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| Occupational and Physical Therapists, School Psychologists, Social Workers, Art Therapist, Computer Teacher, Adaptive PE Teacher, and Music Therapist. We also have a group of social work and psychology trainees from Columbia, NYU, Hunter and Brooklyn Colleges. Students conduct home visits to learn parents’ best practices and bring these back to be used by the school’s team; to assess the environment and family needs, and serve as a parent trainer and a liaison among the parent, the community and the school. Social Work trainees also run parent support/educational groups in several languages, and work with individual children. THE COMPLEXITY OF THE PROGRAM STEPS is a dynamic program that evolves in response to issues that are either program related, or related to the population it serves: The School serves pre-schoolers who attend the program for the short period of one to two years (and sometimes less). For the children to make the fastest possible progress, intensive work is needed from the beginning. It also requires extensive training of parents, for them to be able to become integral members of the team and for them to be able to advocate in the best interest of their child. To address the many deficits that typically are manifested in individuals with ASDs, an enthusiastic team, willing to cooperate and coordinate their activities is essential. We are fortunate to have a team composed of skillful and involved workers. Many of them have been in the school for years. It is, nevertheless, important to provide this culturally and educationally heterogeneous group with intensive on-going training of updated practices, that are documented by accountable practitioners. Training helps to reach higher levels of consistency and precision at program application, and often allows use of similar interventions in various environments, by different people. This is important for the child to make progress in generalizing learned information. Also, staff’s mastery of a repertoire of alternative interventions increases the chances of applying customized programs, based on a deep assessment of the child’s strengths and limitations. Recommended Practices A review of best practices shows that the following are shared by many of the strongly recommended programs, and should be used as a standard for programs working with young children with ASD: 1) Parent involvement in selecting and implementing the program; 2) Visual information, use of augmentative communication and aided language techniques, such as schedules that give clarity regarding following activities, and regular routines, which people with ASD increased opportunities to get oriented, learn, communicate, and lower |
| There is a professional consensus supported by research, that the earlier the interventions start, the better the prognosis for achieving more independent and functional skills; and that because of the great difficulty that people with autism experience in learning and generalizing acquired skills, it is very important to maximize the child’s exposure to effective interventions at an early age. |
| anxiety and emotional stress; 3) A teaching style which is as structured as possible, this minimizes opportunities for repetitive behaviors that are non-conductive to learning; 4) Use of behavioral techniques helps on setting consistent rules and teaching skills that reduce or eliminate challenging behaviors which are often substituted by more appropriate ones; 5) Enthusiastic team members working with the person with ASDs maximize social cues and reinforcers, that otherwise might be invisible to him/her; 6) Maximal use of community resources is needed to help families that are overwhelmed with the intensive care required when raising a child with ASDs (the more integrated the services, the better the chances of generalizing acquired skills and acquiring new ones); 7) A child-centered framework in which student’s motivations, preferences, skills, and strengths are incorporated; 8) use of technology such as computers as teaching aids; and 9) Baseline and ongoing measurement of progress in a systematic, objective fashion. Additional Recommended Practices Some other principles to evaluate treatment has been suggested by the Autistic Society of America (ASA), including: 1) Address any treatment with a critical perspective (remember that the goal of treatment should be to help the person with autism to become as independent as possible); 2) Be aware that there is no ONE program that benefits ALL people with autism; 3) Make sure your child receives an individualized approach that is based on an individual assessment, and that the reasons for appropriateness of it’s implementation are clearly stated by the proponents; 4) Be aware that any treatment represents one of several options for a person with autism, and each option has it’s weaknesses and strengths; 5) Do not blindly support one theory over another, creating unneeded limitations that often do nothing but support the ego of a particular clinician or fashionable school of thought; 6) Be aware that Some approaches have not been scientifically validated. magic formula = Different theories emphasize different aspects of autism. As opposed to what often occurs in the field, we suggest that these perceptions may be viewed as complementary rather than contradictory. We make an effort to integrate several best practices. Due to the limitations of time and resources, though, it has been important to define a selected set of interventions. These interventions need to be widely mastered by the team of service providers. Because of our history and professional convictions we use a model that includes behavioral/cognitive techniques such as ABA, TEACCH and PECS, with an intensive sensory integration and self-regulation component. Some of our children also do some "stepping around". We also make an effort to work with each child using a relationship-based perspective, in which, when possible, self-esteem is built by emphasizing the child’s strengths, following his or hers lead, respecting his or her preferences, and helping him/her to develop play skills. |
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