Pick of the Week: Three Bear Family Counters & Sequencing Cards

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Teaching sequencing to our early learners is important for developing logical order of thinking. Practicing hands-on sequencing skills makes discovering abstract concepts even more enjoyable with these manipulatives. This week only, save 15% on the set of Three Bear Family Counters and Sequencing Cards. Just enter in the promo code BLOG3BFC at checkout to redeem your savings.

These adorable counting bears come in three sizes, three weights and 6 colors for counting, size and weight comparison, categorizing by color and for developing pattern and sequencing skills. These bears are also proportionally weighted and can be used on a balance for measurement discoveries. This 96-piece set contains 24 Papa, 24 Mama, and 48 Baby Bear counters.

Perfect for use with the Three Bear Family Counters, these sequencing cards can help develop your child’s ability to recognize size, color, patterns, and logic, as well as early math skills. Children can actively explore and discover abstract concepts through hands-on learning. This set also comes with 30 full-color activities and a teacher’s guide.

Remember, this week only, take 15% off your order of the Three Bear Family Rainbow Counters and Sequencing Cards by entering in the promo code BLOG3BFC at checkout!*

*Offer is valid until Oct. 22nd, 2013 at 11:59pm EST. Not compatible with any other offer. Be sure there are no spaces in the promo code at checkout!

Tip of the Week: Always Be Pairing

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Yesterday, we introduced you to Sam Blanco, BCBA-extraordinaire and Different Roads’ wonderful new consultant. Today, we’re thrilled to commence her new weekly segment, the “Tip of the Week.” We’re sure you’ll find them to be as interesting and insightful as we do.

TeacherStudentHighFiveAlways Be Pairing

If you are familiar with ABA, you have probably heard of the term pairing. The idea behind pairing is that you will establish and maintain a positive relationship with the child by pairing yourself with preferred items or activities. Pairing is important not only in establishing a relationship with a learner; but also in maintaining the relationship, preventing boredom, and increasing motivation throughout your relationship with the child.

Below we address four common misconceptions with pairing.

Common misconception #1: Pairing only takes place when you are building a relationship with the child.

Many therapists I’ve supervised tell me that they pair for the first 1-4 weeks, then start teaching. But pairing shouldn’t end there (nor should it necessarily take so long as we’ll see with common misconception 2.)

Before each session, you should engage in “pre-session” pairing. This means that you are providing free reinforcers without placing demands. For early learners you might start off a session with blowing bubbles or playing with a parachute. For older learners you might start off a session with a game or sharing a book the child enjoys. Usually, it’s a good idea to present the learner with options during pre-session pairing. Involving choice frequently increases motivation, and it also increases the likelihood of delivering a more highly reinforcing item.

Some people feel that pairing every session eats up valuable instructional time. However, pre-session pairing increases motivation and cuts down on maladaptive behavior, which actually increases the amount and the quality of your instructional time for a given session.

Common misconception #2: Pairing takes a long time, and a provider or teacher should not start placing demands until the pairing process is complete.

In some cases, pairing may take a long time. However, in many cases, you are able to start placing demands during the first session. This does not mean that you’ll necessarily start doing discrete trials on the first day, but you can begin placing simple demands to build instructional control while you are pairing. It’s helpful for gaining instructional control to incrementally increase the number of demands placed across sessions, while always starting with a pre-session pairing session.

Unfortunately, pairing is not an activity that can be measured, and it’s important to recognize that the pairing process is never complete.

Common misconception #3: Pairing should involve sensory toys because all children with autism are highly motivated by such toys.

For some learners, sensory toys are highly motivating. However, a common error is using the same pre-session pairing with every learner. What you believe is reinforcing in general may not be reinforcing for your learner in particular. If the learner is not engaging with the item, ignoring it, putting it down, or displaying maladaptive behaviors when the item is presented; then the item is not reinforcing.

Another consideration is that big aspect of pairing is that the learner associates these motivating items and activities with you. While it is beneficial to be the purveyor of fun sensory items; it may be even more beneficial to engage in activities with the learner, such as cause and effect toys or games or physical activity that requires your involvement.

Common misconception #4: A learner will always be motivated by the same items.

Several times when a provider calls me to come in and assist with behavior problems, I discover that there is not enough novelty within their pairing sessions. A learner may love a marble run one session (which happens to be one of my all-time favorite toys) then have no interest the next session. Or, what I see much more often, is that the learner loves the marble run for two months, then suddenly has no interest in it. The provider or teacher is uncertain about what happened and depended too heavily on that reinforcer. Then, without a powerful reinforcer to use throughout the session, the learner displays a drop in motivation and sometimes an increase in maladaptive behaviors.

There’s a word for this: satiation. Learners display a wide range of satiation levels. Some learners you work with may satiate on reinforcers within minutes, while other may prefer to see the same items over and over from session to session. A learner’s satiation can vary based on many different variables, so you should be prepared to address it.

One way to address this is to choose not to bring the same reinforcers to each session. This way, if a battery dies, you forget to bring a favorite toy, or something breaks you have not set yourself and your learner up for failure. A second way to address satiation is to remove the item while the child is still motivated to engage with it, instead of waiting until he/she has lost interest before introducing other choices.           

When pairing is consistent, specific to the child’s interests, and involves a variety of items and activities learners will maintain motivation and you will be more easily able to maintain instructional control.

Meet Sam Blanco, BCBA, MSEd and Consultant to Different Roads

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Sam Blanco, BCBA

Sam Blanco, BCBA

When we stumbled across Sam’s blog, we thought we had died and gone to ABA heaven. Here she was, in New York, with this incredible passion, expertise, dedication to ABA and data collection, and she organized her toys according to what tasks they could be used for in the ABLLS-R and VB-MAPP!? It was like a dream come true! We went to lunch and we happily agreed to work together and bring Sam’s vast experience and expertise to you, our readers.

We’re thrilled to announce that starting tomorrow, Sam is going to be bringing us a “Tip of the Week” touching on everything from strategies for changing frustrating behavior to maximizing the impact of your smartphone. Sam is going to bring the breadth of her experience to create modified instructions for games and follow-up ideas for extending the lesson for mainstream toys and products. She’s also going to focus on creating resources that specifically support paraprofessionals and SEITs working with kids on the spectrum. Sam is an organized force of knowledge and know-how and we’re so excited to be collaborating with her.

If you haven’t visited her blog on teaching through play, we suggest an immediate visit to www.samblanco.com. You’ll find incredible tips on how to use games, apps and toys to teach foundational skills through play and a thoughtful, insightful voice on teaching children with autism.

We asked Sam a few questions so that you can get to know her and her approach…

 A lot of people think still think of Applied Behavior Analysis only as discrete trial, as a rote teaching style. You utilize ABA in all of your teaching, specifically in play. Tell us a bit about what ABA truly is and why you’re such a believer?

At it’s core, ABA is really about understanding the principles of learning and the function of a behavior, then making changes that benefit the learner based on that understanding. This can be applied to skills and behaviors related to language, social skills, daily living skills, academics, and more. Discrete trial instruction is a piece of that, but natural environment teaching has always been an important part of ABA. Over the years, I have found that isolating skills in discrete trials then practicing those skills during play has produced great results for the lives of my learners. And research backs that up!

Your blog is all about toys, games, books and apps and we consider you a bit of an aficionado on the topic of play. If you had to name your absolute top three, what would they be?

I don’t even know how to begin to answer this question! I think because I travel around the city so much for work, I always love things that are small, lightweight, work with a range of age groups, and are still highly motivating. With those characteristics in mind, I’d have to say I love the Melissa & Doug Sandwich Stacking Game, Math Activity Mats, and the Saxoflute. Oh, and marble runs and Creatures Card Game! And Math Dice. (Sorry, I just can’t narrow it down to three.)

Bio

Sam Blanco is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, an ABA provider for students ages 3-12 in NYC, and the creator of a blog (at www.samblanco.com) devoted to teaching students with autism through games, apps, toys, and books. Working in education for ten years with students with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other developmental delays, Sam has developed strategies for achieving a multitude of academic, behavior, and social goals. She is the lead contractor for Theatre Development Fund’s Autism Theatre Initiative, working to modify Broadway shows such as The Lion King and Spiderman. She also provides workshops for professionals and parents about assessment, managing difficult behaviors, verbal behavior, and using games and technology effectively in teaching practices.

 

Pick of the Week: Early Learning Language Library

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Help your young learner build vocabulary, expressive and receptive language skills with the Early Learning Language Library. This week only, we are offering a 15% discount on this set of 160 photographic learning cards to help you stimulate conversation and social awareness in your student or child. Just enter in the promo code BLOGELL7 at check out.

Suitable for children in preschool and kindergarten, these cards include photographs of everyday objects and people with guided questions and encouraging prompts on the back of each card to help teach effective communication skills and improve critical thinking.

Each card measures 8 ½” x 5 ½” and the set even comes with a resource guide with word lists and activity ideas in English and Spanish!

Save 15% on your purchase of the Early Learning Language Library by entering in the promotional code BLOGELL7* at checkout!

*This offer expires on October 15, 2013 at 11:59 pm EST. Not compatible with any other offer. Be sure there are no spaces in the promo code at check out!

Meet Abigail Schlaifer, COO of Different Roads

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Abigail PhotoAlmost everyone who calls our office has talked to Abigail at some point over the last 13 years. She’s our go to person for all questions big and small. If you’ve had a question about a product, if for some reason something went wrong with your order, or if you created a something new and fabulous, you’ve probably spoken to her.

Abigail is head of operations here at Different Roads and really, so much more. She’s our merchandiser, shaping our product line and catalog with the best materials out there for supporting ABA and VB Programs. She does her best to stay on top of what parents and teachers need and what’s available, carefully curating our product line to include only the most useful and practical teaching tools. In addition to sourcing and selecting many of the great products you’ve come to love, she also creates and manages all of our print and catalog content, keeps our website current and accurate, and generates our blog and social media content. She keeps things over here running smoothly and efficiently.

She wears many hats at Different Roads which always keeps her on her toes. She is our go-to person regarding the ins and outs of each of our products; how they work, why you use them, if there happens to be a tortoise included in the Animals flash cards…you catch our drift. She’s been our lead project manager on all of our Apps, collaborating with Julie and Stacy on content to bring our vision to technical reality.

Abigail and Julie also work closely together to stay abreast of changes and innovations in the autism community so that we can bring our customers not only the best products, but a reliable source of information from accredited resources and professionals.

Abigail joined Julie at Different Roads in 2000, fresh out of Brown University, back when we operated out of the hallway in Julie’s apartment. It was an immersive education, learning about how to run a small business and what it actually meant to have a child on the spectrum.  Julie’s daughter Miranda was always in a therapy session or watching the Muppets Take Manhattan down the hall. Operating out of Julie’s home gave Abigail a deep insight into the realities and needs of children with ASD as well as their families in addition to the intensive behavioral therapy so crucial to their growth and success.  Abigail has a deep connection to the community and an empathy that drives her each day.  Her top priority remains supporting teachers and families in their quest to help their kids.

Pick of the Week: The Early Start Denver Model

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As the first comprehensive, empirically tested intervention specifically designed for toddlers and preschoolers with autism, the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) is an early intervention approach for toddlers ages 12-36 months and continuing until ages 48-60 months. The model does not require a particular setting for implementation and can be used by parents, teachers, therapists, at home, in preschool or in a clinical setting. To help you get started with this early intervention model developed by Sally Rogers, Ph.D., and Geraldine Dawson, Ph.D., we are offering a 15% discount on the Early Start Denver Model for Young Children with Autism Manual and its accompanying Curriculum Checklists this week. Just enter in the promotional code BLOGESDM3 at check out to redeem your savings!

The Early Start Denver Model is the only comprehensive early intervention model that has been validated in a randomized clinical trial for use with children with autism as young as 18 months of age. It has been found to be effective for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) across a wide range of learning styles and abilities. Its core features include the following:

  • Naturalistic applied behavioral analytic strategies
  • Sensitive to normal developmental sequence
  • Deep parental involvement
  • Focus on interpersonal exchange and positive affect
  • Shared engagement with joint activities
  • Language and communication taught inside a positive, affect-based relationship

The manual provides structured, hands-on strategies for working with very young children in individual as well as group settings to promote development in key areas such as imitation; communication; social, cognitive and motor skills; adaptive behavior; and play.

In order to implement individualized treatment plans for each child, users must complete the ESDM Curriculum Checklist, which is an assessment tool. One non-reproducible checklist is included in the manual for reference with instructions for use. Additional checklists are sold separately in sets of 15.

This week only, take 15% off your purchase of the ESDM for Young Children with Autism Manual and the accompanying ESDM Curriculum Checklists by entering in the promo code BLOGESDM3 at checkout.*

*This offer expires on October 8, 2013 at 11:59 pm EST. Not compatible with any other offer. Be sure there are no spaces in the promo code at check out!

Meet Stacy Asay, LMSW, ABA Provider and Different Roads Consultant

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StacyDo you believe in fate? Many years ago, after a particularly grueling day, Stacy thought, maybe it would be nice to have a 9-5 job. On a whim, she contacted Different Roads inquiring about job opportunities. When we saw her resume and credentials, we nearly jumped out of our seats with excitement. Of course, luckily for all of us, Stacy realized her calling was in the field working directly with children but she’s been consulting with us ever since.

Stacy has worked with us on so many projects, each one intended to bring our customers the best materials we can and create a community for all of us to be a part of. She has provided invaluable input on product selection, contributed informative and practical blog posts and been an irreplaceable source of information on the realities of providing ABA services and being an Early Intervention Provider. We don’t know what we would do without her!

Stacy worked on the development of our robust app, Tell Me About It! Teaching Language by Receptive Function, Feature and Category. She developed and created Hooray for Play! Leading Learners Along the Path to Play. These flashcards break down the components of 31 individual play schema cards into the three organized sections that provide a memorable framework for socio-dramatic play. The Do! Section explains the various roles, Say!! outlines possible scripted statements by the involved actors and Play!!! offers suggestions for props and set-up.

We asked Stacy a few questions about her work and what keeps her inspired:

Tell us about a particularly influential child you’ve worked with and how it impacted your approach to EI?

Wow, this is a really hard question!   Without a doubt each student I have had the privilege of working with has provided insight into my work with children and families in invaluable ways.  I can’t pinpoint one student out of all of my sixteen years that has single handedly impacted my approach in any quantifiable way because the process has been more cumulative than that.  However, I have learned to accept that I will constantly be surprised by my students and am reminded everyday to just set the bar high no matter what the initial presentation of the student is.  It is only natural that parents and colleagues take the current level of the child’s functioning and try to extrapolate that because facing the unknown is always hard but I try and remind myself and others that programmatic decisions can’t be made based on what we think might happen or how we assume learning and development may unfold.  Instead we should enlist our creativity and collaborative efforts to teach what is socially relevant and appropriately challenging for that particular student in that moment.

If you had one piece of advice to teachers or therapists just entering the field, what would it be?

I would have to say “Be flexible!”  Our students have a diagnosis characterized by rigidity in thought and behavior and often ABA therapists meet a child’s rigidity with their own rigidity about the right way to teach something just because it worked with the child before. Or perhaps you will teach “Sam” to tact colors using flashcards because that is how it is “supposed to be taught” without any consideration to individualizing the teaching conditions, addressing individual specific motivational issues or without concern for the lack of generalization or increased prompt dependency.  ABA is a science that employs a systematic analysis of external conditions or factors that either increase or decrease the likelihood of a behavior.  Within that we have infinite possibilities to harness the science in a way that is best for an individual child and a myriad of opportunities to model flexibility for our student through our own behavior.

BIO

Stacy L. Asay, LMSW is a licensed social worker, providing home-based Early Intervention services to children and their families in the New York City area.

After graduating from Hunter College with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, she went on to complete a Master’s of Science in Social Work from Columbia University in 2006 and completed the course requirements toward board certification in May of 2013.

With nearly sixteen years of experience, her work with special needs children integrates a strengths-based, holistic approach to child and family augmented with the tools of Applied Behavior Analysis, a methodology that allows for reliable measurement, objective evaluation of behaviors, and the systematic teaching of language and learning skills.  This results in an individualized curriculum that equips children with the tools they need for learning and living while honoring their unique spirit.

Currently, Stacy’s professional interests lie in the realm of developing new methods and tools for the effective teaching of play skills.

Meet Julie Azuma, President & CEO of Different Roads

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Julie Azuma, Founder & CEO

Julie Azuma, Founder & CEO

We start our introduction to the Different Roads to Learning staff with no other than our President, founder and force extraordinaire, Julie Azuma. Julie is an incredible, tireless force, an advocate for families and an activist who never ceases to share her knowledge and expertise. Julie started Different Roads to Learning in 1995, a few years after her daughter Miranda was diagnosed with autism at the age of 6. Back then, autism was already rising with rates jumping from 1 in 2500 in 1985 to 1 in 500 in 1995, but well below the current estimates of 1 in 88 children, and 1 in 54 boys. In the maze of appointments, therapy sessions and doctors, she kept being told to find materials like 1-inch color cubes with no numbers or writing on them, or a specific non-distracting flashcard. As hard as she scoured the resources in New York City and on the web, she had an incredibly difficult time locating the materials that would help Miranda learn. With true entrepreneurial spirit and a fierce devotion to helping her daughter, Different Roads to Learning was launched in May of 1995 with about 30 products.

Julie started the company on the premise that parents who had home ABA programs needed help in finding the products for their children on the spectrum.  Since that time, schools across the country are now supporting Applied Behavior Analysis and Verbal Behavior teaching.  Tens of thousands of children have been mainstreamed by the age of five.  Our children are more capable in every way.

Today, Julie is proud that the mission of Different Roads has not changed. The goal remains to provide the most effective, affordable and appropriate materials out there to support students with Autism Spectrum Disorder in their social and academic growth.

Fun Fact:  Our URL is www.difflearn.com because back in the dark ages of the internet, you couldn’t string more than 9 digits together.

After 18 years, what do you look forward to every day?

Looking for new ways to connect with our kids. Whether it’s researching new products with Abigail at Toy Fair or looking for a way to create a new app….I love the idea of giving  our kids new opportunities to learn language and social skills.

What’s your hope for Different Roads in the next few years?

It’s my hope that Different Road endures in the years to come while giving kids the skills to mainstream.  We hope to help more children in Early Intervention and reach across the spectrum to support social skills for our students in school age programs.

Pick of the Week: “You Are a Social Detective!” CD

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You Are a Social Detective! Interactive CD teaches children ages 7-12 to become better social thinkers by putting on their detective hats and deciphering both expected and unexpected social behavior. This week, we’re offering a 15% discount on the You Are a Social Detective! CD to help parents and professionals introduce the Social Thinking® Vocabulary to their students. Enter the promo code BLOGDTV4 at checkout to save 15% on your purchase this week.

DRM 840

Users will rely on their social “tools” — their eyes, ears, and brains — to make smart social guesses and investigate clues to see how others’ emotions and responses are connected to their own behavior. The program has 6 exciting levels with more than 200 video prompts to break down social situations into functional terms, including:

  1. Understanding Others’ Comfortable/Uncomfortable Thoughts
  2. Understanding Others’ Expected/Unexpected Behaviors
  3. Guessing Others’ Thoughts and Emotion
  4. Making Smart Guesses
  5. Using Your Tool Box Items (Eyes, Ears & Brain)
  6. Using Social Mapping

The software uses interactive video scenarios of real students to engage the user to answer questions, make smart social guesses and establish outcomes. All entries are scored over time so parents and educators can track progress and customize levels.

This software is compatible with Windows 98 or above and MAC OS X or above.

*This offer expires on October 1, 2013 at 11:59 pm EST. Not compatible with any other offer. Be sure there are no spaces in the promo code at check out!

Meet the Different Roads to Learning Team

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We Love Our Customers WormAt Different Roads to Learning, connecting with all of you is what drives us and keeps us moving forward. We sometimes long for the old days when we knew so many of you by first name, when you would call in your orders and we would have the chance to get to know you and your children. After 18 years in business and with so much activity shifting to the web, we still want to maintain our connection to all of you. We so appreciate it when you take the time to share with us, be it via email or on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. We figured now is a good time to say hello to old friends and let you know a bit about what we’ve been up to and introduce ourselves to those of you who we haven’t had the pleasure of getting to know yet. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be introducing you to our small but incredibly dedicated and wonderful team. Keep an eye out for upcoming posts!