Join us as we navigate the intricate world of supporting children on the autism spectrum to engage in the present moment during educational activities. Amidst the myriad of challenges they face, like the pull of repetitive memories or deep-seated fixations, we've unearthed practical ways to guide their focus back to the learning at hand. Our discussion traverses the delicate balance of integrating a child's passions into their lessons, providing a springboard for an enriching and effective educational journey. Moreover, we scrutinize the stark contrast between therapies driven by sales tactics versus those rooted in rigorous research. We dissect the fundamental aspects of evidence-based Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy and how it can be customized to bolster children with autism and their families in establishing achievable goals and consistent routines.
This episode also unfolds an intimate narrative detailing a touching encounter with a parent of an autistic child. The story serves as a testament to the profound connections fostered by understanding and responding to the unique modes of communication used by these children. As we contemplate the role of empathy and mindfulness in educational spaces, I share my personal ritual of offering a prayer for each student, illustrating how infusing compassion into our daily exchanges can leave a lasting imprint on the lives of children with autism and their loved ones. So lend an ear for a heartening conversation that transcends conventional approaches, and spotlights the human element that deepens our bond with these extraordinary children.
Join us as we navigate the intricate world of supporting children on the autism spectrum to engage in the present moment during educational activities. Amidst the myriad of challenges they face, like the pull of repetitive memories or deep-seated fixations, we've unearthed practical ways to guide their focus back to the learning at hand. Our discussion traverses the delicate balance of integrating a child's passions into their lessons, providing a springboard for an enriching and effective educational journey. Moreover, we scrutinize the stark contrast between therapies driven by sales tactics versus those rooted in rigorous research. We dissect the fundamental aspects of evidence-based Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy and how it can be customized to bolster children with autism and their families in establishing achievable goals and consistent routines.
This episode also unfolds an intimate narrative detailing a touching encounter with a parent of an autistic child. The story serves as a testament to the profound connections fostered by understanding and responding to the unique modes of communication used by these children. As we contemplate the role of empathy and mindfulness in educational spaces, I share my personal ritual of offering a prayer for each student, illustrating how infusing compassion into our daily exchanges can leave a lasting imprint on the lives of children with autism and their loved ones. So lend an ear for a heartening conversation that transcends conventional approaches, and spotlights the human element that deepens our bond with these extraordinary children.
Hi everyone. Hope you're enjoying your spring break with your children and having some good times with them. I have with my granddaughter. Today we're going to talk about a couple different things. One is living in a memory and the other one is therapies and ABA. And then I'm going to do this Steven story, but I'm going to add to it a little bit more and then give once again my email and offer a gift to someone. So that's what we're talking about today.
Speaker 1:
The first one is living in a memory. Are you working with your child and they're singing the ABCs or they're re repeating things that they heard on a movie that they really like and they keep repeating it, repeating it again and again. As you're trying to work with them, you may be working on ABCs, masks or whatever, and they're living in memory and they keep repeating and repeating stuff. Let them know you're living in a memory and you need to stop and we need to focus on here, look at here, and sometimes you can take those like if they like characters or whatever they as, and kind of put it with the paper, say look, we're looking at this word or this math problem and kind of get them back into focus and out of that memory. If they're staring into space, they may be looking at you know, creating pictures in their minds, and that's what they're. They're reliving that memory. So you need to bring them back and say stop living in the memory. We're now here and it usually works. It may take three or four times for you to do that to get them back on on task, but kids, on their perspective, tend to want to live in memory, so rehearse everything over and over, again and again. Sometimes I think that is also a technique that they use to kind of relax themselves, to calm themselves, that they they enjoy doing that. So there's really not anything. I don't feel that wrong with it. But when you're you want them to focus on what you want, you have to just let them know Stop living in the memory. Okay, the second thing I want to talk about is therapy, and I'm going to talk a little bit about something else kind of tied into that.
Speaker 1:
But if you're looking for therapy, especially if you're homeschooling or kind of new to an area, one of the things you want to look for is are they offering? Is it like they want to make money off of you? Is it a sales or is it research base? If it's sales, you may not want to do that, but if it's research base, then that's great. But you need to ask some questions. What data have they have? Sales would not have no data. They just they're just making money. If they are research base, then that should be published. And if they're like over promising, like it seems too good to be true, it probably is, and that's another red flag.
Speaker 1:
Does the data show the effects or is it very? Are the effects very slow? That's something else you want it. Did it take two years to accomplish one small thing? That's something else you want to look at the data. Is it scientifically proven? Is there evidence? Is it an evidence base? Can they prove their results? Can they show that they've done it and prove their results? And how many studies have they done? Five to ten on each behavior is what you kind of want to look for.
Speaker 1:
What type of kids do they have? Because there's all different kinds of types, so you need to find out. What are they? What kind of kids are they working with? Did any of these studies were like your child? Did they work on behaviors that like your child? Because if it's not the same, then it's not going to do you any good. Have other other experts from other areas also been involved in their studies? Behaviorists, teaching, behavior analysts, that different organization, maybe even speech pathologists? Those are some things that you want to do and if you're looking at the ABA behaviorists, you want to make sure that they work with the family, that they have identify their goals, that they have of assess Patterns, that they design a strategy for your child and they ID the to find the triggers, what triggered this child to do this at this time, and Make routines and provide challenges, replace challenges, behaviors with more success in routines, and that's part of their job. You want to. You're always going to have some type of behaviorist, but you want to be able to pinpoint exactly how can we avoid some of these outbursts? And the one I'm working with right now, she's very, very good and I really like her. So there are some good people out there that are good behaviorists and some good therapy too.
Speaker 1:
The other thing is that I want to talk about today is one of the things that I've noticed since I've been doing this and I've kind of put it on Facebook and stuff how many of organizations or people are Tuning in or trying to sell something. Basically is what I'm trying to say? They're trying to sell you something. Everything came at a price and they come with these guarantees. If you do this, your child will have three years of math in two months, or something like that, or be able to read In 30 days, and some of it is you know. I just wondered does that sound right? But all of them have, like, you pay 50 bucks a month or you pay $30 here for this, or they make these kits that you can make for $10 or get at dollar store and they're charging $40, $50 and I was just kind of blown away with some of the Stuff that I'm seeing now on Facebook regarding kids that are on the spectrum.
Speaker 1:
So it's what I'd like to do is I'd like to offer up anyone that contacts me through my email, which is Gd e, b, r, a, 0, 5, 5 at gmailcom. If you send me the information you know, like your address and Then how old your kid is and where you're working at, I wouldn't mind sending you a kit of a task box for free. I'm not going to charge anybody. I'm not saying that I don't want to get support for this and be able to at least pay for what I'm, I use and stuff like that. But I don't want to gouge parents either. This is about, you know, trying to be just one small voice and try to help people, not try to you Put my hand in your pocket, like you probably feel like everybody's got their hands in in your pockets right now. So I'm hoping that that can be Some help to a family and I may do that. I think I'm gonna do that like once a month. You know, offer something Free and I'll do the shipping and everything. You don't have to pay for nothing and it doesn't matter anywhere in the United States and Canada is fine. So I want to talk about the story that I said.
Speaker 1:
Stephen, and some of you may have heard it and some of you this may be new, so I'll start at the beginning, but this was my. I just finished my first year teaching and the class that we were coming up with was was Pretty rough. There were some students in there, that was pretty challenging, and and so my parent asked me what are we gonna do next year? You know how we're gonna handle this and I said you know, don't worry about it, I'm gonna pray about it, and I were gonna fill the room with angels and I kind of just left it at that and nothing else was said.
Speaker 1:
And then we began the second year of my teaching and we got that class and they were. They were some pretty good challenge Students in there that we had to deal with. And there was this I Made these books of dot math and on the front of it was I all these little boys and girls in the front of it, and I gave each one child their own little book and they got to decorate the kids and so they could decorate their books and color it and things like that. So about a month after that we still had the booklets and they were working on them and it was getting ready for open house. It was open house, so we were getting ready for that and I was getting my room ready and they put their little booklets on the table and everything. And I looked down at little Steven's book and behind each little boy and girl he had put angel wings behind that.
Speaker 1:
And my pair, she didn't believe and she was a Christian too, but she didn't believe it. She said no, no, you know there's no. She didn't believe that there was angels Cause I kept saying see, it's a, we have an angel in our room. And then when I saw her shoulder to that she was kind of kind of shocked. But I told this story also to in a group at church.
Speaker 1:
We were talking about autistic kids and I didn't know it at the time, but there was a parent there and she came up afterwards and she talked to me and she said you know, your story really touched my heart.
Speaker 1:
And she said cause, sometimes he's kind of stares off to space. And I said you never know. You know, I mean, that was, that's a true story. This little boy and I had never said anything to this little boy, he wasn't in the room when we talked about it and we never talked about it afterwards, so it was just something that he did Cause we, when we talked about it, that class hadn't even started yet, so he had no idea that I had said we're going to flood our room with angels, so and I used to pray in my room and behind each, sit in each child's desk and pray for them. Okay, so that's the end of today. I hope that you have enjoyed today's story and I hope I helped in some ways to give you a little bit of a little voice about therapy and self-talk. I hope you have a blessed day. Talk to you later.