New Teaching Tool for Children
With Autism Spectrum Disorders Empowers Parents, Educators |
| Toronto, Ontario – January 15, 2001 – The most widely used teaching
methodology for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders is now available
as a self-paced learning program. Help Us Learn
has been developed to teach parents, educators, therapists, service providers,
family and friends how to use Applied Behavior Analysis (‘ABA’) to teach
their children. ABA is a teaching methodology based on the Behavioral Psychology
principles of positive reinforcement, graduated prompting, repetition and
teaching tasks in very small (discrete) steps. The program is often done
at home, using students and other part-time workers as teachers. Studies
show that children receiving behavioral intervention generally achieve
significant gains.
Parents who have children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder
or PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder) are often faced with long wait
lists for programs and services, or prohibitively expensive costs for consultants
in order to get a home or school-based education program up and running.
Some families live in locations that don’t have access to any services
at all. Because early intervention is so critical, Help
Us Learn provides parents and teachers with the information and
training that they need to understand ABA, set up, run and manage a program
right
away.
Help Us Learn works with any curriculum
and can be applied to any age group.
The program was developed by Kathy Lear, a mother of a child with
PDD who has a background in Adult Training & Education, to address
the need for an affordable, effective and efficient way to train ABA teachers.
It is designed for families and educators who don’t have access to an ABA
Consultant or Psychologist, can’t afford one or don’t want to wait to get
started; and for families and educators who are currently running an ABA
program and need to train new ABA teachers. "This is the program that
I wish I had when we were starting out. I couldn’t find it, so I developed
it" says Kathy Lear. |
The three-piece Help Us Learn
Program includes: |
-
The Training Manual - designed for the people who will be working directly
with the child. It is a self-paced program with a combination of information,
exercises, case studies and role-plays designed to provide a solid understanding
of the ABA teaching methodology. Ten chapters cover: Overview, Behavior,
Reinforcement, Prompts, Sd & Response, Role Play, Data Management &
Analysis, Behavioral Techniques, How to Set Up & Run a Photographic
Activity Schedule, and a Final Quiz.
-
The Program Manager’s Guide - designed to be used by the parent, team-leader
or coordinator – whoever will be hiring, training and supervising a team
of ABA teachers. It contains a 12-step Program Implementation Plan, the
Answer Key to the exercises in the Training Manual, forms to assist with
the hiring process, and a comprehensive assortment of program management
forms and team management forms.
-
The Forms Disk - contains all of the hiring forms, program management
forms and team management forms. These can be altered to suit the needs
of each particular program or printed as-is.
|
| "If we train the teachers better,
they can teach the children better" |
|
