Thursday, January 6, 2011

Ashton the Movie Star!!

January 5th, 2010 Ashton started in an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Autism Class with the local school system.  The amazing strides Ashton has made in these last 12 months have been incredible and encouraging.  My biggest fear when I found out that Ashton had autism was not being able to provide everything he needed to be as successful as possible later in life.  I kept reading repetitively how important early intervention is and how critical these first 5 years are in the lives of children with autism as well as how effective ABA can be for these kids.  I am ecstatic to say that I feel as comfortable as I possibly can with the program that he is involved in.  More often than not, you find that school systems want to offer the bare minimum for our kids or offer programs for kids with autism that are just thrown together to "shut the parents up".  I honestly have to give credit to the county for seeing the need to have a program such as this for these kids.  By contracting Adam, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) with Commonwealth Autism, the county shows they want to do things the right way and since the program’s inception it has grown to become something revolutionary.
This pilot program in unlike any other and I cannot express how blessed we are for being a part of it.  The love and dedication the teachers, aides and other professionals have for these children is heartwarming.  The program incorporates ABA in every aspect of the day.  Their daily schedules not only include discrete trial sessions but also include activities such as circle time, center time and library.  They use incidental teaching throughout the entire day to take advantage of every single learning opportunity.  
Commonwealth Autism has been an imperative part of this program and has helped mold and shape it to what it is now.   The following video was recently added to the company’s website and I am excited to say that Ashton is in quite a bit of the footage.  The footage used was recorded the spring of last year.  Enjoy!!



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