• TIBA (Trauma-Informed BA) articles
  • Cusp Emergence in the Community: 2019 updates
  • About Cusp Emergence
  • About Dr. Kolu
  • ETHICS
  • Cusp Emergence University
  • Resources
  • Mentorship

Cusp Emergence

~ Collaborating ~ Consulting ~ Constructing Repertoires

Cusp Emergence

Monthly Archives: November 2012

Social Emotional Support: Part 3 (How does it work?)

15 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by kolubcbad in Autism, Behavior Analysis, Behavioral Cusp, Community, Early Intervention, Social Interaction, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

autism, early intervention, individualized, intensity, S/E, social emotional support

Social Emotional Support should be practical, and fit into a child’s family routine or team involvement.

How does Social Emotional Support work with other therapies? Does it replace Speech Therapy?
Social Emotional Support can complement, but does not usually replace, therapy by an experienced, licensed and trained speech therapist, especially if the child is diagnosed with an issue that would benefit from Speech Therapy. Instead, S/E can facilitate other therapies the child is already receiving, and brings a therapeutic perspective that can enhance the benefit of Speech, Occupational, Physical, or other supports. For example, some children may use dangerous or unsafe behaviors, or escape from unbearable or undesirable situations after inappropriate behavior. Other children benefit from learning how to “turn down” or “turn up” sensory stimulation, without using unsafe behavior. They can learn safe ways to express that there is too much, too little, or uncomfortable stimulation. We can help other therapists to integrate behavioral wellness into their sessions, and how to incorporate motivation and timing and behavior techniques into their strategies. Note: Some of the most powerful technologies in teaching children with autism (and diverse learners worldwide) have been generated by behavior analysts who collaborate with, or have backgrounds in, speech and language therapy. (PECS, or the Picture Exchange Communication System, is a good example of this.)

How do we do it?
Step 1: Assessment
A behavior analyst as S/E provider can assess a child’s strengths, challenging behavior, and family’s concerns, then generate individualized strategies to support the child’s growth. Often an assessment called an FBA, or Functional Behavior Assessment, is conducted over a couple of weeks to understand the reasons and ways that the environment is contributing to the child’s challenges. We learn what situations are most difficult and how to address them by strengthening more appropriate and successful alternative ways for learners to meet their needs.

Step 2: Collaborate
Next, we team with the child’s family and other providers or community members. We use a collaborative strength-based service model to determine measurable goals the child will meet by learning new skills, behaviors, and new ways to use their strengths. Then we discuss ways (strategies) that will be used to get there.

Step 3: Teach family and therapists to use consistent strategies; monitor strategy effectiveness
Collaboration results in setting measurable goals and developing a plan listing specific strategies families will use to meet the goal.

Families often ask whether we use individualized strategies or apply the same kind of support to every child.
We use individualized support. There are also many core “evidence-based” strategies that we use because research and practical application consistently shows they benefit children with autism and related challenges. Read more about the EI Colorado recommended strategies here.

Step 4: Support the child’s transition out of early intervention.
This step involves thoughtful planning for how the child and family will move to the next steps and environments as needed. Local agencies partner with schools to provide families with options for continued therapies in preschool if needed. Social emotional support providers can work with families to put the currently effective strategies in writing to share with important new people in the child’s life. Some families benefit from continued consultation from a BCBA, who can help teach preschool teachers and therapists how to keep making progress by providing continued individualized support based on the child’s needs. (Check out a previous related post on supporting a child’s transition).

Social Emotional Support and Intensity of Behavior Analytic Intervention
Although intensive intervention is recommended and effective for building skills and relationships with children with autism, the intensive aspect of intervention is not characteristic of the time-limited S/E support under Early Intervention Colorado’s guidelines. Instead, this model provides a brief assessment as needed followed by an hour or so of weekly therapy with the child that consistently includes caregiver education. By focusing on engineering change in families and team members, we set caregivers up to learn preventative successful techniques to support their child’s speech, motor, play, self-help and social skills.

Social Emotional Support: Part 2 (Where and how)

15 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by kolubcbad in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

BCBA, BCBA-D, behavior analysis, community-based, cusp emergence, S/E support, social emotional support

Social Emotional Support: Where? How?

Note: This segment is Part 2 of a Series on Social Emotional Support by a Behavior Analyst

Where?

Social Emotional Support can be provided in the home and in the community, wherever it fits in to a child’s and family’s life. Often we identify, with the family, that there are a few especially challenging environments or places. We educate and collaborate. By using modeling and supportive feedback directly in those places, a team can support a family planning to re-enter environments and situations they have been avoiding due to difficulties coping with challenging behavior, social, or communication needs. Sometimes we educate in the grocery store, we practice going to story time at the library, or we meet a family in a gym. We go where the difficulties are, so that the teaching is effective and the family learns to implement the strategies when therapists are NOT there. We also teach in the family’s home, at times of day that the family needs support. Some families benefit from a weekly afternoon play session, while others benefit from sessions that target particular routines or tasks. Sometimes we provide support during a meal, or during a specific self help routine.

Why do it in the community?

Generalization can mean a child learns to do things s/he first practiced at home, in other places, with other caregivers, and in other situations. Generalization will not always happen by itself. Planning for generalization is important, and is almost always a big part of what the behavior analyst does.

Some places we have provided Social Emotional Support:

  • family’s home
  • church daycare
  • community daycare
  • community gyms
  • community children’s museums
  • a local library
  • local parks
  • schools
  • doctor’s offices
  • dentist office waiting room

How is Social Emotional Support funded?

In Colorado, families whose children qualify for Early Intervention services could receive Social Emotional support at no cost until their child is 3 years old, by Board Certified Behavior Analysts or other specialists authorized to be providers. In situations when the child does not qualify by the state definition but still has needs in this areas, some families choose to private pay and contract with an agency or provider who can meet their needs, or to enroll in parent education or training that can help. Grants may be options for some children on waiting lists for specific autism waivers through Medicaid, or for children with significant needs. Grants can fund co-pays for children whose insurance reimburses ABA coverage. Some providers offer sliding scales for families without insurance, and some agencies offer payment plans.

Note: Cusp Emergence offers Dr. Kolu’s Preventative Environments Training to the community, and provides social emotional education programs to preschools, churches, and other community businesses. We also offer a sliding scale to families in need, and can train family members or friends to act as therapists. University students, caring family members, and babysitters can all be trained to be excellent therapists who supplement a child’s program. 

Social Emotional Support: Part 1 (Who, what, and when)

10 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by kolubcbad in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

autism, BCBA, BCBA-D, behavior challenges, board certified behavior analyst, feeding difficulties, social emotional support

Social Emotional Support: Who, what, and when

Note: This segment is Part 1 of a Series on Social Emotional Support by a Behavior Analyst

 

First, here are some ways Dr. Kolu’s clients have benefited from Social Emotional Support:

Individuals

  • A client with Rett’s Syndrome learned new ways to greet peers, ways to play with toys, and how to eat with a spoon and fork

  • A client with severe autism learned to pull up his pants and participate more fully in dressing himself

  • A client with mild autism learned to ask friends to play

  • A client with Rett’s learned to use a button to request food and later to make choices 

  • A client with Angelman’s Syndrome learned to request everyday items by pointing instead of banging his head

  • A client with Autism learned to look at his family members, talk, and practiced preschool readiness skills

  • A client with PDD-NOS learned to use words instead of hitting others and screaming

  • A client with severe anxiety and autism learned coping strategies for the playground instead of running screaming away when other children or dogs arrived

Families

  • A family with a client with autism learned ways to include their child in church and community outings

  • A family with two children with autism learned to provide deep pressure regularly, instead of after self injurious behavior. This decreased head banging and increased hugs at appropriate times!

  • A family with one child with autism learned to encourage language for the 2 year sibling (who was not making sounds at the beginning of therapy).

  • A family with a child with autism and other genetic disorders learned to expand the interests of their child beyond a single video and book to many interactive toys

Community Members

  • A daycare staff learned to teach students how to respond to their peer who was challenged with Rett’s Syndrome. Children learned to wave, give high fives, and exchange toys or crafts materials, while the student with Rett’s learned to wave back, give high fives, and play instead of pulling their hair.

  • Montessori school teachers learned to encourage more independent and healthy eating habits for a learner who struggled with food refusal.

  • Preschool teachers learned ways to include a child with autism in play with his neurotypical peers

  • Preschool therapists learned to manage behavior, incorporate social interaction, and use both timing and motivation more effectively in their SLP, OT, and PT sessions with a child with Angelman Syndrome. After introduction of a behavior analyst to the team, all therapists were educated in how to use consistent strategies to facilitate their individual specialty work with the child. Disruptive and aggressive behavior decreased as appropriate alternatives were supported by the entire team’s strategies.
  • Preschool teachers, therapists and family members learned ways to prevent inappropriate, unsafe, and injurious behavior.

What is Social Emotional Support? Who benefits from S/E?

In this context, S/E support is a specific type of support provided to children birth to 3 who experience delay, or risk for delay, in the area of social emotional development. For example, I support many families whose children experience language delay, difficulties learning to interact with others, or using self-help skills at appropriate developmental pace. Children in these families can be at risk for S/E delay when behavioral challenges grow into barriers that affect the family’s interaction, or prevent the child from interacting fully with his or her community. However, early social emotional support builds a foundation of preventative environments that foster behavioral wellness. 

Social Emotional Support for children with Autism… and children without Autism

Other families I support are raising a child diagnosed with Autism or related challenges, or are affected by Autism elsewhere in their family. The presence of an Autism Spectrum or related challenge can make it more likely that children and their siblings could benefit from therapeutic Social Emotional Support. However, we can also support typically developing children whose families have faced traumatic or difficult experiences that result in challenging interactions between children and family members, difficulties eating, talking, or playing with others. Social emotional support can help families teach a child healthy ways to express his or her feelings, communicate his or her needs and wants, and learn from the natural environment. At the same time, family members receive support and education to practice proactive, preventative, supportive strategies for future challenges.

Social Emotional Support in Colorado

In Colorado, families with young children (0-3 y/o) affected by special needs can connect with their local Child Find agency to find out more about how children can receive these services. (Our local community centered board, Imagine!, has a great list of many community resources and phone numbers including local Child Find offices here.) Social Emotional support can be part of a child’s IFSP, or Individualized Family Service Plan, which documents the services a child needs before he or she turns three. Social Emotional support is only one of the services covered by Early Intervention Colorado. As needed, children can also receive Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Developmental Intervention and more.

What are common ways S/E support fits into a child’s program or IFSP?

S/E strategies on a child’s IFSP are often ways to help a caregiver manage behavior, encourage language and communication, and support appropriate rich interactions with learning environments and people. Often, the strategies are used to empower the other therapists on the team: by addressing behavioral challenges and the ways they interact with language and social interaction, the behavior analyst can “free up more time” for other therapists and family members to provide more therapeutic interaction with children.

Children with autism often benefit from naturalistic teaching of skills across many domains, peer mediated instruction (involving siblings and community peers in therapeutic interactions), and teaching (or providing opportunities for practicing) specific skills that are missing or not fluent. Read more about the evidence-based strategies recommended by EI Colorado when autism and related challenges are present, in Early Intervention Colorado’s Autism Guidelines. A Behavior Analyst can help a team understand when, where, and how to incorporate these “evidence based” strategies in collaboration with a child’s other therapists. 

Who can provide Social Emotional Support?

A Board Certified Behavior Analyst (or BCBA) is qualified to provide Social Emotional Support in Colorado during early intervention. As a BCBA-D or doctoral level BCBA, I provide services directly in the family’s home or community with the child, caregivers, and occasionally, the child’s other therapists. The behavior analyst may collaborate with providers including the child’s family, Speech and Language therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and medical or mental health professionals if needed. There are many other kinds of providers of S/E, and readers can learn more about them here.  

When should S/E be provided?

Earlier the better: Prevention is cheaper and more effective than reacting 

When community childcare providers and families learn preventative techniques that promote language and social interaction, they also gain strategies that will be useful soon, if not right away, to minimize, respond to, and support children through, behavior challenges. If a child could benefit from social emotional support, it’s a myth that a family or team should wait until it gets worse. Ask for help now. Even before a child turns one, s/he could benefit by caregivers learning ways to provide social emotional support.

What if it’s too late? My child’s already turned 3.

It is never too late to learn more about healthy social emotional development, or to support a family member’s behavioral wellness. The impacts of intervention for increasing language, play, social skills, are more powerful the earlier it begins, but these skills can be supported no matter when the intervention starts. Cusp Emergence offers behavioral wellness intervention and support across the lifespan.

Transitioning past age 3

In Colorado, S/E support – at least that part of S/E that is covered under Part C services by the IFSP- ends at age 3. But a child’s needs do not end on his or her birthday, and neither does a family’s need for support. Early intervention providers generally do their best to provide a great transition report that a school team can use moving forward if preschool is appropriate. 

Doing more to support a family through transitions

Families especially benefit from transition booklets that are prepared by their S/E therapist, in family/community-friendly language. I call these my “Go Team Timmy” booklets. They explain, using pictures and simple instructions and examples, how to keep meeting children’s needs after intervention ends. One email from a grateful parent came to thank me after she took her son on vacation to visit family. At three, he did not speak and had poor motor control, and his hair-pulling and biting had been so severe and challenging that other children avoided him. This was especially sad, because he loved other children and his goal was their affection! Thankfully, the behavioral strategies had been effective in teaching him alternative ways to get children’s attention. He just needed practice, and he needed prepared play partners who were ready to use compassionate easy strategies to help him give high fives instead of grab peers’ hair. So I was thrilled to read that the young mom had sent the booklet ahead of time to her aunts and uncles before the visit. Young cousins read it with their parents and learned how to hold out their hands and give high fives, how to encourage play, and how to have more fun with the child. “Even though one of the cousins had a HUGE bow in her hair,” wrote his mom, “Timmy never grabbed it! They played and laughed and had a great time.”

Educating those important to a family and community, not just the child

Education and transition booklets can also help prepare community members such as teachers, day care providers, grandparents, respite providers and babysitters, how to support a child when the therapist is not there.

 

Stay tuned for more on strategies to support Social Emotional Support through the lifespan!

Workshop on Social Emotional Support: Broomfield Early Childhood Council Annual Summit

08 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by kolubcbad in Autism, Behavior Analysis, Community, Early Intervention, Social Interaction, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment



What does Social Emotional support mean to you?

What might it mean to someone you love?

As a provider of Social Emotional Support in Colorado, I help families establish nurturing relationships, and construct therapeutic environments. I do this through building supportive networks of team members, teaching others to implement preventative strategies to facilitate language, develop play and leisure skills, and make rich social interaction a part of everyday life.

This work is all about teaming, collaborating, and sharing solutions with families and their community. So I’m grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the Broomfield Early Childhood Council, which does great work connecting children, their childcare providers, and families to community resources. I was honored to provide a workshop on Social Emotional Support during their recent annual summit.

Read more

Recent Posts

  • Self-paced SAFE-T Assessment Training is here!
  • Contraindicated behavioral procedures after trauma
  • Upcoming: Brief webinar series on TIBA in partnership with Connections-Behavior.com
  • 3 Simple Ideas: Teachers Check In on Families Staying Home
  • Homebound and Vulnerable: What will you do to prevent abuse and neglect?

Archives

  • February 2021
  • September 2020
  • May 2020
  • March 2020
  • November 2019
  • September 2019
  • June 2019
  • January 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • July 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • May 2016
  • September 2014
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • August 2012

Categories

  • About
  • acquisition
  • adults
  • Autism
  • BACB CEU
  • Behavior Analysis
  • behavior cusp
  • Behavioral Cusp
  • boundaries of competence
  • CASA
  • CEU
  • children
  • collaboration
  • Community
  • contextual fear conditioning
  • continuing education
  • contraindicated procedures
  • coronavirus
  • Court Appointed Special Advocate
  • Covid-19
  • Cusp Emergence University
  • CuspEmergenceUniversity
  • data
  • dementia
  • Early Intervention
  • edtiba
  • EDTIBA10
  • Education
  • Education and Trauma-Informed Behavior Analysis
  • elopement
  • Emergence
  • enriched environment
  • ethics
  • extinction
  • FAS
  • FASD
  • Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
  • flood
  • functional alternative behavior
  • hospital
  • hurricane
  • job aids
  • learning
  • mental health
  • Neuroscience
  • play
  • praise
  • RAD
  • reactive attachment disorder
  • renewal effect
  • resources
  • Rett's
  • risk analysis
  • risk assessment
  • risk versus benefit analysis
  • safety skills
  • sale
  • schedules of punishment
  • self injurious behavior
  • Social Interaction
  • stimulus schedules
  • supervision
  • teaching behavior analysis
  • teaching ethics
  • TI-ABA
  • TIABA
  • TIBA
  • trauma
  • trauma-informed behavior analysis
  • Uncategorized
  • variability

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×