To the Fam's and profi's of Texas

[Guest guest]

Hi Families and Professionals of Texas,

I have been asked to provide a little information over the group about myself as

I will be presenting for the NT-FEAT organization on May 19th and 20th. Some of

you might already know me (or of me) from my active participation in the Verbal

Behavior and DTT-NET yahoo groups or from my book " Educate Toward Recovery:

Turning the Tables on Autism. " My book is a parent friendly manual on the

Verbal Behavior approach to ABA. I have been an international speaker and the

lead BCBA for the institute Knospe-ABA based out of Germany since 2003. Our

institute provides, " in-Home " consultation services for families of children

with ASD in and around Germany. We do so by providing parents and their hired

assistants, behavior analysis and training. Our goal is to create the family

as a self-contained unit capable of supporting the needs of a child who is

having difficulties in any of the main deficit areas of autism.

Our program is based on the idea that you can if you choose give behavior

therapy to a child and help him in the moment or you can put your effort into

teaching a family how to do interact with their child in more effective ways and

the child can be supported for a lifetime.

My book ETR has recieved rave reviews both from parents and professionals. A

partial listing of these including 4 seperate published reviews can be seen at

my website www.lulu.com/knospe-aba. What I seem to excel at is taking the

concepts and principles of ABA with Verbal Behavior and put them into a useful

everyday context that will allow parents, teachers and therapists to see the

child's program as a lifestyle that fosters improving interactions and social

connection. I have developed some techniques and concepts such as " The Seven

Steps to Instructional Control " , " The Teaching Arc " and the idea of using

" Mini-Consequences " as well as the concept of " Educating Toward Recovery. " The

idea of Recovery has long been debated among professionals and parents alike.

At this point in time, I think there are few left who do not believe that it can

and does occur. However, I feel that the science of behaviorism in general has

avoided the terminolgoy of

recovery opting for " indistinguishable to one's peers " as a best possible

outcome for individuals with autism. Regardless of what you call it, the goal

of every intervention for people with or without autism is to give them the

tools they need to be come more successful and happy social beings. In by book,

I talk about Recovery this way...

“Recovery” is the term for a child who was

once labeled as autistic by the medical community and is now no longer deemed

so because of a lack of those same diagnosable behaviors. This does not

mean that this child is somehow a better or more complete person than he was

before the label was removed. It also does not mean that the cause of the

autism has been mysteriously eradicated. It merely means that as a team of

caring supporters, we have found a way to educate this child to the point that

the doctors have stopped calling him names.

By no means am I someone who is selling Recovery and I am quite realistic about

the concept. I know that with our current knowlege, Recovery is still not

possible for many children with autism. I also do not think that it is a

necessary goal. However, in my work, I have found that the concept of teaching a

child toward recovery is extremely important. This is because, many of the

procedures used in DTT and traditional ABA programs focus on teaching individual

skills to children. Success is determined by the child's ability to demonstrate

these discrete skills. To me, this is not enough. Success needs to be

determined by the child's desire to want to use his skills in everyday

situations with the goal of becoming more closely connected to the social world.

There are many ways to get a child to label 200 items in his environment but

only a few that will allow the child to learn the labels and desire to use them

to spontaneously label the environment

around them in the hopes of gaining the attention of others in positive ways.

It is procedures that not only foster skill development but also motivate a

child toward further social interaction that I consider useful in " Educating

Toward Recovery. "

There is a lot more I can say about the idea of educating toward recovery,

earning your child's willing participation in learning without ever having to

use escape extinction (forced participation), and many other topics involved in

the ever developing science of ABA/VB. I plan to share much of this in Texas on

May 19th and 20th of this year. But, additionally, I am willing to discuss some

of this in more detail over the group for those of you who might be interested.

To not overwhelm anyone unwantedly, I will end my email here, but feel free to

let me know if you want more information. I can share with you (on the group or

off) more from my book or even copy out some of the papers I have written on the

subject. Remember, where I differ from the large body of presenters in ABA and

VB is that I am not a behavior analyst talking to behavior analysts. I am a

teacher who studied behavior analysis so that I could make sense of it for the

parents of the

children I work with and I have become quite comfortable translating behavior

speak into usable daily examples and recommendations that any family can use to

help their children with difficulties be more successful and effective members

of the social family environment.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading and let me know if I can offer you

any more info. If you want to see me speak in person or get a discounted copy

of my book in Texas on the 19th and 20th, feel free to contact NT-FEAT.

Thanks,

_________________________________

Schramm, MA, BCBA

Author of Educate Toward Recovery:

Turning the Tables on Autism

www.lulu.com/knospe-aba

www.knospe-aba.com

_________________________________

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