Refer-A-Friend Program

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We’re thrilled to introduce the Different Roads to Learning Refer-A-Friend Program. The Refer-A-Friend program is a commission-based program where Different Roads to Learning customers can invite friends and family to shop at www.difflearn.com. With each purchase your friends make by simply following your unique link, you earn a 10% commission on the sale, excluding shipping and tax. When you enroll, we’ll send you an email with a unique code and link. You just forward this to your friends (we’ll even send you an email for that as well!) and all they need to do is follow that link and all their purchases will be credited to you! You can then redeem your commission for an online gift certificate good towards future online purchases at Different Roads to Learning.

Simply sign up and start earning a commission right away – it’s that easy.

Posted in ABA

Pick of the Week

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Readers! We’re excited to introduce a new feature on our blog. Every week, we’re going to showcase a particular product that we love and offer you a chance to purchase it with a discount! We hope you’ll tune in to see what the Pick of the Week will be, obtain the promo code and start saving.

To set this new feature off, this week, we’re highlighting three brand new sets of sequencing flashcards at a 15% discount! These card sets feature crisp, clear and engaging photos that relate to every child’s daily experiences. The Learning to Sequence Cards come in 3-Scene, 4-Scene and 6-Scene sets.

Today through February 8, visit our site at https://www.difflearn.com and enter the Promo Code SEQDRB1 at checkout to save 15% on the Learning to Sequence series.

*Offer expires on February 8, 2011 at 11:59 pm EST. Not compatible with any other offer.

Peer Pals

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is a wonderful not-for-profit dedicated to building communities of inclusion for children with disabilities as they enter kindergarten. Peerpals.org matches preschool age children with typically developing children in their communities for one-on-one play dates. Peer Pals also facilitates group play dates in developmentally appropriate settings supervised by special education professionals.

This program strives to build local communities and give a child with a disability a support system of typically developing peers upon entering school.  Having a typically developing child as a friend, or even as a peer model, is a wonderful thing. You can sign your child up or if you’re a professional who would like to donate some of your time, you can become a volunteer.

Free Downloads

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I’ve never been busier during the start of a new year than I have been in 2011.  It seems like many of my students were off to an ambitious start this month as well.  Some students made such significant progress that the revisions seem to never end.  Other students have required a lot of creativity and extra effort in finding ways to reach them and facilitate learning.   I found myself re-evaluating many program books, behavior plans and strategies.  I won’t further bore you with my lengthy “To Do” list but I will share some of the rewards of my work.  The end result is that there are new and improved versions of the free DRL data sheets and graphs along with brief descriptions for each.  I hope you find them as useful as I have. You can find them under the “DRL Downloads” tab underneath the Different Roads to Learning banner.  Now off to work!

Help Line for Families with Special Needs Kids

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The Mom2Mom help line was recently launched by the autism center and behavioral health care unit of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The program seeks to offer caregiving moms peer counseling, clinical assessments and the resources and referrals they might need to locate services. Its founders recognize, however, that sometimes what a mother might need most is to talk to someone “who has walked a mile in their shoes,” said Cherie Castellano, program director for UMDNJ Behavioral Health Care.

This sounds like a great resource. With the preponderance of support available online, it’s nice to know there’s still a voice that understands a phone call away.

 

Autism, Vaccines and Andrew Wakefield

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The current media storm surrounding vaccinations and autism is one that, I’m sure, we’ve all been following with great interest. The initial study that linked autism with vaccinations has been dismissed and retracted by the majority of the original authors. Currently, there is speculation that Mr. Wakefield may have falsified data. Many parent advocates are claiming this is a smear campaign being conducted in the name of protecting pharmaceutical companies to the detriment of children.

We know that this is an incredibly sensitive issue with opinions strong on both sides of the fence. We do think it’s an important issue to discuss, respectfully, within our community. For parents, do you believe that the MMR vaccination contributed to your child’s autism? What is your opinion of Andrew Wakefield and his study?

Here’s some coverage of both sides of the issue from CNN, if you’d like to see more on the reporting.

New Social Skills Book from Autism Partnership!

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Crafting Connections: Contemporary Applied Behavior Analysis for Enriching the Social Lives of Persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder is here! This new book – out today – is one of the most comprehensive and easy-to-use guides available for teaching social skills to children and youth with ASD. The book teaches critically important skills in social awareness, communication, interaction, learning and relatedness.

The sub-skills, prerequisites, and methods of instruction are outlined for each area, making it clear and easy for teachers, clinicians and families to use and implement. The book addresses real world, relevant issues such as bullying, conversational development and social comprehension.

In case you’re not familiar with Autism Partnership, they have been teaching  the technique of contemporary Applied Behavior Analysis for more than 20 years. They have also edited the bestselling book A Work In Progress as well as It’s Time for School: Building Quality ABA Educational Programs for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Sense and Nonsense in the Behavioral Treatment of Autism: It Has to Be Said.

More than 13 well-known and respected authors contributed to making Crafting Connections a major work that teaches authentic, appropriate social skills to students with autism as they navigate the social world.

Social Skills Groups

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This article, Friend to Friend: Students Help Their Special Ed Peers Learn to Fit In, highlights a wonderful program at a high school in Illinois that teaches basic social skills through modeling and group work. Students are shown how to give a high-five, say hello in the hallway and give a hug to a friend by their peers. Peer groups such as these can be fortified and supplmented with quality materials at home and during other parts of the school day. The Fitting In and Having Fun DVD Series uses peer modeling to show appropriate/inappropritate behavior at both the elementary and middle school level. The School Rules! Series is an interactive CD that teaches students about behavior in the classroom as well as what happens during unstructured times such as in the hallway and lunchtime. The video sequences on the CDs can be tailored for each individual child’s skill level and ability. Finally, there’s the Know the Code at School series that uses flashcards and video modeling to address everything from classroom behavior, peer relationships, transitions and commom etiquette.

Peer social skills groups are ideal and there are myriad ways to reinforce and generalize the skills addressed during group time at home.

Posted in ABA

A note from Julie…

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The holidays are always a solid reminder of the gratitude we have for all of the great teachers, staff and caregivers who work with our children.  It is always such a joy to see them open their hearts to our kids, giving them the gift of friendship and steering them through their academic and social mazes.  We recently attended a holiday party for our daughter’s residence.  It was filled with music, dancing, good food and great affection among their families, teachers and caregivers.  Of course, it was chaos but it was lively and full of love for each person.  It’s always good to remember who is with us on this journey and how much they contribute to all of our lives and that their participation is a loving choice.

From all of us at Different Roads to Learning, we wish you a happy, healthy and peaceful holiday.

 
Posted in ABA

The Holidays Are Here?!

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The fast approaching holiday break can be stressful with therapists away, a school break and big changes in your child’s schedule making it difficult to maintain a routine.  Why not use the time to expand general knowledge and play skills?

Try to maintain the schedule as much as you can by replacing therapy or school time with activities based on one particular theme.  Take space travel and astronauts as an example and incorporate activities to address all developmental domains and have different “sessions” throughout the holiday vacation.  Depending on the length of the vacation you might choose more than one theme.

I like to start by using short videos to introduce a play schema.  This gets everyone excited about playing by becoming familiar with the specifics of the theme and making it “real”.  You can find videos on the Difflearn YouTube Channel.  Like this one showing a space shuttle lift off!

Next, you could use materials relating to the theme to work on building cognitive skills and expanding the general knowledge base about the topic needed for play.

Here are some ideas:

Parts of Whole – given a picture of an astronaut or space shuttle can the child identify parts both expressively and receptively?  This becomes important when expanding the comments used  during play.  A couple of examples include, “Don’t forget your helmet” or “I think the rocket blasters are broken, let’s fix them!”

Wh Questions – after reading short passages of a book or informational page related to the theme present various Wh Questions for the child to answer.  This improves comprehension and listening skills as well as providing more content for the space play.  You would be surprised at how well a child can do given a new and motivating topic!

Other sessions can include coloring sheets related to the theme you have chosen.  This provides an opportunity to work on task completion, graphomotor and fine motor skills.  You can find countless coloring sheets with a simple search on the internet. Like the ones found here: coloring sheets.

Additionally, you can have an arts and crafts “session” and use up some of those holiday gift boxes and gift wrap tubes to make helmets or space shuttle controls.

Last, it’s time to play!  Gather the whole family or some friends, line up chairs for the space shuttle and put on your gear.  Watch as all the information shared during your “sessions” comes alive during play!

Happy Holidays to All!