Tangible Difference Company Blog
Written by Michael Conteh Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:12
2-24-10 Improving Communication, Part 1
We're going to do our next few blogs slightly differently, as we're going to do a multipart series. We'll focus on what people want to talk about most: COMMUNICATION!!! The truth is that communication is what sets humans apart, as we have the ability to describe internal events (hunger, happiness), future events, and past events. We are going to look at all the concepts needed for fluent communication. Notice when I say communication, I did not say verbal communication. You can be a fluent communicator with PECS or with signs, although verbal is our first goal.
The first subject we'll discuss is ATTENDING SKILLS:
Attending skills – The ability to pay attention to people, as well as auditory and visual stimuli in the environment, without getting easily distracted. This skill is the basis for ALL other programs. If a kid does not pay attention, then he or she will have difficulty grasping any material. Lack of attending in early development will mean that the child did not pay attention to early imitation skills and reinforcements from other people. THIS ALONE CAN BE A CHIEF COMPONENT IN AUTISM!!! Self stimulatory behavior greatly interferes with attending skills. Kids can still learn at a rapid rate, but they need more repetition due to lack of attending.
How to work on attending skills:
Steady reinforcement for proper eye contact. (When they look at you without you calling their name or trying to get their attention)
Example – Sit across from them at eye level, when they look at you, name and give preferred reinforcer. 5-10 minutes a couple of times a day.
Make eye contact a requirement to gain access to items. (No look, No get)
Example – When a child wants to get a cookie, he/she will grab for it. When they look at you, name the item and then they can have it. DO NOT REINFORCE CRYING TO GET ITEM. They have to stop crying before they can have it.
A good way to lessen frustration is to prompt the first one and give a little, but not as much as they want. Then require eye contact.
Reinforcement for scanning the environment.
Example – Bring in books or objects that are new to the child. Point to them and name them. You can also ask them to touch the item. (Receptive books work well for this also.)
Reinforce the child for doing things that are appropriate that don’t involve self stimulatory behavior. (DRI)
Example – Play games that encourage eye contact and pairing people as reinforcement. (Peek-a-boo, Airplane rides, etc.) Be creative!
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General Notes:
• Eye contact does not have to be given 100% of the time, but if your child is particularly distracted, then require it more.
• Do not give a child a reinforcer if he/she is crying.
• The better the attention, the bigger amount of reinforcer they get.
Written by Michael Conteh Wednesday, 10 February 2010 09:27
2-10-10
I want bad behavior?
First blog of the year, and I start with this? No it's not a typo, and I haven't fallen off my rocker just yet. We'll get to the subject quickly, but here are some behaviors that little kids are able to perform:
Quick commentary on Youtube: You can't BELIEVE the crap that came up when I went to find videos of little kids with behavior problems. I know that a couple are funny, but come on people! Put the camera down and DEAL with the behavior. Ridiculous!
Anyway, where was I? Yes, bad behavior - today's topic. OF COURSE I DO NOT WANT BAD BEHAVIOR. I am a behavior analyst, and it kinda looks bad when children emit behavior for the first time under our watch. The truth is that when kids get older and gain more skills, they WILL continue to display appropriate and innapriopriate behavior. Sometimes it's mild, such as saying no or some whining. Sometimes it is severe, such as head banging and excessive screaming. Here are two general rules about behavior:
#1 All humans emit various types of behavior during their lifetime. It's no different with kids who may be delayed.
It's not anyone's fault when a child tries a behavior for the first time. Are you telling me you have never hit, kicked, cussed, fought, stolen, etc. EVER? So, if we know that a child is eventually going to do these, why do we act so shocked and surprised when it happens? Our job as caregivers and providers is that we make sure that innappropriate behavior is an isolated event and not a trend! Almost all behavior is produced to get the consequences. It's all of our jobs to make sure we have good consequences for maladaptive behavior. Kids emitting different forms of behavior can actually be a good sign of better cognition, social development, and social awareness. I know parents who are overjoyed when their kids tell their first lie...and then they promtply punish them for it.
#2 We should not make excuses for behavior.
One of my pet peeves is when I talk with those who try to excuse a delayed child's behavior away. I have had teachers tell me "I let him just wander the halls and stare at the fish tank, because he did not want to work." I would venture to say half of the kids would love to wander and watch fish all day if people let them. Almost all people will take the path of least resistance if they are allowed. I know that if a child has behavior difficulties or communication issues, it can be more difficult to deal with, but we should never make excuses and continue to allow it to just keep happening. If we don't intervene and make a game plan on a behavior, then how can expect it to go away?
Claire Danes as Temple Grandin - Underrated actress
The HBO movie about Temple Grandin has just come out. I haven't seen it yet, but Temple has some great quotes when it comes to Autism and behavior:
There are some cases where children do things, and it is simply bad behavior. This problem needs to be dealt with behaviorally.
Quotation of Temple Grandin
You only get an accurate understanding of the child's behavior from people who see this child or see the adult for many hours.
Quotation of Temple Grandin
Research is starting to show that a child should be engaged at least 20 hours a week. I do not think it matters which program you choose as long as it keeps the child actively engaged with the therapist, teacher, or parent for at least 20 hours a week.
Quotation of Temple Grandin
If you start using a medication in a person with autism, you should see an obvious improvement in behavior in a short period of time. If you do not see an obvious improvement, they probably should not be taking the stuff. It is that simple.
Quotation of Temple Grandin
Written by Michael Conteh Friday, 15 January 2010 13:40
Break Time!
We will take a month off from blogging in order to update the website and introduce our new programs. We will resume February 10th with some power-packed and informational blogs to read.
Michael Conteh M.Ed, BCBA
Executive Director of TDLC
713-462-6060 business
713-462-6066 fax
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
www.tangibledifference.com
Written by Michael Conteh Wednesday, 09 December 2009 06:36
Blog 12-16-09 Do You Really Get What You Pay For?
This has been a long year for me, and I finally got the chance to get away to Las Vegas for a mini-vacation with a couple of colleagues. We have been planning it for months, and last Friday night was supposed to be the special night where we do all the fancy things. We were going to eat at a fancy restaurant, go to a hip nightclub, and all the works.
When Friday night arrives, we go to the restaurant, but it's smaller than it looks in the ad.
No problem...
We wait 20 minutes to be seated, and when we get in there are PLENTY of empty tables.
No problem...
Our waiter ignores us for another 10 minutes, and gets drink orders for a table that was seated after us.
Sigh. No problem...
We order all of this expensive food, and he gets the order wrong.
Grrrr. Problem, but trying to hold it all in...
The food and drink sucks! I mean really, really sucks. We barely finish anything.
Problem!
Sometimes you have great expectations for things, but end up heavily disappointed with the reality. Parents pay good money for companies, products, and people to help their child. When dealing with interventions for special needs children, be very aware of what people are trying to sell you. First of all, I want to say that I will not specifically call out certain interventions to be bogus, because that's not what this blog is about. However, I do know that some of them do not deliver even half of what they promise. Secondly, I know ALL therapies are pricey to a certain point, but here are some general things to consider when choosing interventions:
Where's the beef?
Make sure you look at the research behind whatever intervention you choose. How long has it been around? Where did it originate? What is the sample size? And, perhaps most importantly, who is doing the research? In this day and age, if you can't find good internet search results on a subject, I would be very skeptical. The intervention needs to be able to explain itself objectively, without pulling your heartstrings as its main selling tool. My undergraduate degree is in Media Production, and during my ethics class my professor pointed out one thing:
"Testimonials are built to be misleading, everyone in the advertisement is going to say that they 100% love this product. Where are the testimonials that say 'this product is terrible?' If I see more testimonials than proof, then that's not the product for me."
Keep Score
If you are doing an intervention that does not have much research data to back it up, you'd better be taking data on how it's affecting your child. Keeping score is the only way to see if the intervention is working. Every day, take down a few notes to look for patterns. You should see SOMETHING happening within a couple of weeks, or I would seriously question the method.
Do we look familiar?
Be careful for fad therapies, or therapies that just don't make too much sense. Now, I fully understand that there are some things in life that are hard to explain - like how you always know when someone in the car next to you is looking at you, or why people think watching celebrities dance is interesting - but there is something called parsimony that is generally a good thing to keep in mind. Parsimony says that the simplest explanation is most likely the accurate explanation.
If you have to pour penguin milk on your child while wearing a kilt and singing "I Would Walk 500 Miles" by The Proclaimers, then maybe that intervention isn't very sound. As parents, you usually have a good idea of what is beneficial for your child, and if your spidey-senses tingle, consider trying a more stable intervention method.
The Proclaimers
I, of course, am not of fan of interventions that prey on people's hopes, fears, and faith. There are times when a child is on so many different interventions that it's hard to tell what's working and what's not. I am not against multiple interventions either, just make sure you know which one is doing the job. Sometimes we can stop or slow the progress of a WORKING intervention to chase ones that don't work.
Just remember: just because something is pricey doesn't mean that it's good. Seriously, that "fancy Vegas restaurant" food was bad; I would have enjoyed fast food more! How can you mess up coconut shrimp? By the way, the buffet at the Bellagio is the best I've had on The Strip. If you can find better, let me know.
Written by Michael Conteh Saturday, 28 November 2009 15:26
12-2-09 Are you Keyser Soze?
First off, he's not Keyser Soze?
//
As usual, I digress. However, this blog is about having a game plan for you child. No, I am not talking about your IEP goals, or what the consultant or therapists wrote down for you. I am talking about analyzing what you want to change, how to go about changing it, and then measuring your progress. I think the reason people get too scared to set goals for their family and children is that they feel like a failure if that goal is not achieved.
It's okay to not reach all of your goals, but if you don't have a functional plan to work on improving whatever you are looking to improve, then you're subconsciously undermining your goals. Hopefully this blog will remove some of the fear of failure, and you will be able to set up a good plan for the end of this year.
STEP ONE: So what do you want to change? Do you want your child to talk more? Want a behavior to reduce? Still in potty-training purgatory? All these things take time and NEED a gameplan! Pick one thing to start with. Later, when you're feeling more confident, you can take on more than one goal at a time, but review your progress once every couple of months to see how much you can handle.
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"The Rock" does surprisingly well at the box office.
STEP TWO: After you pick your goal, define it. Please, don't be afraid to be detailed when you DEFINEwhat you want to improve. So you want communication to improve...okay, nice, but how much? Do you want your child to use 3+ words? Do you want your child to use yes/no functionally? You have to have a written (or typed) out, detailed explanation of your goal, or else you don't know what you're measuring.
STEP THREE: Now that you've decided what you want to do, how will you go about changing it? This is where to enlist the help of your consultant, teacher, or therapist to help you devise a good plan. Any provider worth their salt would be glad to help, because the more the child learns in the home setting, the easier it makes behavior interventions overall. There are some good websites for advice on whatever subject you're looking at. Just don't fall too far down the rabbit trail, like I did a couple of months back.
STEP FOUR: Measure progress. Make it simple and easy to keep track of. I'm not asking you to conduct hardcore calculus, just decide that from 1-2pm every day (or every Tuesday) you will measure how many times your child plays with toys appropriately, or how long they sit at the dinner table before they dart off. It is important that the times and days on which you chart behavior are consistent, since the child may act completely different on a Friday afternoon versus a Monday morning. This way, when you get to the end of the month, you can look for trends. Don't be afraid of not reaching your goal right away, but now that you have data you can be a better predictor of what other aspects of your game plan need work.
STEP FIVE: Adjust the goal. Now that you have data, make the necessary changes to increase your likelihood of success. Did you make the goal too easy or hard? Did you think he would sit for this program, but now he's doing something different? That's fine, just be flexible enough to modify your goals, and continue to go over each step to make sure your plan is strong. If the original plan isn't working out the way you anticipated, consider varying your definition of the target behavior for the time being.
STEP SIX: Now repeat steps 1-5, and keep adjusting and fine tuning your plan.
Just remember:
DON'T BE AFRAID TO FAIL, IT'S ALL PART OF THE LEARNING PROCESS!
CHOOSE AN EASIER GOAL FIRST, THEN TRY THE HARDER ONES.
IF YOU GET STUCK, DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP.
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