FC, DIR, ABA, ASD: Cover story in Time magazine
May 8, 2006 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
The cover story of the May 7, 2006, issue of Time magazine is about autism. Inside the Autistic Mind: A wealth of new brain research–and poignant testimony from people who have autism–is lifting the veil on this mysterious condition opens with 13-year old Hannah doing Facilitated Communication (FC) and ends by noting:
Perhaps the worst fate for a person with ASD is to have a lively intelligence trapped in a body that makes it difficult for others to see that the lights are on. Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich at the University of California, San Francisco, studied an autistic boy who is unable to speak or even sustain his attention to a task for more than a few moments, and yet is aware of his condition and writes remarkable poetry. How many other autistic kids, Merzenich wonders, “are living in a well where no one can hear them”?
Luckily for Hannah, her voice and thoughts are being heard. Since learning to type, she has begun to speak a few words reliably–”yes,” “no” and the key word “I”–to express her desires. All this seems miraculous to her parents. “I was told to give up and get on with my life,” says her mother. Now she and her husband are thinking about saving for college.
There are also two accompanying articles, A Tale of Two Schools, on two autism schools in New Jersey (one using ABA and one using DIR), and The Most Difficult Decision of My Life, about a mother’s decision to send her son to a residential school (the Higashi School in Boston).
We would very much have liked Charlie to attend the ABA school, the Alpine Learning Group. The article mentions “robotic behavior, lack of emotion and inability to use trained skills outside the school” as some of the “shortcomings” of ABA; the DIR school, Celebrate the Children, uses Stanley Greenspan’s Floortime and the director, Monica Osgood, is quoted as saying
“In DIR, we respect those for who they are but give them the tools they need for successful lives.”
That is exactly the philosophy of Charlie’s home Lovaas ABA program.
It’s going to be a busy blogging week.
I appreciate your gentle insistence on ABA. Maybe one reason Charlie has such success with it is because of the Pictorial/kinesthetic “show me” language based learning that is a part of it. When Ben was 4 I got Catherine Maurices book on “behavioral intervention” but used ONLY the language part, not the behavioral part.
Ben is smart, shy, and a good kid all around. Although he’s still in ’special ed’ part time…more as a haven than a punishment…I don’t doubt he could go to college and make it if it was an area that interested him.
Until the day I die, I will wonder if “showing” him how to talk made any difference! His speech teacher thought I was crazy to work an hour of two a day with him for a year…but I was one of those who had to do something!
Good luck with your little honey!
Rose
We have, and have used all parts, of the autism therapy manuals that Maurice was a co-editor for. One of our best SLP’s had a Lovaas background and it was she who talk Charlie to talk. Our ABA team also figured out that using kinetic prompts helped him to learn language.
Lovely to hear about Ben. We often say, Charlie and college is a fine question mark—my husband and I spend out days with college students, and he need not join those ranks, unless that seems the rightful course.
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