Just DO IT?

[Guest guest]

Jenn,

While I appreciate your enthusiasm for changing from Lovaas to S/P, I wish

you would qualify your suggestion that people just " DO IT!! " I don't think

its accurate to suggest that people have to choose one or the other. Is

possible to add S/P elements gradually.

Our consultant, lead teacher and my wife just returned from the Carbone

conference in Dallas. All three are excited about the ideas Dr. Carbone

presented and we are making plans to try some of them over the next few

weeks.

While we are very interested in the S/P methods, we currently have an

excellent " Lovaas style " program being run by REM Health in Minneapolis.

This program has produced an accelerating rate of learning in our 3.2yo

autistic son. One of the things we were most pleased to see in Dr.

Carbone's conference was that a great deal of what he teaches is simply

" good ABA principles & practices " -- the same ones that should be found in

any quality home program. We believe that the NET methods that he, Sundberg

& Partington are teaching can be integrated with a Lovaas style program. In

some instances there will need to be choices when the methods conflict but

in many areas the two can co-exist very well.

In conclusion, its really NOT a matter of " changing " from Lovaas to the S/P

model. I believe the most important thing is to have a quality program.

The first step in that direction is to do what you know best. If you have a

consultant that knows the Lovaas methodology well and you announce that you

want to change from Lovaas to S/P you are likely to get resistance and even

if they go along you are likely to get a low quality program. Your choices

then are to either replace your consultant with an experienced S/P

consultant (almost impossible) or send your consultant to S/P training and

slowly adopt S/P methods where it seems appropriate and take the data you

need to confirm that it really is working for you.

Regards,

Dave

[ ] Just got back from Ohio

From: ABAqueen1@...

Hi list~

I wanted to encourage anyone who is on the fence about changing from lovaas

to a more S/P model to DO IT!!!! I just got back from the Carbone/McGreevey

conference in Ohio! I have been a lovaas therapist for almost 4 yrs. now

and I was so excited when I left this workshop!! I am just amazed at this

method! I now see why the kids I work with are not using their language or

why drills did not seem to click!! Please email me if you want more info.

We are hosting a conference here in NC in March!

Jenn

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