Classes for special needs children faces closure

source: minivannews.com

A Care Society project, providing educational services to 48 students with disabilities in Male’, is under threat because of a lack of funding.

The centre has been providing four weekly classes to the students, whose ages range from two to 26 years of age, since 2001.

“When we broke the news to the staff, they said, we might be able to find other work, but what about the students, where will they go?” said Fathimath Nizam, assistant director of the NGO.

With savings and donations for the NGO’s Care Development Centre (CDC) due to dry up at the end of September, Care Society is turning to members of the public, resorts and businesses to sponsor a student for Rf1,000 (US$78) a month for a minimum of a year.

Some parents had expressed a readiness to pay Rf1,000 a month, said Fathimath. “They said please don’t stop it, we are ready to pay the money. If you stop there’s no future for these students.”

But, she said she believed the financial burden would be too great for others to carry, especially as taking care of a child with a disability was costly.

Individual needs

The sponsorship money will be added to the Rf16,000 (US$1,245) a month pledged by the ministry of education to cover the salaries of four teachers.

Fathimath said the teachers were paid only a basic salary. “But they are working here because they are very passionate and they love these kids,” she said.

One of the teachers, Shiyaza Mohamed Didi, 29, who has been working at CDC for eight years, said the centre’s focus was on teaching independent, communication and social skills to the students.

Each child undergoes a functional assessment so that a programme can be tailored to their individual needs, she said.

“They have the same rights as normal children and for the centre to close down would be depriving them of these rights,” said Shiyaza.

Progress

Salma Ali, the mother of a 14-year-old Ahmed Aleef, who suffers from cerebral palsy, said parents of the students were “very sad and very worried” to hear that the centre might be forced to close down.

She said Aleef, who had been attending classes for the past eight years had made great progress.

“His movements have improved and he’s now able to read and write,” she said. “He now reads stories for himself.”

Another concerned parent, the mother of a 12-year-old girl with autism, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said her daughter was completely dependent on her before attending the centre two years ago.

She was now able to got to the toilet independently and alert her parents to her needs.

“I’m very worried, wondering what I’m going to do as there’s no place in the Maldives, however small, that provides services for children with special needs,” said the girl’s mother.

She told Minivan News she believed it was the government’s responsibility to provide financial assistance for the continuance of the programme and that every school should have at least one classroom to cater to children with special needs.

“Everyone should cooperate and try to help these children instead of letting them waste away,” she said.

Knocking on every door

Shifa Mohamed, deputy minister of education, said the Minister of Education Mustafa Luthfy had formed a committee to look into special needs after assuming office in November last year.

She added Care Society had played a major role in helping children with disabilities and opening up the issue of special needs to the whole nation.

“If funding will be stopped, it’s a concern for everyone,” she said.

Care Society first registered in 1998 and has been promoting the rights of people with disabilities, children and women as well as assisting survivors of natural disasters, such as the tsunami, since its inception.

At present, the NGO runs another two other projects, said Fathimath. The first is a community-based rehabilitation programme which assists people with disabilities living on Gaaf Dhaal atoll Thinadhoo and Addu atoll Hithadhoo.

The second is a disaster risk management programme which aims to help schools become safer environments. Both have sufficient funding until next year, said Fathimath.

“Right now we will be knocking on every door,” she said. “I feel that there are people who can contribute Rf1,000 (US$78) a month.”

To sponsor a student or find out more information, please contact Aminath Luha at the Care Society on +9603312491.

Trained ABA therapist in Male'

Applied Behaviour Analysis, or ABA in short, is one of the many treatments for autism and similar developmental delays. It is widely acknowledged and accepted by developmental professionals as a scientifically proven method. It is, however, costly and a long time treatment. Yet, it is not the magic pill every parent is looking for. The improvements in the child depends largely on the quality of the programs and dedication of the parents. Whilst some children shows significant improvements with ABA, other treatments like RDI, Floortime and others can make much progress in other children.

With the understanding that there may be parents in Male' who are keen to set up an ABA program we wish to lend a helping hand. From 9th August to 9th September, one of our board members is available in Male' to discuss with individual families about how to start an ABA program. He has ample experience in running ABA programs at first hand and will be able to help kick off a home based ABA program. Help and guidance will be offered in preparing learning materials and setting up the therapy corner or room. As we understand the biggest worry of parents of these children is financial hardship, we ask for no fees or payments in return.

So, those parents who are interested, please contact us via our email autismmaldives@yahoo.com

An appeal to the Maldivan Government regarding the insurance package for all citizens.

We have read in the news lately that the Maldivian government is considering to introduce an insurance package for every citizen in the country. This is a great news, of course. However, our concern is how much will such a package cover treatment towards disabilities and other life-long treatments, when they are the ones who need is most. We are surprised as to why the Maldivian media is silent on this issue.

Hence, we call upon the Maldivian government not to neglect or forget about those special children in our country when they are planning to introduce a nation-wide insurance package, as these special children are also part of our society and they need more help and care than anyone else. Most of these children in our society gets no treatment at all due to lack of funds. One such example that surfaced on the papers lately is that of Thaa. Kinbidhoo. We strongly believe the child under question was in a treatable condition but enough could not be done due to lack of awareness as to the nature of treatment, but mostly due to lack of funds to analyse the cause and seek proper treatment.

We know few families who are seeking ABA therapy and Floortime therapy abroad while others are fending themselves with worries not knowing what to do with their autistic children.

Floortime -- another therapy for autism/pdd!

Unlike Applied Behaviour Analysis, Floortime is a not a behavioural approach. The main difference in ABA and Floortime is in ABA the therapist controls everything and dictates the child's behaviour while in Floortime the therapist flows the child's lead and try to interact with him or her.

Click here for an introducotry program on Floortime on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=DIR%C2%A9%2FFloortime%E2%84%A2+Seminar+-+Italy&search_type=

Click here for Parent's Guide Book For Setting up a Program of Floor Time Volunteers
http://www.coping.org/intervention/fltmvols.htm

How to deal with autistic symptoms?

compiled by and with courtesy of asrik.net

below are some strategies to deal with developmental symptoms/pdd in a child.

Concern 1: Child has poor eye contact.
What you can do: 1. position yourself so that you are face-to-face with the child while talking, singing or addressing the child. 2. Whenever the child looks into your eyes reinforce the action immediately after. For example you can say: good looking, beautiful eyes, change your voice pitch, etc. 3. When you play and talk to him bend your knees to give him better chances for him to look in your eyes during play. 4. NEVER force him to look in your eye or turn his face to look in your eyes. If you do the above techniques it will come automatically!

Additional readings:

§ How to Establish Eye Contact in Children with Autism, http://www.ehow.com/how_2064753_establish-eye-contact-children-autism.html

Concern 2: Child does not respond to his name.
What you can do: 1. DO NOT call his name again and again since this can reinforce a bad/undesired behaviour if he usually does not respond to his name being called. 2. When he is comfortable looking at you during play session or when he awaits eagerly for his turn and look at you, do address him by his name. 3. If he’s really excited and look at you again and again, you can call him by name when it is his turn. 4. DO NOT get frustrated or upset even if he does not respond to you as this can be achieved through patience, hardworking and consistency.

Concern 3: Child prefers or enjoys playing all by himself.
What you can do: 1. Watch him closely for a minute or two. 2. Do parallel playing with him (i.e., copy him using similar or other toys) for few minutes before expanding the play methods (i.e., demonstrate what more he can do with the same toys which would be more fun and exciting.) This way you can establish a good rapport with you the child. 3. Once he follows your directions in the play and after playing that way for sometime you can move onto some play of your choice.

Concern 4: Child has a small vocabulary.
What you can do: 1. name objects and label actions during play. 2. AVOID asking questions. Instead try telling him what he is doing (parallel talk), what you are doing (self-talk), show him objects and tell their names. Do actions and tell him what actions they are. Practice these methods during playtimes. Initially let him say the words after you before letting him say them spontaneously. To encourage him say words and phrases spontaneously you can say part of the phrase and let him fill in.

Examples: “Twinkle, Twinkle, little ________” . (Child says, “star”)

If he did not fill in, do not insist more than twice. Try again some other time when he is more excited and motivated. Whenever he does, reinforce it immediately verbally or using an object or both.

ABA video clips at Youtube

ABA or Applied Behavior Analysis is one of the most well-known therapies for Autism and other forms of developmental disorders, including down syndrome. It is a scientific method that is being discussed in medical journals and widely believed to be effective.

For those wondering what aba is about, click the links below for some video clip at youtube. Parents can try some of these techniques. But if you are really about it, it is also recommended to carry it out under the supervision of an ABA consultant or supervisor, who is well trained and qualified for the job.

For ABA clips click here.

Establishing eyecontact

by Angela Mouzakitis, BCBA

Eye contact for children with autism is always a concern. Well, not always, but usually. I do work with one little boy that appears to love looking people in the eyes and teaching this skill took all of four days when he was two-years old. For the rest of our kids, it can be very challenging.

Different orientations go about teaching eye contact in various ways. While I've voiced my opinion on RDI in the past, I will discuss it as additional strategies here. But in summary of previous posts, behavior is behavior. If you want to teach a new behavior, like eye contact, it WILL be taught using behavioral principles, whether you are comfortable calling it that or not. RDI provides us with strategies that modify the environment and provide creative ways to elicit eye contact, but eventually that eye contact is reinforced (ABA) shaped (ABA) given differentiated reinforcement depending on quality of eye contact (ABA) elicited by modifying the environment (ABA) elicited by using a discriminative stimulus (ABA). It is all ABA.

Where ABA has fallen short on the eye contact issue, in my humble opinion, is by not exploring more creative methods to elicit eye contact, and to make giving eye contact important. I'll go over some traditional methods that have been used to elicit eye contact, and then how some RDI ideas can be incorporated into an ABA program (since they are all based on behavior principles anyway.)

DTT - Discrete Trial Instruction/Training programs tend to teach eye contact in very contrived situations. A child will sit opposite a therapist, and given the directive "look at me" or the child's name will be called. Depending on the level of the child, a reinforcer will be held at the teacher's eye to help the child understand where they should look. Contingent upon eye contact, the child will immediately receive the reinforcer, possibly providing a token, and providing praise. It make look like this.
Teacher: "Look at me" (while holding an M&M at her eye)
Child: Looks at M&M and glances at teachers eye
Teacher: "Excellent looking" and provides M&M immediately.

This is an effective method and will teach a child to look at someone at the eyes when a demand is placed, when their name is called, when a reinforcer is present. However it doesn't always generalize. Some children that I work with look at me beautifully in the eyes, but when their grandmother says hello, they are looking anywhere but her eyes. Why? Maybe because she is not holding an M&M or a reinforcer in her hand, so the MO (motivating operation) to look in her eyes is not there. The child has not generalized that looking at people in the eyes is reinforcing.

ABA - Applied behavior analysis will of course incorporate the strategies used above, slowly fading out the item at the eye, just like DTT, until the child looks at the teacher's/parent's eyes without have a reinforcer within eye sight. Other methods are always used. In my programs, I prefer not to demand eye contact, but rather to wait for the child to initiation eye contact and reinforce the spontaneous eye contact. An example of this is the following

Teacher: Holding Elmo toy that two-year-old child with autism clearly wants to play with.
Student: Pulling at the toy, while staring at the toy
Teacher: Teacher looking at child's face, not letting go of the toy
Student: Still pulling at toy
Teacher: Still holding toy....continues to hold on until child glances up at which point the toy is immediately provided with praise and excitement.

This method reinforces spontaneous eye contact as opposed to eye contact that is requested. What ABA therapists do is contrive the environment to elicit eye contact, and reinforcer the eye contact, assuring that future eye contact will occur at higher rates due to the reinforcement.

RDI? I don't think RDI strategies are inconsistent with applied behavior analysis (ABA). What I have learned by attending these seminars is how to be more creative with my children. How to give my a children cool reasons to look at me, give me eye contact and enjoy themselves while doing it. It is these cool creative ideas (reinforcing events) that when used in the environment (modifying the environment) will provide a stimulus (SD) to elicit eye contact (response). (Do you see how it all falls so nicely into behavior principles.

I tried some of these strategies with a child that I work with. RDI talks about doing the unexpected, getting creative, and making kids care about giving eye contact. Now, I don't know if I am making them care about giving eye contact as it isn't something that I can observe, but what I CAN do is note the response, which was fantastic, and it didn't include reinforcing objects, rather reinforcing people (myself). That is one of the core tenets of RDI: to keep objects out of it and build relationships with people, which is quite different from ABA and DTT which rely on tangible reinforcers heavily.

I sat opposite a five-year old child with autism, removed toys and reinforcers out of sight in the environment, I positioned myself in front of him and waited. He didn't look at me, save the occasional glance. When he would glance, I smiled. See below

Child: Glanced
Teacher: Smiled
Child: Glanced again
Teacher: Blew air in his face
Child: Giggled
Teacher: Waited for eye contact again
Child: Gave it much more quickly
Teacher: Pinged child's nose
Child: Giggled, and while maintaining eye contact, blew air in teachers face
Teacher: Giggled, and made a raspberry on his cheek
Child: Giggled, and laughed, and said "blow"
Teacher: Blew air in his face, then by his ear, then on his toes
Child: Giggled, and pinged teacher's nose.

This went on, while maintaining eye contact. This is not an RDI program, this is an ABA therapist, using some of the creativity from RDI, and reinforcing and shaping the eye contact behavior of the child. At the end of this interlude, before he got tired of the game (satiated) I laid down on my back and left him alone. Normally, he would have walked away and found a toy to stim with. This time, that didn't happen. He watched me lay down, walked over to my face, looked at my eyes, giggled, and blew air at my cheek. I had made my eye contact and interaction reinforcing to him, so much, that he was seeking it out.

Source: http://appliedbehavioranalysis.blogspot.com/2007/08/eye-contact-aba-dtt-and-rdi.html