World Autism Awareness Day

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Different Roads to Learning

In recognition of World Autism Awareness Day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that early interventions can make a tremendous impact on the lives of children with autism.

With the number of children affected with autism being reported as high as 1 in 50, there is an urgent need to ensure that children are given a proper diagnosis along with early intervention and behavioral therapy that will make a difference in their lives. Our products are geared towards educating and empowering children at every step, from early intervention to school-age programs.

In honor of World Autism Awarness Day and Autism Awareness Month, Different Roads is thrilled to offer 25% off storewide today through April 4.* To redeem your savings, please enter the Promo Code WAA13D at www.difflearn.com or call us at 800-853-1057 to place your orders.

*Sale does NOT apply to the following products: VB-MAPP Assessment Kits (DRK 700, DRK 701), ABLLS-R Assessment Kits (DRK 702, DRK 703), 10- and 25-packs of VB-MAPP Protocols (DRB 682, DRB 683).*

WAA13D Sale runs from April 2, 2013 through April 4, 2013 at midnight EST.

**This promotion cannot be applied to previous orders.**

The coupon code must be entered during checkout to receive offer. Offer only applies to selected products and not those currently on sale. Your order must be placed during the time of the World Autism Awareness Day Sale to qualify for this special offer. This promotional offer may not be combined with any other promotional or discount offers.

Our new catalog is here!

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Different Roads to Learning

And it’s a big one for us – Volume 30! Over 18 years and 30 catalogs, our mission has always stayed the same: to educate and empower children with autism and special needs. We’re so proud of our 30th Catalog and we think you will be quite excited by the 70 new products that we’ve added. We’ll be highlighting and featuring some of our best new products in our Pick of the Week segment so be sure to keep an eye out for special offers by joining our mailing list.

The new catalog contains all of your favorite go-to’s, like the Language Builder and the Time Timer, along with spectacular new products for Early Intervention, teaching social skills, developing conversation and so much more.

You can always request a paper catalog on our site, or you can click here for our fully interactive e-catalog that enables you to dowload, print and link back to the products on our site.

We’re thrilled to share this milestone with you and can’t wait to hear your thoughts on our new products.

Autism-friendly peformance of ‘Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark’ presented by TDF

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Different Roads to Learning

Our spidey sense is tingling! The Theater Development Fund is once again sponsoring an autism-friendly, special performance of the NY Broadway show Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark. This show was specifically chosen by families as the show their children wanted to see most. As with their past performances of The Lion King and Mary Poppins, the special performance will cut jarring sounds and strobe lights. Quiet areas with beanbag chairs and coloring books will be available. In advance of the show, TDF will also post social stories on their site, listing out what attendees can expect at the show.

You can buy tickets for the April 27 show at the TDF site: https://secure2.tdf.org/event/step1.html

Introducing the Eden Autism Services Assessment & Curriculum Series

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Different Roads to Learning

It is with great excitement that we announce the publication of the Eden School’s Assessment and Curriculum Series. This set of seven assessments and curriculum guides provide an expansive range of content for grades Pre-K through 12.

This week only, you can save 15% on these new assessments and curricula by entering the Promo Code BLOGEDA at checkout.

The Autism Assessment provides educators, therapists, and parents with a tool to accurately assess a student’s current abilities and skill level. This assessment identifies the student’s strengths and weaknesses, assists with goal selection, tracks progress, and makes it easy to translate the assessment into concrete IEP goals. The Autism Curriculum is a comprehensive series of teaching programs designed to provide a valuable resource to enable professionals and parents to effectively teach students with autism. Employing a hands-on approach, the curriculum includes practical strategies for each teaching program. In addition, each skill area includes a systematic assessment and flow chart to support appropriate goal selection. Teaching programs are clearly written, with step-by-step instructions, and include target behaviors, prerequisite skills, criterion-referenced assessment, measurement, materials, procedures, and prompting techniques. Each curriculum delineates Primary, Intermediate and Secondary Skills to help structure learning for students of various ages and abilities.

These teaching programs, grounded in the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), have been field-tested with hundreds of students and adults with autism. They address essential areas of skill such as cognitive, self-care and domestics, speech and language, vocational, physical education, recreation and leisure, employment, and residential living. This series offers specifically targeted curricula for Infants and Toddlers, a 5-part series for school-age students, and an Adult Curriculum.

Teaching programs are clearly written, with step-by-step instructions and include target behaviors, prerequisite skills, criterion, measurement, materials, procedures, and prompting techniques. Each volume includes flow charts to assist with selection of goals. Teaching programs and data tools are presented in wire-bound format for easy use. Each volume comes with a Curriculum, Assessment and Assessment Score Sheet. Additional blank assessment score sheets are available for sale in sets of 10 for each curriculum volume: Infant/Toddler; Cognitive; PE; Self-Care/Domestics; Speech/Language; Vocational; Adult.

Infant & Toddler Assessment & Curriculum

Developed to specifically address the needs of infants and toddlers (up to age three) with autism, the Infant and Toddler Curriculum contains teaching programs for learning readiness, cognitive skills, oral motor/feeding, receptive and expressive language and communication, play and social skills, sensory-motor, self-care, and preschool readiness skills.

Eden Autism Services School Curriculum Series

This five-volume series specifically addresses the educational needs of school-age students with autism by skill area: Cognitive, Adaptive Physical Education, Self-Care and Domestics, Speech and Language, and Vocational Education. The curricula can be purchased individually or as a set of five. Each volume contains the prerequisite skills, criterion, measurement, materials, procedure, prompting techniques and teaching tips for each target behavior.

Cognitive Volume: School Curriculum & Assessment

The Cognitive volume contains teaching programs to address the educational needs of school aged students with autism in the areas of Learning Readiness (eye contact, gross motor imitation), Pre-academics (block imitation, matching objects, body part ID, etc.), Academics (counting, handwriting, sight word ID, etc.), and classroom language/social play (categorization, pretend play, etc.). There are more than 85 lessons presented with prerequisite skills, criterion, measurement, materials, procedure, prompting techniques and teaching tips.

Speech and Language Volume: School Curriculum & Assessment

The Speech/Language volume contains teaching programs for school-aged students with autism which is divided into four domains and then ranked as primary, intermediate and secondary skills. The domains focus on oral motor/feeding, receptive language, expressive language, and pragmatics. There are more than 75 lessons presented in a highly structured, specialized format.

Self-Care and Domestics Volume: School Curriculum & Assessment

The Self-Care/Domestics volume contains teaching programs targeting daily living activities for school aged students with autism in the areas of self-care and domestic skills. There are more than 60 target behaviors covering primary skills like dressing, hand washing, and toileting to secondary skills such as bathing, shaving, menu preparation, and food shopping.

Vocational Education Volume: School Curriculum & Assessment

The Vocational volume contains teaching programs specially designed to address a variety of vocational skills for school aged students with autism. The skills taught are designed to prepare individuals with autism and developmental disabilities for adult life and the world of work. The emphasis is on using these teaching programs to foster appropriate levels of independence. There are 55 targets in this volume addressing vocational skills like sorting, labeling, packaging, inventory, stocking, and more.

Physical Education/Recreation and Leisure Volume: School Curriculum & Assessment

The PE volume contains teaching programs specifically designed to address the physical education, recreation, and leisure skills of school-aged students with autism. While many educators use task-analyzed programs to teach students with ASD, physical education, recreation and leisure skills are often not approached in the same manner. There are more than 35 target behaviors from biking, golf, doing a puzzle to bowling, board games, swimming and video games.

Eden Autism Services School Curriculum Series: 5-Volume Set

The 5-Volume Set includes each volume in the series for school-aged students: Cognitive, Speech/Language, Self-Care and Domestics, Vocational, and Physical Education/Recreation and Leisure.

Adult Services Assessment & Curriculum

The Adult Residential and Employment volumes have been combined into a single comprehensive volume for Adult Services. Developed for adolescents and adults with autism residing in community-based living arrangements, the Adult Services volume contains teaching programs for self-care, domestics, physical education, and recreation and leisure. There is a complete vocational section that focuses on teaching programs to be implemented in an adult day placement with application in employment settings.

ABOUT EDEN

Since 1975, families, educators, healthcare professionals and others with an interest in autism have looked to the knowledgeable, caring and committed staff at Eden for guidance. Headquartered in Princeton, NJ, Eden’s expertise includes early intervention services, pre-K through 21 education, adult residential and employment programs, and support and training for families and professionals. This Assessment and Curriculum provides educators and caregivers with nearly 40 years of Eden’s teaching expertise.

*Offer expires on January 15, 2013 at 11:59 pm EST. Not compatible with any other offer. Be sure there are no spaces after the Promo Code when you enter it at checkout.

Important Statement on the Tragedy in Newtown from Michael John Carley of GRASP

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Different Roads to Learning

In the wake of the sheer horror of what transpired at Sandy Hook Elementary School last week, our hearts and thoughts are with all of the victims, their families and the entire community. In watching endless news reports, information is coming out that the perpetrator may have been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. With so much misinformation about the real manifestations of Autism Spectrum Disorder, we wanted to share this important statement from Michael John Carley, Exectutive Director of GRASP (The Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership), which eloquently reminds us of what we need to focus on.

December 14, 2012

We here at GRASP (and I as the father of two school-age boys), cannot be more saddened and devastated by the news of the shootings in Newtown, CT. Our thoughts, wishes, prayers, and heaviest hearts go out to the victims and their families.

While it has not been confirmed, two major news outlets are now speculating that the shooter, Adam Lanza, had been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. Much remains to be seen to provide the full picture of who this man was, but AS may indeed have been a part of his makeup.

We urge everyone to remember what GRASP has stated since our beginning: That having Asperger’s or the autism spectrum in your life—as an individual, a parent…etc.—does not carry any bearing with whether or not you will become (for lack of a better term) “a good person” in this life. While the majority of statistics prove that we are infinitely more prone to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators of violence, we are not immune from becoming people capable of making terrible, horrible choices. No one is.

So we ask that everyone please steer away from getting too caught up in the spectrum angle. Let us focus instead on mourning; lamenting through grief that such a terrible and tragic event befell us all on this awful, awful day. Let us focus on the families impacted, and care for them, so that someday far off maybe we can explain—though never justify—what happened today. Perhaps then we will finally force those responsible for our care to pass legislations that could have helped prevent this tragedy, or revoke the legislations that may have assisted it.

With our greatest condolences to those impacted,

Peace,

Michael John Carley
Executive Director
GRASP

A Grandparent Guide for Happy Holidays

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Different Roads to Learning

This post was written by our old friend Dr. Erica R. Holding for the Grandparent Autism Network. Dr. Holding has a Ph.D. in Psychology and a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology. She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst-Doctoral level and founder of Avita Nova, which provides early diagnosis and ABA therapy for children and parent training and support. This article is based on her many years of working with families affected by autism.

When you have a grandchild with autism, the holiday season can present some extra challenges for your family. With careful planning your family can make the holiday season warm and happy for everyone.

If you don’t get to see your grandchild regularly, it is important to remember to have realistic expectations for your time together. Before the visit, call your son or daughter to ask if there is anything to do or have on hand to make the visit more enjoyable for your grandchild. You can have favorite toys, food and videos ready and plan to go to places that they like to visit.

Grandparents often express fear and anxiety about how to interact with their grandchildren. You may feel rejected because you expect welcoming big hugs and kisses and may feel frustrated and unloved if that does not happen. Your grandchild may have sensory issues that make it overwhelming and even painful for them to be touched or hugged. They may not have the skills yet to know what to do or how to respond or they may just be learning these skills, but shut down around new people or in new situations. The most important thing is to not take this personally. They are not rejecting you. A high five or brief gaze may be all that they are currently capable of doing.

If you are planning a party or other special event, ask your son or daughter if they feel your grandchild will be comfortable being present. You may want to change your plan to be more inclusive and focus on creating new holiday traditions together.

Keep demands for social politeness at a low level. Even if your grandchild has learned new social skills like greeting people by saying hello or shaking hands, don’t anticipate that will happen when there is a lot of stimuli like lights, music and new people in new settings.

Pace yourself and be flexible. If you have 3 events planned for a day, but there is a midday meltdown after event # 1, maybe it’s best to skip the others. It is better to have one great time together that you can all remember fondly than to watch the rest of the day deteriorate into tantrums or other behavior problems. New situations, new people, and new schedules can be overwhelming for a child with autism. Your grandchild is not being willfully defiant or difficult, and your son or daughter does not have poor parenting skills. Too much input and too many changes can be very hard for children with autism to process. Let your son or daughter know that you understand this may be what is responsible for meltdowns and negative behavior.

Create outlets or escape routes. Prepare a place in your home that is quieter and provides a comfortable spot where you grandchild can “take a break” from all of the excitement. Having a place to go for some respite time may prevent you from having to leave or end an event. Just taking a break may be all that your grandchild needs to get on to the next event.

Manage sensory input. The holiday season is filled with new experiences. Manage these to the best of your ability. If you are taking a trip to the mall, try to go at times when the mall is less busy, or make the trip shorter. The holidays might not be the best time to try new foods. Try to have something your grandchild likes at every meal.

Control Schedules. Routines and knowing what is happening next is often very important to individuals on the spectrum. Holiday schedules deviate completely from our daily normal routines and this can be especially difficult for a child with autism. Ask your son or daughter how best to handle daily schedules. Some children with autism can be included in the schedule making and this is very empowering for them. Other children may be more able to understand when given a visual schedule. Find out what works best and if an unexpected change is just about to happen, find out how best to communicate that change.

Be sure to compliment your grandchild and your son or daughter about the new abilities and progress your grandchild has achieved. Grandparents can be supportive good listeners who consistently give their families loving reinforcement at the holidays – and throughout the year.

Wait, What Are We Talking About?

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Stacy Asay

I typically work with very young learners in Early Intervention but there was a time I was working with older children, which necessitated work on conversation skills and topic maintenance. With the start of a new academic year and changes to my caseload I am currently finding myself with students who again need some assistance in this area. Children with autism spectrum disorders often struggle in conversations because of limited or restricted interests, attending issues, difficulty determining what is relevant or salient to the topic and might also struggle with the rapid transitions necessary to shift between speaker and listener. This change in my caseload has meant that I’ve found myself digging into old files and unearthing some ancient DIY efforts of mine that I had used in the past. What I came across that I wanted to share was a visual support that I had used in small groups to facilitate a variety of skills. It’s something I called Chit Chat and it helped to cue the students in shifting from speaker to listener while maintaining a balance in the conversation with turn taking and reciprocity as well as staying on topic.

The idea was that we would all sit down for a “chat” and initially I would go first in order to model how the board was used rather than providing explicit instruction until the group could use the board on their own and I could fade myself out of the conversation. The first speaker would choose a token corresponding to a topic of interest, make a statement relevant to the topic chosen and then pass the token to a friend. The token would provide a prompt for the speaker to maintain the chosen topic as well as cue the rest of the group to visually reference the child whose turn it is to be speaker. Depending on the level of the group I would individualize the number of conversational exchanges on one topic required before bridging to a new topic. The group I was working with at the time was able to talk about more general topics but this could be individualized to more specific topics depending on the group of students you are working with.

I’m excited embarking upon a new academic year with all it’s unique challenges and successes and am happy to dust off Chit Chat and give it another whirl this year with all new students. I would be curious to hear from other educators and therapists what tools they’ve created that they find themselves going back to year after year. You might be surprised what you find at the bottom of your file cabinet!

Also, check out this great link I stumbled across from POPARD Provincial Outreach Program for Autism and Related Disorders in British Columbia, Canada.

https://www.autismoutreach.ca/elearning/social-skills/conversation-and-topic-maintenance

Pick of the Week: NEW On-Task On-Time Timer

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Different Roads to Learning

Help your child gain independence with the brand new On-Task On-Time scheduler and timer. This is a unique time management system that organizes three important routines of the day during the Morning (getting ready for school), Afternoon (school to home transition), and Night (getting ready for bed). Just apply one of the 52 task stickers on the routine disk, insert the disk to the unit and the individualized schedule for your child is complete. Turn stressful transition times into structured, self-esteem building experiences. Each unit includes the timer, 3 routine disks, a set of boy and girl stickers, two markers, and a wall hanger.

This week only, save 15% on this great new scheduling tool – the On-Time On-Task Timer – by entering the Promo Code BLOGONTOT at checkout.

*Offer expires on October 10, 2012 at 11:59 pm EST. Not compatible with any other offer. Be sure there are no spaces after the Promo Code when you enter it at checkout.

The Success of Early Intervention!

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Julie Azuma

The other day our wonderful consultant Stacy Asay came to chat. Stacy has been working with young children in early intervention for 15 years. Whenever we look at new products or books, we always ask her to give us an opinion on its value to teaching children on the autism spectrum.

We were discussing the benefits of Early Intervention – what kids on the spectrum are like when they are two years old and the amazing skills and capabilities that they acquire through applied behavior analysis and verbal behavior teaching. Children who can’t make words or eye contact at 2 are able to hold long discussions about their favorite topics at 4.

As Abigail and I started thinking about the astounding success that these children have been making over the years, it dawned on us that our mission here at Different Roads is being fulfilled by these kids!

Our mission is to make a difference in the lives of children diagnosed with autism, giving them tools needed to find success in gaining independence. We just figured out that by the time our pre-school students get to a school age program, they know how to label, ask questions and do math. What they need is guidance in social skills.

We are amazed by the progress of so many of our young students…..we know that our products have made a difference and we’re so happy to share in each child’s success. Many of you have stories of these successes. We hope that you will find the time to share stories of the new capabilities and skills that your child has acquired through early intervention.

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