Dr. Temple Grandin visits local ranchers
The Autism News | English
Temple Grandin
By Omineca Express
Close to 200 ranchers from the northern and central interior gathered June 22 in Vanderhoof at the friendship centre to welcome and hear world-renowned speaker Dr. Temple Grandin.
Grandin, who holds a Ph.D in animal science is currently a professor at Colorado State University and has spent her career working to see that animals have quality of life and humaneness in death.
She has designed humane livestock handling facilities that are in use around the world.
Grandin discussed animal behaviour based on scientific evidence and common sense, provided ranchers with guidelines and tips for handling cattle in a safe and effective manner with as little stress as possible.
She emphasized handling cattle quietly as calm cattle move more easily than those that are fearful. Making new experiences positive makes cattle less fearful and future work with them should be less difficult.
Grandin noted that vision is the dominant sense in cattle. They have wide panoramic vision but limited depth perception. They are very conscious of details that may not be noticed by people.
Little distractions will make cattle balk. By understanding and dealing with distractions, cattle producers are able to handle cattle more effectively.
Grandin suggested guiding animals through corral systems with flagged sticks.
She answered individual questions regarding cattle handling and cattle handling facilities. The facilities of some local and regional ranches were shown in a power point presentation and discussed suggestions for improvements.
She also signed some of the books she has authored.
Diagnosed as autistic in her early years, Grandin lectures world wide on autism.
Part of her trip north involved talking to health professionals and others interested in autism at presentations in Prince George.
A very high functioning autistic person herself, she is an advocate for others with autism. She acknowledged the satisfaction she feels when she hears someone went on to graduate from college because of her work.
Dog and other pet owners as well as animal care providers in the area also had a chance to hear Grandin discuss the relationships between animals and people and the importance of providing good care.
Smithers rancher Matt Taylor is credited with coming up with the idea of having Grandin come to the area.
Smithers area range resource officer Marc Schuffert took the idea forward, and with a team of supporters and sponsors, the events took place with excellent attendance.
The community was appreciative for the sessions and the help Grandin provided in looking at local facilities.
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Autism Not Linked to Higher Divorce Rates
The Autism News | English
By Shadra Bruce | Mental Health News Organization
Autism, a mental health disorder that affects social development and is typically diagnosed in children prior to their third birthday, has often been blamed for being partially responsible for increasing divorce rates. While Autism may be a stressor in the lives of the parents who are raising the autistic child, it’s not more likely to cause divorce than any other relationship factor, according to a mental health study conducted by the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD). In fact, parents of children with autism are not any more likely to end up divorced than parents of children with Autism or other disabilities. The research, which was conducted in response to claims that Autism contributed to the divorce rate, analyzed the parent relationships of more than 70,000 children.
The study refuted claims that having an Autistic child contributed to divorce and in fact showed that parents of Autistic children had a similar divorce rate to that of parents of children without disabilities. In fact, according to the research, the numbers were almost identical: 65 percent of parents of kids with Autism are married versus 64 percent of parents whose children are not disabled.
The director of CARD, Brian Freedman, acknowledged that parenting a child with autism does add stress, but that “it doesn’t necessarily result in the family breaking up more often than would occur in another family.” Freedman is pleased with the results of the study, and says he hopes that parents who have a child who has been diagnosed with Autism will take heart from the news, since many times the divorce rate for parents of Autistic children is claimed to be near 80 percent.
The divorce rate in the United States, according to the most recent data available, is 38%, according to the National Center of Health Statistics, with nearly half of all divorces occurring within the first five years of marriage. The leading causes of divorce are lack of communication, intimacy problems, and infidelity.
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New Masters Program Expected to Benefit Those With Autism
The Autism News | English
By Michele Skalicky | KSMU – Ozarks Public Radio – NPR
A new Masters program being offered in Springfield is expected to benefit those with autism spectrum disorders and their families. KSMU’s Michele Skalicky has more…
Applied Behavioral Analysis is the preferred way to treat those with autism spectrum disorders. But Megan Weaver, acting dean of master’s programs at the School of Professional Psychology at the Forest Institute, says the number of healthcare providers in Southwest Missouri who offer the treatment is very low…
“If you look at the number of people with an autism spectrum disorder, and then you look at the number of board certified behavioral analysts in the Missouri, you automatically see this discrepency with the number of board certified behavior analysts being much lower than those who need those services, and this automatically leads you to the question of ‘why? Why is this discrepency so great?’ And then I think you can pretty quickly figure out that training in Missouri is pretty limited, specifically graduate training.”
That’s why the Forest Institute decided to offer a Masters in Applied Behavioral Analysis. According to Weaver, Applied Behavioral Analysis is the design, implementation and evaluation of environmental modifications. It’s used to produce improvements in human behavior in socially significant situations.
Weaver says they saw a need for the program not only in Southwest Missouri, but in the entire state…
Weaver says they saw a need for the program not only in Southwest Missouri, but in the entire state…
“There’s a website you can go to, the Behavior Analysts Certification Board, and they list all of the providers in Missouri, and you can do a search for just the Springfield area, and I think there are two or three board certified behavior analysts, which is kind of the higher level, and then a few more board certified assistant behavior analysts.”
The Missouri legislature recently passed legislation that requires insurance companies to cover autism treatment. But Weaver says that didn’t influence the Forest Institute’s decision to offer the new Masters in Applied Behavioral Analysis. She calls it perfect timing and says the Masters program has been in the works for quite some time.
She expects the new program to have a significant impact on families dealing with autism in Southwest Missouri because it should result in more providers of services.
The new Masters program will be offered at the Forest Institute’s main campus in Springfield and at its St. Louis site beginning this fall. A certificate program for people with masters degrees in related fields will also be available at both locations.
She expects the new program to have a significant impact on families dealing with autism in Southwest Missouri because it should result in more providers of services.
The new Masters program will be offered at the Forest Institute’s main campus in Springfield and at its St. Louis site beginning this fall. A certificate program for people with masters degrees in related fields will also be available at both locations.
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Preschool to be part of autism research
The Autism News | English
By Melia Heagerty | Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber
The preschool at Chautauqua Elementary School could soon be better equipped to educate young students with autism, after the school was selected as a pilot site to use a research-based autism education curriculum.
Vashon is one of 30 sites in Washington and Oregon that will implement the curriculum as part of a study by Portland State University.
The research project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, will pay for Vashon preschool teachers and specialists to receive training this summer at Portland State, for curriculum coaches to visit the school regularly and for Chautauqua to receive all curriculum materials, worth several thousand dollars, free.
Parents will be included in the project as well, as the curriculum encourages family participation.
At least three autistic students attend Chautauqua’s preschool, qualifying the school for the study, said Cathy Lambert, Vashon Island School District’s student services director. Vashon’s preschool — which serves special needs students alongside their regularly developing peers — was chosen randomly from a pool of qualified schools to implement the new curriculum, aimed at students ages 3 to 8, in the fall.
The autism curriculum — Comprehensive Autism Program Using Strategies for Teaching Based on Autism Research, or CAPSTAR — is designed to teach young autistic students academic and life skills, better preparing them to enter the general classroom, said Ruth Falco, co-principal investigator of Portland State’s CAPSTAR project.
“Autism is a lifelong disability that affects the ability to communicate and engage in social interaction,” Falco said.
CAPSTAR could help autistic students do both, she said.
One in 150 children in the United States has an autism spectrum disorder, according to the Office of Special Education Programs and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CAPSTAR helps autistic students interact with others and their surroundings by engaging them in step-by-step instruction on everything from identifying objects and putting on a backpack to expressing desires and saying goodbye.
“Children learn step by step,” Falco said. “Both life and academic skills — they’re learning language; they’re learning social skills; they’re learning to communicate, and they’re learning those basic preacademic skills that young children learn prior to kindergarten.”
Researchers hope that autistic students will benefit from CAPSTAR instruction, achieving higher success in communication, comprehension, preacademic skills, social skills and behavior than they may have if they were not instructed using the method.
The structured CAPSTAR curriculum is based on the well-researched Applied Behavior Analysis model, the only treatment for autism approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Applied Behavior Analysis encourages appropriate skills and behaviors by reinforcing desirable behaviors with social or tangible rewards, such as a high-five or a Cheerio. Thousands of studies have proven ABA’s efficacy.
The current CAPSTAR study, which Vashon will be a part of this fall, hopes to prove CAPSTAR’s effectiveness as well.
“We’re looking to see whether the model and the curriculum make a difference in how young children learn,” Falco said. “We hope that it will help them learn the skills that they need when they enter kindergarten or first grade.”
Vashon Island School District’s Lambert said she feels lucky the district was chosen to implement CAPSTAR at its preschool.
“This is a curriculum to help kids gain (communication and social skills) faster,” she said. “We are excited about it. … It’s really a well-supported program.”
The CAPSTAR announcement came at a critical time for the preschool; one of its teachers was issued a pink slip last month, and the program appeared to be headed for a schedule reduction from four days a week to two or three. But Lambert and Superintendent Michael Soltman said they are optimistic that the school district’s recent aggressive fundraising campaign has raised enough money to restore the preschool to its normal schedule.
Soltman said he, too, is looking forward to seeing CAPSTAR take off at the district’s preschool.
“Anything we can do to help these kids, and the earlier we can get a good intervention in place, I think it’s going to benefit them all the way through their education,” he said. “I’m glad we’re able to take advantage of this program.”
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Senate: Autism Insurance Bill Delayed Until 2011
The Autism News | English
By Tracey McCain | DigTriad
Raleigh, NC – Supporters of the proposed Autism Insurance Bill faced a major set back today in Raleigh.
State lawmakers tabled the legislation until next year, meaning thousands of parents will have to continue paying for their child’s Autism treatments out of pocket.
It’s a fight WFMY News 2′s Tracey McCain began following when parents first took it to Raleigh in May.
It’s a huge blow to parents who spent the last two years pushing for Autism Insurance Reform.
Debra Merchant is disappointed lawmakers tabled the bill. The Piedmont mom’s insurance company denied her son Jordan’s Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) treatments.
She pays $15,000 a year to get him the care he needs
This bill would have eased the financial burden and made it mandatory for health insurance companies to provide coverage.
“You never give up! You never give up on your child. You just start all over again. But it’s costing us time where Jordan can be learning so much more and becoming more independent. And the money, bills; just racks up,” said Merchant.
WFMY News 2 contacted Senators William Purcell and Stan Bingham who are members of the Senate Health Care committee.
They say the committee did not have all the financial information they needed to get the bill passed.
“It’s going to affect insurance rates for people and we need to know how much before we can vote,” said Purcell.
“It was wise economics on our part so we do not get our citizens into something that we cannot afford,” added Bingham.
Both Senators support the bill. They tell News 2 had the figures been ready the bill would have likely passed during the short session.
The Senate Health Care Committee will revisit the bill during its next work session which begins in January 2011.
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Stamford tries to offer its autism spectrum disorder students a full education
The Autism News | English
Mickey Teubert (at center) with Michael Kinzler, his mentor in the drama club, and Stamford special education teacher Sheree Cook.
By William Squier | New Haven Advocate
Heidi Teubert was disappointed when her son, Mickey, didn’t appear in his high school’s spring musical, Pippin. Mickey, who is finishing freshman year at Stamford High, isn’t your typical teenage actor. He has a neurological condition known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It’s a developmental disability that affects his ability to communicate and interact socially.
Perhaps it was wishful thinking when Teubert proposed that her son be given the chance to act. But Mickey had been in several middle school plays and, due to his particular form of ASD, has a gift for memorizing dialogue. He can recite whole episodes of cartoons with energy, nice vocal projection and all of the subtleties of characterization intact. “It’s one of his strengths,” his mother says.
Still, it was decided to ease Mickey into the drama club with a two-day-a-week stint on the set construction crew. The guidance office arranged for a junior, Michael Kinzler, to act as his mentor. Ultimately, Heidi Teubert was satisfied with the outcome. But, when she talks about it, there’s a tacit ellipsis at the end of some of her sentences that suggests she would have liked to push for just a little bit more.
Pushing for more is what Stamford High School’s new autism program is all about. “It’s the very first high school program developed in the city,” says Susan Chandler, head of SHS’s special education department. “It’s extremely intensive and takes a great deal of planning, dedication and time on the part of the staff.”
The program’s certified special education teacher, Sheree Cook, has set some ambitious goals. “I am insistent that these kids will earn a high school diploma,” says Cook. That means teaching them four years of English and math, three years of history and two of science. Her students also need to develop life skills, like cleaning and cooking for themselves, and tackle what Cook calls “the hidden curriculum” — subtle social behaviors that elude most kids with ASD, like lifting their chins and looking people in the eye when they speak. And they’ve only got four years at Stamford High and an unpredictable school budget to accomplish it all.
Chandler reports that the trend for teaching ASD students is to mainstream them into general education classes. “Being included is extremely important to their parents,” she explains. However, the staff at Stamford High School felt that a self-contained classroom would allow for greater flexibility. Funding for the past year was supplied, in great part, by federal stimulus dollars. Outside groups like the Knights of Columbus donated the appliances for a classroom kitchen, staff members brought in their old pots, pans and other household items, and the non-profit foundation Stamford Education 4 Autism filled in the remaining gaps.
Mickey Teubert’s struggles began as a premature baby in Russia. When the Teuberts traveled there to adopt him, they sensed something about Mickey wasn’t quite right. But they brought him home and Heidi threw away every book that dealt with early childhood development. “I didn’t want to be too freaked out,” she recalls. “I knew that he was going to be delayed and would catch up.”
At age five, however, a friend took her aside and suggested Mickey might have autism. When tests proved her suspicions correct, Teubert sprang into action. “People didn’t understand him in the school system,” she says. “So, they weren’t sure how he was going to behave. Every year was a battle to get what he needed.”
So, Teubert founded Stamford Education 4 Autism with Robin Portanova, the mother of another boy with ASD. Together they worked to raise both awareness and, when necessary, money for materials and services that school administrators were sometimes slow to provide. “It was about educating the educators and the community,” Teubert explains. “We weren’t willing to wait.”
When Mickey, Anthony Portanova and two other students, Olivia Shea and Arrian Velasco, had completed middle school, the mothers looked into each of the city’s three high schools to find the right place to continue their studies as a group. The Academy of Information Technology and Engineering was determined to be too small to house the class. Westhill High School is equipped with facilities like an industrial kitchen that made it a better fit for job training courses after they finish four years of academics. So Stamford High School got their approval.
Mickey’s class consists of the first four students to reach freshman year in the city’s public school system with autism as a “state marked disability.” That means Connecticut officially acknowledges that the disorder affects the way they learn and that the school has a duty to accommodate them. But even though the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act obliges the school to provide a “free and appropriate public education,” it is an unfunded mandate that leaves a lot of room for interpretation. The law only requires that children with ASD be educated until age 21. “Then, that little yellow school bus doesn’t come to the house anymore,” says Cook. It’s a clock that everyone — including the students — can hear running out.
The problem is that little is actually known about what causes ASD and how best to educate people who have it. Although the Centers for Disease Control estimates one child in every 110 is affected with autism, a consistent curriculum has yet to developed, especially for those students who have aged out of the “early intervention” stage. Sheree Cook’s solution is to improvise.
“Every moment of every day is individualized,” she says. “Everything we do has to relate to daily life and be functionally based.” To make those links between their academics and life skills, half of the classroom has been outfitted like an apartment, complete with a working kitchen. Preparing a recipe, for example, can then become a math class that involves measuring using fractions, setting the oven temperature and finding the correct sized pan.
The students have a small army of people helping Cook to teach them, including one-on-one assistants, occupational therapists, speech pathologists and the school’s psychologist. And Cook is in constant contact with the instructors of elective courses like physical education to figure out how to adapt the classes to meet her students’ needs. Extra time spent working with them on the equipment in the fitness room, for example, has made it possible for all four students to workout independently at the after-school cardio club.
To make sure the students are a part of the larger school community, Cook maintains an open-door policy and encourages their peers to drop in whenever they’d like. That’s what brought seniors Jasmine Jones and Katie Faughnan to Room 106.
Jasmine is a star athlete who captains the senior basketball team. Chandler knew Jasmine before she began her daily visits and says she’s noticed a change in her over the last year. “This is a softer child who exhibits sympathy and empathy,” she feels. Jasmine has also decided to study psychology in college.
Katie often stops by to help the class practice their communication skills during their snack break. “In elementary school I was in a special ed program, so I can relate to these kids,” she says. Katie’s college plans include learning to teach special education. But short-term, both she and Jasmine are headed to the senior prom and they’ve promised to bring in pictures to share with the class.
Michael Kinzler was asked to work as Mickey’s drama club mentor by his guidance counselor. “My mom is a kindergarten teacher and she has autistic children in her class,” he says. “So, she told me about things that are common, like repeating what they hear. But it was more difficult than I expected. It took me about two weeks to learn Mickey’s cues.”
Ultimately, Michael found his experience as rewarding as Katie and Jasmine. Sue Chandler sees it as a win-win for all involved. “They were able to come in here and reach outside of themselves at a time when many children are very self-centered,” she points out.
What the future holds, not just for Mickey’s class but the entire program, is something that’s always evolving. Five more students will be joining the four already in the class next fall, so the room will have to be enlarged. But federal funding isn’t likely to keep coming. “When that money runs out, we’re concerned,” says Cook.
So far, the autism program hasn’t been brought into the city’s cost-cutting discussions. At best, the education budget that has been proposed keeps spending levels for the school system at this year’s rate. However, Stamford Director of Administration Fred Flynn, has recommended that the budget be cut by a million dollars.
Still, as long as there’s forward motion, the inhabitants in Room 106 will be taking it a day at a time. Or, to quote Mickey, who somehow summoned up patter from an ancient Vaudeville routine, “Slowly I turned. Step by step. Inch by inch.”
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