Videos from the ATC

I decided to put a link to these on my blog because the SR program has a couple of big strikes against it. One is confidence. There are many parents out there who, in spite of any evidence to the contrary, feel experts know their children better than they do. This doesn't mean experts aren't helpful, it's just that I've seen too many parents hand their special needs children to the experts like a child handing over a toy that's broken. (Thankfully, I've also seen many parents who are willing to be the main "therapist" in their child's life.)

The other problem, true of all the developmental approaches in treating autism, is time. ABA (both kinds), RDI, SR, etc. all supposedly demand a large time investment initially from the parent or a therapist... at least, if you want the ideal. It's not unusual to hear of 20-40 hours a week devoted to "therapy". In fact, the ideal in SR is to be in the playroom the moment the child wakes up and spend, in essence, all day in the playroom. Sometimes, if the playroom is a room separate from the child's bedroom, they recommend letting the child sleep in the playroom for a time to minimize transition problems.

Now, obviously the playroom is temporary. Over time the amount of time spent in the "distraction-free environment" is going to diminish until the child "graduates" (i.e. doesn't use the playroom anymore). This is also true of the other therapies as well. But that intial investment can be very daunting to parents. So daunting, in fact, that they don't even try.

That's what I like about these videos. They don't just introduce the program. The one called, Creating a Distraction-free Environment tells you how to get started creating a playroom environment out of what looks like a living room and makes it clear that even a half hour a day is great. Jonathan Levy's book does the same though he recommends an hour.

The point is, even a small amount of time every day helps. This is what I've learned doing little bits of therapy/school throughout the day with Rachel and Sarah.