Autism Therapy: Washington

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Project DATA for Toddlers: An Inclusive Approach to Very Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

TECSE, by Boulware, G. - L., Schwartz IS, Sandall SR, and McBride BJ, published in 2006, summarized Aug 6, 2007

University of Washington offers an early intervention toddler program that is designed to help young children with autism.

This paper describes Project DATA for Toddlers, which is a mixture of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and early intervention/early childhood special education. While the toddlers improved with the program, none of them were able to continue at a "normal" school program. In this way the program was not better and no worse than any other early childhood program. The good thing about the Project DATA for Toddlers is that it offers a model program for very young children that can specifically help with the many different aspects of autism. The other good thing is that it offers 16 hours of therapy per week as opposed to the three hours per week that is commonly found with early intervention.

Island Autism Moms Raise Autism Awareness in Public Schools

Apr 23, 2012

Island Autism Moms, a group on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, is creating autism awareness in their public schools. The group, which started in 2007, has grown from a gathering of moms to an organization that is trying to improve education for their kids with autism. The parents discovered that their main concern was academics and fear that the local schools didn’t know how to deal with their children. They created a program called Wings. Wings looks for funding and organizes services for school children. They pay for a coordinator to work with schools and students. They also fund teacher training on various topics regarding autism.

Read original article: Islanders Raise Awareness of Autism, Seek Additional Funding

Island Autism Moms Raise Autism Awareness in Public Schools

Apr 23, 2012

Island Autism Moms, a group on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, is creating autism awareness in their public schools. The group, which started in 2007, has grown from a gathering of moms to an organization that is trying to improve education for their kids with autism. The parents discovered that their main concern was academics and fear that the local schools didn’t know how to deal with their children. They created a program called Wings. Wings looks for funding and organizes services for school children. They pay for a coordinator to work with schools and students. They also fund teacher training on various topics regarding autism. Wings is being modeled as a solution to help kids manage in their classrooms

Read original article: Islanders Raise Awareness of Autism, Seek Additional Funding

Autism Centers Provide Social Skills and Employment

Nov 22, 2011

Stella Spanakos, mom of a son with autism, has launched two new centers in the Port Washington area. Nicholas Center for Autism, named for her son, is a facility that focuses on life skills for people with autism. Clients learn improved communication and job training. Spectrum Designs is an offshoot of the Center and provides employment for people with autism as well as custom-made apparel, accessories, and special event favors all created by people with autism. Spanakos and her co-founder Nicole Sugrue are convinced that parents want the best opportunities for their children with autism. She and Sugrue hope that both the Center and Spectrum Designs will fill that need.

Read original article: New Autism Center Opens in Port Washington

Kinect Game Shows Promise in Helping Kids with Autism

Nov 10, 2011

The Lakeside Center for Autism in Washington State is using Kinect to engage children with autism in movement and play. Kinect is part of Microsoft’s offerings that allow gestures and body movements to control action in video games. For example, a child can see and control a representation of him on the screen. The center uses Kinect as a biofeedback tool whereby the kids can see results of their actions. If the child jumps up and raises his arms, so too will the representation on the screen.

Read original article: Kinect Much More than a Game

Please comment on this autism topic.

The Manual! And my book came out in paperback today!

Nov 7, 2007 by dankohn

Dear friends,
Well here it is – finally. The Footnotes are missing and it needs some graphical tweaking but I thought I should get it up on the site as soon as possible even if imperfect. It took a long time to write and to get feedback and even now it is very much a work in progress. I hope it will be helpful and that you will send your comments and feedback and contribute the new things you learn and discover to be incorporated into the Manual as it evolves over time. Most of all: PLEASE SHARE YOUR VIDEOS!

Please share your videos as you get started (and upload video from before you started, AKA “Baseline videos”). And anyone who is already using this kind of method - please share your progress with the Community by uploading your videos! Everyone needs the inspiration to keep up their spirits and to believe that their kid will be able to do it!

We are at the beginning of a new era for our nonverbal and low-communicating children and it is up to us to observe, try things and to record and share everything we learn with each other. It is my greatest hope that we will change the way the world sees our children and open up a new life of possibilities for them through their ever-improving ability to communicate.

Last but not least, the paperback version of ‘Strange Son’ came out today. There is an Appendix in the paperback that consists of a scaled down version of the manual (because it wasn’t really ready at the deadline for submission last spring).

I am currently in Washington DC – Congress mandated that the Department of Defense fund autism research and I was selected as a “Consumer Reviewer”, that means I read the grants, write reviews and participate in the grant review meeting to weigh in on what should be funded. On Monday I will be at the Autism Speaks grant review meeting in Philadelphia doing the same thing and then I am going to Cold Spring Harbor to try to learn more about the new “copy variation” (genetic) findings in autism.

Best wishes to you all and please keep me posted, -Portia

PS Because it will be updated frequently, please be sure to watch for new, updated versions of the Manual. You’ll find it at: www.strangeson.com to the left, under “Portia’s thoughts on pointing”.

Respite Care

Apr 11, 2007 by Anonymous

Here is a place in Maryland near Annapolis: http://www.aamentalhealth.org/warmline.html - it’s kind of like a 311 only for social services. Actually, the entire attached document has numbers to call depending on where she lives.

Respite care provides people with temporary relief from tasks associated with caregiving. I have pasted below information for Washington DC. Each state should have its own version of respite care.

Here’s a county list for Virginia: http://askunitedway.communityos.org/local/os040/posting_area/local/CentralPoints.htm. VA also has a program called Family Day Systems (FDS) whereby children are referred to available day care centers. Here’s a definition: http://www.autism-pdd.net/respite.html, http://www.autism-pdd.net/disability-resources.html#asssist.

And finally a phone number: http://www.goprincegeorgescounty.com/Government/AgencyIndex/Social_Services/child_care.asp?nivel=subfoldmenu(1,3) – this is actual Child Care Assistance, found by googling: respite care Washington DC.

Early Intervention List of State Contacts

Sep 22, 2006 by Anonymous

This alphabetic list of states contains Early Intervention contact information for each state. The information in this list was graciously shared with us by the National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC).