Re: Therapists not wanting to change

[Guest guest]

> I have had 2 parents who came to the workshop we hosted in NC with

> Carbone/McGreevy email me and say that their therapists are not willing to

> change their teaching style. Their main concern is that they think the

kids

> will become prompt dependent and that their is no research to support

this.

> So..any ideas?? I do not want to overwhelmed them with issues of JABA. I

am

> at a lost for words here b.c all the therapists I work with were so

excited

> about this method and were very willing to change!

Jenn, many therapists (and parents ) are leery on change until they

experience this teaching first hand. (Other parents informed me we needed

to do this with Zach almost a year before we made the switch. It was not

until after I attended Dr. Carbone's workshop that I understood what they

were trying to tell me.)

It should be the parents decision and the therapists needs to learn the

skills. Therapists are professionals and need not to have closed minds in

the field of ABA. ABA expands so much further then the traditional method of

teaching kids with autism. I do know that ALL the therapists I have talked

to have praised the switch after they learned more about it. You need to

tell these therapists to be open minded. Try it for several weeks, if they

feel it is not working, they can move on. But the key to remember is the

child and to do what is best for the child.

Nobody likes change and learning something new is hard especially when we

have been told " you have to do it this way or it is confusing for the

child " . Now, things are confusing for the therapists! From my

understanding this ABA avenue is easier for the child, harder for the

therapist (at first) but becomes easier in the long run.

Rhonda

[Guest guest]

Jenn,

When I got back from my Carbone conference last May I thought my lead

therapist would be as excited as I was about this new technique. He had the

same problems as you described. Basically he thought Carbone was the autism

" flavor of the month " and what was wrong with what they were doing. He was

working with another family and they were doing quite well with the Lovaas

type program. I was flabbergasted......and what about prompt dependence.

One thing we told him was the when applied correctly the child does not

become prompt dependent because prompting is tied to the reinforcer. The

child learns that when he waits for a prompt it delays delivery of the

reinforcement. This is especially true if you always go back and try for an

independent before delivery the reinforcer. Child learns " if I say it right

away we move quickly to next task and quickly to reinforcement, if I wait for

a prompt they ask the question again and it takes longer to get my

reinforcement " . Also through differential reinforcement you can give more or

longer contact with the reinforcer for independent responses vs just a few

seconds with reinforcer for prompted responses.

Finding someone who is doing this technique and allowing the therapist to

view it and see the child is not prompt dependent is also good. This can be

done live or by video. In my area we volunteer my now fully converted lead

to talk with other reluctant therapist. Hope some of this helps.

Patty

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 3/28/00 11:04:22 PM Central Standard Time,

ABAqueen1@... writes:

<< I have had 2 parents who came to the workshop we hosted in NC with

Carbone/McGreevy email me and say that their therapists are not willing to

change their teaching style. Their main concern is that they think the kids

will become prompt dependent and that their is no research to support this.

>>>As you know, Dr. Carbone says the children will become prompt dependent if

the therapist does not know how to properly fade prompts. This requires on

the spot problem solving, analyzing skills and multi-tasking. So their

concerns are valid if they don't have those skills...but this would also be

evidence that they needed further training or to reconsider their jobs.

So..any ideas?? I do not want to overwhelmed them with issues of JABA.

>>You are right though, Dr. Carbone sites much research in JABA and the

therapists should be willing and wanting to read it, as it is their chosen

career.

I am

at a lost for words here b.c all the therapists I work with were so excited

about this method and were very willing to change! >>

As were mine... as are many. Mine have looked at it not as change but as

improving, bettering what they do...improving fluency, responding, etc. I

know this is very hard for you to know what to say. My thoughts are that the

therapists are questionable if they will not investigate fully the therapy

techniques...continuing education is a must in all professions but in the

sciences it is critical. That JABA data is there...they need to read it

before they are willing to tell a parent no.

much love and support, kat