Peace Corps volunteer with a few questions

[Guest guest]

Hello all --

I've been a member of the list-serve for a few months now and can't

express how much all of your suggestions/advice have helped me.

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

I'm Eileen, I'm a Special Education Early Childhood teacher currently

working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Romania. I'm currently working

with an organization that works with children with autism and their

families (the prevalence is surprising -- in my town of 100,000 we

serve about 30 children... not necessarily the number of children with

autism in my city, but the most we can handle with limited funds)

Services for children with disabilities here are DRASTICALLY

different, and I'm doing the best I can -- but I have a few questions:

(1) I'm currently writing a grant to start an ABA volunteer program.

That is, training volunteers in ABA/floortime/working with children

with autism and then having them do therapy in the home. Does anyone

have suggestions for good materials to use to train volunteers? Book

suggestions definitely welcome.

(2) What do you feel should be part of a curriculum/teaching

environment for children with autism? I know this is a vague

question, but we have nothing: no curriculum, and no real system in

place for educating.

(3)Especially welcome would be if anyone could tell me of a skill

inventory list I could find online. I need to help the staff here

identify skills/weaknesses in order to set up make-shift IEPS/goals...

but I'm at somewhat of a loss.

(4) Does anyone know of a behavior plan I could find online? There is

a specific child here who's only behavior plan is punishment, but I

know he could do much better with a reinforcement-driven behavior

checklist. Anyone know of one? Especially visual (i.e. pictures of

activities and space for a smiley face if that activity was completed )

Thank you -- feel free to e-mail me off the listserve, as I know these

questions might not be relevant to everyone.

Have a great day!

Eileen