Making a plan that will work at home and at school is the second most important step to
start turning autism around for your clients or child, so I'm diving into the topic of
planning today.
Hi.
I'm Dr. Mary Barbera, autism mom, Board Certified Behavior Analyst, and best-selling author.
One of the biggest problems I see in the autism world are well-meaning parents and professionals
simply working on the wrong things.
This is caused by not assessing the whole situation and then not using that assessment
to make a plan for the child, both at home and school.
So let me tell you about Brentley.
Brentley's mom, Kelsey, was driving little Brentley, who was only two and a half years
old, an hour each way to an ABA clinic.
He was working on colors when he was at the ABA clinic but he shouldn't have been working
on colors because Brentley was banging his head on hard surfaces up to 60 times a day.
He was running into streets and into the water, requiring Kelsey to put a harness and a leash
on while Brentley was out in the community.
So there's an example where the ABA staff and Kelsey were working on the wrong things
and it wasn't helping Brentley.
I also have another example of a boy who was about 10 years old when I worked with him
briefly.
And the staff was trying to teach him prepositions and colors and intraverbal webbing and all
these more advanced language topics, and this 10-year-old couldn't even wash his hands independently.
He also insisted on sitting on a sofa during all meals, refusing to come to the table with
his parents.
So here's another example where we're not looking at the whole picture near enough and
not making a plan based on the child's strengths, needs, and age, and as well as family priorities.
So in all situations I recommend a thorough assessment, but it doesn't have to be super
thorough on day one.
In fact, I created a one-page assessment form several years ago, that can be completed in
about five or ten minutes.
So after the assessment is done, of the whole situation, then we want to look at creating
a plan.
That plan, like I said, needs to be based on the child's strengths and needs, and based
on the assessment that you just completed.
It also needs to take into account the child's age and family priorities.
It's common to have a lot of issues that you want to address.
So you might have a strength column on the planning form that's very short and the need
column is very long.
So in Brentley's situation, if potty training was a need, but he's only two and a half at
that point, or if he's three at that point, if he's banging his head on hard surfaces,
if he's running into the street, has no safety awareness, has no ability to come to a table
and to request things, then working on potty training, it's still a need but it's not a
need that we need to prioritize right this second.
So we can't tackle all the needs at the same time and this is where we have to really work
with the family and the professionals to come up with a plan that is right for the child.
If I were teaching you how to fly a plane or play a guitar, it would take months to
master even the most basic concepts.
So it's best to start at the point to work as a team and to start at ground zero, the
first note you would play on the guitar or the first main panel with just a few buttons.
So we need to almost go back to more basic, very simple tasks before we get to harder
tasks.
So you can update the assessment and planning forms every few months and this will allow
you to go back and see how much progress your child or client makes, and see how their strengths
and needs change over time.
To get these free guides, the assessment form and the planning form, you can download my
free guide and join me on my mission to turn autism around for two million by 2020 by going
to marybarbera.com/join and there you can get the free guide and get started today.
And even if you are a seasoned professional, this guide will help you look at things possibly
a little bit differently and have some handy resources that can help you and the families
that you work with start turning things around today.
So don't forget, download the free guide at marybarbera.com/join and I'll see you next
week.