t be. If your child has difficulty with any of the following activities, he or she may benefit from occupational therapy services to make these activities FUN again!

Does your child have difficulty with any of the following activities?

  • Riding a bike or tricycle?
  • Pumping a swing?
  • Sitting on a swing without falling off?
  • Riding a scooter?
  • Propelling riding toys?
  • Playing on playground equipment?
  • Catching?
  • Throwing?
  • Running?
  • Jumping?
  • Skipping?
  • Sitting in the grass because he/she doesn’t like the way it feels on his/her legs?
  • Having sunscreen applied because he/she doesn’t like the way it feels?

Or does he or she have trouble with getting ready to go outside and play?

  • Getting dressed?
  • Putting shoes on?
  • Putting socks on?
  • Tying shoes?
  • Attaching Velcro on shoes?
  • Brushing teeth?
  • Combing hair?

If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, your child may benefit from an occupational therapy evaluation.

A child with delayed development may not demonstrate skills that are typical of the child’s age. He or she may have difficulty achieving increased independence and ease with feeding, dressing (such as putting a shirt on or tolerating the feeling of pants against their legs), gross motor activities (such as playing on a playground, catching, and jumping), fine motor activities (such as managing zippers, and buttons), visual motor activities (such as completing puzzles, copying from the board), and developing problem-solving and coping strategies.

Occupational therapists who work with children are knowledgeable about all stages of development and the appropriate milestones in a child’s physical, cognitive, and behavioral development.

What can an occupational therapist do?

Evaluate the child’s level of performance in critical developmental areas

Observe the child clinically and determine how to utilize therapeutic activities in order to facilitate development,  skill acquisition and generalization

  • Develop a plan of treatment independently or in coordination with other health care professionals who are treating the child
  •  Recommend adaptive equipment to facilitate the development of age-appropriate skills

What can parents and families do?

  • Stay educated about and involved in the child’s treatment plan.\
  • Follow up with the treating occupational therapist and health professionals to encourage further development and track progress.

– See more at The American Occupational Therapy Association Inc.

In Maryland, habilitation services like occupational therapy are covered by the autism mandate. Habilitative services are therapeutic services that are provided to children with a genetic or congenital condition to enhance the child’s ability to function. Habilitative Services include, but are not limited to, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Behavioral Health treatment, including Applied Behavioral Analysis (effective March 17, 2014).  Visit Pathfinders for Autism for more information and additional resources.

If you have questions about the clinical services offered at Trellis, contact Caitlin Sprouse, MS, OTR/L, Clinical Services Coordinator for more information.

7 Tips for Snow Day Fun

by

While no one can argue with the fun of traditional activities such as building snowmen or snow angels; keeping your kiddo occupied throughout an entire snow day while confined to your house might require a few more tricks up your sleeve.

Consider the unique opportunities the snow can provide for you and your kiddo to explore different language concepts, social skills, academic tasks, and leisure activities. Think about bringing what winter has to offer indoors where it is warm for a unique way to learn and play together.

Just to get you started, grab a few safe bowls (think plastic Tupperware), some pots, a muffin tin, and a few spoons of different sizes. Fill one bowl with cold water, and another with hot water. Throw a big beach towel out on the floor and grab up some of that white, powdery stuff!

  1. Let your child explore, figure out what he likes about the activity, and add to what he finds fun. If he is watching you and waiting for what you are going to do next, you’ve got it right!
  2. In the beginning, don’t demand, just show him some fun ideas you might have of how to play with the snow and “kitchen junk” and talk about what is happening, “Wow you smashed the snow!” “Did you see it melt in the hot water?” “You got more snow!” “Stir, stir, stir, good job stirring!”
  3. Language Concepts: Once you’ve gotten the activity going, use the snow to start talking about fun, related language concepts like hot/cold, wet/dry, melting/frozen.
  4. Social Skills: Take turns with the spoons, stirring, and playing. Encourage and model commenting about the activity and what you or your child enjoy. “Watch it melt!”, “Wow that is cold!”, “I like playing in the snow!”.
  5. Academic Tasks: Discuss weather, precipitation, seasons, and states of matter (solid, liquid, gas). Use your muffin tin and practice counting as you fill each cup.
  6. Leisure Skills: Feel free to step away from the activity and let your child dig in on his own. Sustaining a play activity and incorporating newly learned play skills modeled by an adult plays a crucial role in learning.
  7. Be sure to set boundaries about where the snow must stay. We suggest prompting all snow activity back to the area of the beach towel.

Most importantly, have fun and enjoy this new experience!

Autism 2015: 365 days to make progress

by

Autism is in the news, social media, and even old fashioned print more than ever. The increasing awareness is great. The influx of research and funding options is even better! The heartwarming stories are nice, the success stories are inspiring. Still, misinformation and slanted headlines annoyingly abound. Such is this strange, complicated, passionate and ultimately very special autism community. We’re glad to be a part of it, and will do our best to honor and respect the many contributing voices. As a community we are making progress in many ways and continue to have optimism that together and individually we can make great strides. But we have no doubt, the most important person to each and every parent, day-in and day-out is your child with autism.

So what will this year’s 365 days mean for you? We suggest this simple but powerful idea: Progress. When your past the notion that there may be a quick fix and come to terms that the pursuit of cure won’t help you with today’s challenges, progress is the name of the game. Forget quantum leaps, each milestone met will offer its own reward. Know there will be set backs and rough patches, and keep moving forward.

BE PRESENT: There are lots of amazing therapists, doctors and teachers in the world. These are brilliant folks that have advice about child development and parenting. But you are the one that is with your child every day and for real progress to take place, you gotta be in the game. And don’t forget to take time to just BE with your child, to appreciate all the beautiful, unique ways he expresses himself and what he enjoys.

BE CONSISTENT: What is the 12 step motto…”the more you work it, the more it works”? Working consistently with your child’s team to implement strategies and teach him…even when it is hard or inconvenient, propels the process.

BE A FRIEND/SPOUSE/PERSON: You can’t focus on autism 24 hours a day. You just can’t. Make time for yourself, your friends and your family. When you do, life just makes more sense, has more balance and you will likely have more stamina for the work ahead.

BE GRATEFUL: Count those blessings, celebrate the wins and enjoy every single bit of progress. This is the real juice of life that makes it all worth it. No one else will feel the joy quite the way you will. It’s awesome.

Of course we will keep reading the headlines, keeping up to date is valuable and research is exciting. In 2015 we will continue to be moved, enlightened and sometimes annoyed by it all. Stick to the plan that works for you and your family and know that come December 31, 2015 you will be able to look at another year passed and call it good.

Fall Festival Open House

by

A successful Fall Festival Open House with over 100 in attendance was just the “housewarming” that Trellis needed for their Sparks location that still feels new to some. Every area of the 30,000 sq. ft. Trellis Learning Center had activities for clients, potential clients and their families on Saturday, November 15, 2014.

The facility, located on York Road, is home to The Trellis School, an afterschool program for Baltimore County, and all of Trellis’ clinic-based programs for children with autism spectrum disorders and other language and communication disorders. The facility includes six classrooms, a new fully equipped sensory gym, an outside playground and thousands of square feet of natural learning environment space.

The excitement from the staff and members of the community was palpable. Suzanne Heid, M.S., Trellis’ Associate Executive Director, commented, “The biggest thing that stood out for me was the sense of pride that our staff felt in showcasing our facility to the community!” The Fall Fest themed Open House, showcased Trellis Services to existing and new clients. When asked about the goal of the event Suzanne stated, “Our goal for the school and the clinic is to highlight our high quality programming with a focus on verbal behavior as part of the core curriculum for students and clients. We are continuously assessing our learners on a daily basis to determine how they acquire skills and progress.”

We are a place families can depend on once their child becomes a part of the Trellis community. This event allowed us to show the community who we are and what we believe in.”

Open House activities were held in each of the classrooms, and all of Trellis’ services were highlighted in some way. There were arts and crafts activities and carnival style games in the open areas, the hallways were flooded with children and all of the gyms were filled to capacity. The enthusiasm and engagement of the day were similar to what an attendee would see during a typical school day. Melissa Horrigan, Occupational Therapist, had this to say about the day,” I am so thankful for the amazing community we have here at Trellis! It was such a privilege to connect with our families outside of therapy. I had so much fun playing with my students alongside their family members. My husband volunteered during the day and he had such a blast meeting our families and seeing the amazing place where I get to work. We had so many families stop by the new OT gym. I was proud to provide a space that our students were excited to show their parents! How many kids can say that they would willingly go to school on a Saturday?” The large gym located in the back of Trellis, offers an abundance of space to run our Autism Waiver Therapeutic Integration After School Program. This program is designed to focus on recreation and leisure skills, while improving the student’s social skills, group participation, and reciprocal play.

“Our Fall Festival Open House was so much fun! It was incredibly rewarding to actually see so many of the families in our community we get to serve, “exclaimed Darcy Kline, Trellis School Autism Intervention Instructor. The event featured an auction with artwork created by current Trellis School students and learners in the Learn 2 Love (L2L) Program with the help of our Social Skills Specialist, Kate Cheek.

This event will be the first of many held in support of Trellis community and the families we serve. For more information about our services click here.

Alphabet Soup: Understanding ABA & AVB

by

Chances are you’ve heard the terms Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) and Applied Verbal Behavior (AVB) more times than you can count. So what do they really mean? And are they the miracle intervention for your child?

ABA, in the most complex terms is “the application of the principles of learning and motivation from Behavior Analysis, and the procedures and technology derived from those principles, to the solution of problems of social significance.”

In the simplest terms?  It’s using learning to change behavior. And AVB?  Basically the same thing except it’s all about language.

At Trellis, we use the principals of ABA and an AVB methodology to lay the foundation for success in school and life. We integrate ABA principles into all the work we do at Trellis and we primarily focus on using AVB in our Trellis School and Love2Learn programs.

How we use the principals of ABA

The goal of most families is to have children develop the basic communication, social and life skills they need to be successful. That’s what we focus on. Using ABA, we’re able to help teach new behaviors by breaking skills down into small, understandable steps that are taught separately. Once each step is learned separately they are strung together into a targeted behavior or task. For example, a child working on building a pre-requisite skill of sitting at a table might start with short intervals, gradually increasing the time and the seatmates. The goal isn’t just to have the child sit at a table during a group session, but to be an engaged participating member at the end.

How we use AVB

Using words, having conversations, reading and writing. We know that’s what you want for your child. AVB is a natural next step as children and students at Trellis slowly begin to trust staff and beginning developing activities. As activities are established, instructors are providing learners with all the language needed to talk about the items, what the items do, the parts of the items, etc. This is what facilitates communication. Motivation is key in this process. When a learner is motivated by an item or something fun that an instructor can do with the item, they will be motivated to “demand” or request that item or activity again. Multiple opportunities for the learner to communicate those “wants” are contrived throughout an activity, evoking the learner’s communication and repeated opportunities to practice that communication.

At Trellis, we emphasize the AVB methodology because aside from the scientific evidence, we believe that communication is the foundation for learning, and by rigorously focusing on communication we can better support a child functioning in school and the community.

AVB gives children the language they need to engage in social situations within the school and community. They are able to participate in those situations because of their increased ability to communicate their wants and needs. Also, for some, an increase in communication can contribute to reductions in interfering or challenging behavior.  Trellis understands that children need various ways to communicate too, that’s why we teach using a variety of modalities, such as vocal communication, sign language, through the use of pictures, or using an augmentative communication system (e.g., software on an iPad or another voice output device).

These are very simple explanations of what ABA and AVB are and how we try to integrate the principles into our work at Trellis. We invite you to read more on our website or contact us to find out more about how and why we use these interventions to create fun, motivating and individualized programs for each of our learners.

Another Study Supports ABA & Early Intervention

by

A new literature review from Vanderbilt finds more evidence backing behavioral intervention for kids with autism.

In research supported federal government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, researchers at Vanderbilt University reviewed 65 research studies on behavior interventions. They concluded that intensive early intervention  based on the principles of applied behavior analysis “can significantly affect the development of some children with ASD.”

h Read the Report

What is the VB-MAPP?

by

Put simply, the VB-MAPP is a tool that we use at Trellis to assess and develop learning plans for young learners with autism.

Based on the work of renowned behaviorist B.F. Skinner, the VB-MAPP or Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program is a criterion-referenced assessment tool, curriculum guide, and skill tracking system that is designed for children with autism, and other individuals who demonstrate language delays. There are three core components to the VB-MAPP:

  1. The Milestones Assessment includes 170 measurable learning and language milestones which are designed to assess a learners existing verbal and related skills. We use this tool to help us design a individualized intervention strategy for our learners.
  2. The Barriers Assessments helps identify the specific challenges a learner is having with learning and language acquisitions.
  3. The Transition Assessment helps assess whether a learner is ready to move to a less restrictive learning environment. We use it to understand how our learners are progressing toward their goals.
  4. The Task Analysis and Skills Tracking forms the basis for daily skill building. There are over 900 skills in this tool.

Collectively, these four components of the VB-MAPP represent over 30 years of research, clinical work, field-testing, and revisions (Partington & Sundberg, 1998; Sundberg, 1980, 1983, 1987, 1990; Sundberg & Michael, 2001; Sundberg & Partington, 1998; Sundberg, Ray, Braam, Stafford, Rueber, & Braam, 1979).

At Trellis, we often use the VB-MAPP to determine where a young learner is functioning in comparison to neurotypical children at the same chronological age.  Skills and goals are then chosen based on that assessment and implemented throughout each session.  In the Trellis School, additional goals from the child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) and the Maryland College and Career Ready Standards are selected and taught.  Data on all skills, goals/ and ehaviors are tracked on the students’ weekly data sheets.