New program claims effectiveness of parent education in teaching autistic children

 

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NEW YORK --Carol Forsloff --Experts who work with autistic children say parent
education for this group is especially important because they can learn to teach
social and language skills at home.

At the beginning, before a formal diagnosis is made, many parents simply think their child is deaf when he or she doesn’t appear to comprehend or speak or pay attention.  However, this lack of response is one of the markers of autism. 

Parents can, with training, learn how to help children at home.

To help children learn social and language skills many parents rely on evidenced-based behavioral treatment methods.
One of these is being used by a company using what they describe as “best practice ABA strategies.” (www.rethinkautism.com).

The program is called Rethink Autism.  It is a web-based program that provides parents with a curriculum consisting of 1200
video-based teaching steps, parent training modules, an assessment tool, and
progress tracking features. The curriculum, is said to be endorsed by leaders
in the field of autism treatment and research, spans the entire autism
spectrum and covers a broad range of skills, including academics, language,
social, motor, daily living, and behavior management.

As part of their service to the autism community, Rethink Autism also offers free
and informative webinars on relevant subjects such as "Managing Problem
Behavior at Home" and "Back to School." The next webinar in
their series, "Teach Your Child Social & Language Skills," on
Tuesday, July 27 at 2pm EDT (1pm CDT), features Ms. Lin Chong, Rethink
Autism's Director of Programs and Services, who will speak about effective ways
for parents to teach their child important language and social skills. The
webinar will also include an interactive Question & Answer session. (Visit http://www.rethinkautism.com
to learn more.)

 

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When using Rethink Autism, a parent fills out a brief skills checklist online, and
the program will then create an individualized ABA-based learning plan for the
child. "Our goal is to make ABA accessible to families without clinical
jargon or a diagnostic maze. Each lesson plan includes several step-by-step
videos that show ABA therapists working with a child with autism, so that parents know how to work with their children through very specific needs anytime and anywhere," said Jamie Pagliaro, executive vice president of Rethink Autism.

American Academy of Pediatrics writes, "The effectiveness of ABA-based intervention
in Autism Spectrum Disorders has been well-documented through five decades of
research." The report also notes, "Children who receive early
intensive behavioral treatment have been shown to make substantial, sustained
gains in IQ, language, academic performance, and adaptive behavior."

Rethink Autism, Inc.  promotes its ability to reach this group of
children with behavioral measures it maintains family members can use to teach
children in a way that is easy to understand and apply.

Other health groups present methodologies for working with autistic children, such as
Health Central.   This is the group’s definition of ABA:  “ABA is a method for teaching children with
autism which has been around a long time. One of the core principles of ABA is
the belief that behavior is controlled by rewards and punishments. ABA folk
believe that you can shape a child’s behavior and learning through a systematic
approach of delivering reinforcement for accurate or appropriate responses.”

The barrier to the use of this method has been the cost.

An at-home program helps relieve some of that financial burden, showing how the
Internet can provide teaching strategies for parents of autistic children who
often have to rely on themselves for support for their children to learn the

basics in language and behavior.