valerieherskowitz.com/

Ok, this is an interesting and potentially very useful site for those of us in the UK. valerieherskowitz.com/ -a distance SALT! Have a browse of her website, there’s quite a bit of interest on there.

The webinars page is particularly interesting, I’m personally interested in the new approach for teaching sign language. If you click on the class you get further details. If a whole group of parents and/or professionals in the UK wanted to watch one of the classes then Valerie says she would be happy to try and do one at a more convenient time. So contact me if you’re interested and I could send in a group request. 

I asked Valerie whether there was anything she particularly recommended given the difficulties in accessing SALT in the UK and she replied:

Interestingly, we are just about to post our Therapy On the Net service, which is basically therapy and consultations over the net using Skype and web-based meetings. I have clients all over the world (Europe, Australia, etc) and the service works wonderfully. This service may provide some of your families the ability to access services. 

There’s a contact form on the website. Therapy on the Net sounds as if it might be well worth exploring. 

 

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Autism and Dogs

© Tyler Olson | Dreamstime.com

Many of you will have seen the film After Thomas about a young boy with autism who connects with the world via a dog. It was screened on Boxing Day in 2006. It had some pretty realistic scenes; for example the young boy having a sit in in the middle of the road, providing the entertainment in shoe shops,  family not quite getting it; that sort of thing….. The child was pretty high functioning but I suspect anyone caring for a child from any part of the spectrum will identify with parts of the film. It was well acted as well, worth watching.

I was rather skeptical that Archie could ever bond with a dog as has a sensory aversion to fur. If our (now deceased) cat jumped up on him he would shudder and nervously shout for help: ‘uh uh uh’

However, last week we met up with a friend who happens to be visually impaired and has a guide dog. We went for a walk on Dartmoor and Archie was transfixed by the dog. He ran along the path with him, didn’t try his usual trick of running away and when we arrived home lay down next to the dog with a ‘nun nye’ – his version of goodnight.

In the UK there are now two organisations that have started to train assistance dogs for children with autism. Because these are registered assistance dogs they are able to go into shops with the child. The dog wears a special harness which allows it to be fastened to the child, whilst an adult holds the dog by a lead. This provides an opportunity for children with autism to walk down the street without having to hold an adult’s hand. A small thing, but perhaps something that many of us have never been able to do.

The UK based organisations running autism projects are Dogs for the Disabled and Support Dogs. In Ireland a similar programme has been in place for longer and is run by Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind.

There’s also a good book, Golden Bridge: A Guide to Assistance Dogs for Children Challenged by Autism or Other Developmental Disabilities
about using assistance dogs for children with autism. I’m tempted to try it myself.

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Growing Minds in Paris

I’ve written before about Growing Minds here  I’ve just received an email to say they’re coming to Paris in November. I’ll just cut and paste the email before. Something that I really liked about Growing Minds is that they are not tied to one particular type of intervention. They have a lot of experience of different types and I really believe that this allows them to produce a program that fits around a child (or adult) rather than have the individual fit the intervention. 

Almost two years on from Growing Minds many of the gains that Archie is making can be attributed to them. Their methods taught Archie imitation which has allowed him to start to use Makaton, to go climbing and to go surfing. Their methods  taught him to walk with me, rather than run off which has opened the world of hiking on Dartmoor to him. We’re now teaching Archie to use a keyboard and to read and write under instruction from  Marion Blank. This is not easy by any means, but without the initial input of Growing Minds, and the attention skills he learned from doing their program, I think this would have been beyond impossible. 

Anyway, the email:

Growing Minds Training is coming to Paris!

This is an opportunity for parents and professionals helping children with autism spectrum disorders to receive affordable training and support close to home. This is the only time this year that this program will be offered outside the United States.

Paris, France
November 11-14, 2008 
(Presented in English with simultaneous translation into French)

For a full description of this program visit our website: 
http://www.autism-programs.com/pa ris.htm

Or to read about the program in French, please click:
http://www.autism-programs.com/pa risF.htm

This is training for parents and professionals working with children who have 
Autism
Pervasive Developmental Delay
Asperger’s Syndrome
Behavior problems associated with these conditions 
Dyspraxia or other muscular/neurological difficulties associated with autism

You’ll learn skills to:
Increase motivation and cooperation
Improve communication and social interaction
Reduce problem behaviors 
Accelerate learning 
Achieve appropriate social and developmental goals

The program is designed and presented by Steven and Kaitryn Wertz, based on twenty-five years of experience in training over one thousand parents and their children with autism-spectrum disorders.

This program is recommended for: 
Parents who want skills to help their child make improved progress—with communication, social interaction, behavior or academics
Parents who want better results from an existing home program 
Family members, volunteers and staff who support home-based programs 
Autism professionals interested in home-based learning

For full details, visit our website by clicking on the links above.

Or contact our local sponsor 
Mrs Wil Clavien Lamers (French, English and Dutch)
Route de Montana 29
3968 Veyras/Switzerland
Phone/fax : 0041 – 27 – 455 37 03
E-mail: wil_clavien@enjeu.info

Best wishes!
The Growing Minds Team 
Steven, Kaitryn and Stefanie

 

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Floortime Repository

I’m on a roll today. The Floortime Repository: I haven’t really had time to explore this website properly yet, but from what I’ve seen it looks good. It’s a place to find out more about Floortime, share photos and videos and make friends. If you’re interested in finding out more, or doing Floortime then check it out.

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Online Floortime Course 29 April – 9 May

I was emailed a flyer for an online Floortime course followed by a workshop on regulatory sensory processing disorders. This online conference will provide the basic infancy and early childhood training course and there will be an opportunity for interested participants to show mastery and obtain a certificate (although you can just do the course).

 Floortime, also known as the DIR – or Developmental Individual-Difference Relationship model was developed by Stanley Greenspan and Serena Wieder as a therapy to be used with children with special needs including autism. I don’t know a lot about it (although I’m intending to do the course so I hope to change that) but I believe that it takes children through ‘missed’ developmental stages using playful interactions. Usually the bulk of the therapy is carried out by parents.

 The course costs $175 or $250 if you take the workshop as well. So whilst it’s not cheap, it’s certainly a lot cheaper than attending a 15 hour conference in person. The weak dollar helps!

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Walking & hiking

I’m not sure that this is autism information as such, but recently we have started to take Archie up onto Dartmoor. Until last summer he would run off, making it impossible to even consider going onto the high moor. This was sorted with help from Growing Minds and some extra pairs of hands funded by direct payments.

It’s been great. The isolation and emptiness of the high moor has a very noticeable calming effect on Archie. He’s also learning to walk with me without having to have his hand held the whole time. A freedom which he loves, and a great RDI type therapy if you’re into that sort of thing (I’ll write about RDI sometime).  He particularly enjoys the rivers and flagpoles,and I always take lots of photos for him to look at when we get home. He’s even learning the names of some of the tors.

If you’re going up on the high moor you do of course need to know how to use a compass/read a map/have the correct equipment etc. I tend to play it fairly safe with Archie. I don’t attempt river crossings unless there are at least two adults on the walk, and I pretty much stick to paths when it’s
foggy.

 

Those of you that know Dartmoor will now be wondering how I got the foggy Great Mis picture- er that was a mistake – and we now always stick to paths when foggy.

If anyone is interested in forming some sort of walking group for children who are physically able but have severe autism/severe learning difficulties then please do get in contact.

To finish, a link to the Calvert Trust, who provide outward bound type holidays for individuals with disabilities (and their families). I have never been (will do when the younger boys are older) but have heard excellent things about them from a number of people.

 

Christmas Day 2007

The view from Roos Tor

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The Informative Pointing Method – the manual

Today, something really rather good and…….. free! Having been in the autism world for getting on or 6 years I’m always stunned to find something free. And even better, this is excellent too.

Written by Portia Iversen, the author of the Strange Son book and founder of the Strange Son website it is a 73 page manual that aims to teach you how to get your non-verbal child pointing and communicating. It’s very clearly written, with lots of clear photographs. It’s a fantastic teaching tool in itself and used in conjunction with the website (where you can view videos of others using the method and take part in a forum dedicated to the method) it’s more than enough to provide confidence and lots of material to get started and hopefully up and running with the technique.

 To get your manual you just need to register with the Strange Son website (again free of charge), and then, there it is – yours to download. Very highly recommended, and very exciting, especially if you have a non-verbal child.

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Non-verbal autism & reading and writing

I first came across the idea of people with non-verbal autism being able to type to communicate a few years ago when I was given a copy of Lucy Blackman’s autobiography Lucy’s Story. This book was an absolute revelation for me. For the first time I was reading about someone who was very, very like Archie. I recently followed this up by reading Douglas Biklen’s Autism and the Myth of the Person Alone and was similarly moved.

 Now Archie has the attentional skills and ability and interest to learn I’ve been exploring this idea of teaching him to read and write or type more. Each of these resources really needs a full explanation but must-see websites include Halo, Strange Son and Dr Marion Blank’s information page about her literacy programme for children with autism (including those who are non-verbal).

We’ve been playing around at home with letterboards and literacy, and Archie has surprised us with what he already knows. Although there’s a long way to go I feel hopeful that this might be a method that really works for him.

 Photograph: “Magnetic Letters” © Photographer: Webking | Agency: Dreamstime.com

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Time Timer Watch Plus

After reviewing the Time Timer the lovely people from Robo toys in the Netherlands contacted me. They’re the European distributors of the Time Timer and offered to send me a Time Timer Watch Plus. It arrived earlier in the week. They sent the adult version as Archie will not tolerate watches on his wrist. It was actually amazingly good timing as my own watch had broken a few days previously.

 It’s comfortable to wear, quite chunky (which I like). It has both a normal watch mode and a time timer mode. The big advantage is that you can count down up to 12 hours, rather than just one. It does this by repeating the countdown circle every hour together whilst displaying a stopwatch counting down. At first I thought Archie might find this difficult to understand but he’s  been fine with it. I think being familiar with the larger, easier to understand clock helped with this.

 
Once you’ve been through the settings with the instructions it’s easy to use. A light means it can be used in the dark. Very useful in this house. It had its first big test today. Archie got up in the middle of the night. Ran to the room his younger brothers share and proceeded to shout. He was not keen on leaving their room and kept running in. If all the children wake in the middle of the night then next day is practically written off. I persuaded him to come into my bed, set the Time Timer watch for 90 minutes, showed him, and he stayed there until it had counted down. He did spend the last 10 minutes trying to leave, but did follow the watch.  Once it reached 0 he leapt out. The watch has an alarm, like the clock this is just a quiet unobtrusive beep. These products have been incredibly useful for us. Highly recommended. Like the Time Timer clock, this watch can be ordered in the UK from Ed-Solutions Direct.

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Everything VB

Apologies, I am overwhelmed with work at the moment (I’m in the middle of a research project analysing the way severely autistic children interact with parents, therapists and teachers. Fascinating, but time intensive). Therefore these entries are a bit rushed.

 

I thought it was a good opportunity to share this site  about VB. Largely because it speaks for itself and doesn’t need me to say much. I only discovered it this weekend so can’t give you the ins and outs anyway.  VB Community; it looks fascinating.  We’re not following a ‘pure’ VB programme at home. As I’ve said before we’re using a ‘whatever works approach’. Something we have taken from VB is the idea of using fast trials to improve executive function. Archie has a terrible time responding on demand on time, and fast trials are meant to help with that. Using fast trials also allows us to squeeze a lot of trials into a short space of time after school. You can see a video of a tutor using fast trials here.

 

It looks like a good place to advertise for VB tutors.  Always worth remembering (although my big tip is to seek out psychology students from your local university if you have one; a small ad on a noticeboard has always generated lots of enquiries for me).

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