Filed under: books, reading, review | Tags: Percy the Perfectly Imperfect Chicken, Rick Rieser
If you stock your kids’ bookshelves like I do, they contain a colorful mix of tales both fanciful and educational. Books like Percy, the Perfectly Imperfect Chicken, Rick Rieser’s new FastPencil release about a chicken who doesn’t fit in.
I accepted a review copy of Percy with hopes that a book about creatures “perfectly imperfect” would carry a message of acceptance towards those who act or look in ways “typical” creatures find strange. I read Percy with my youngest daughter, who is almost-five, and we were both taken with Daniel Seward’s vibrant illustrations as well as the cute barnyard scene: an egg hatches! The chickens all gather round to greet the newest member of their flock!
Then a trio of older hens struts forth and scrutinizes Percy, declaring that they need to see him, as only perfect chickens are allowed to stay in their yard. Percy’s mom insists that her son is fine, and so he appears to be at first. Or is he? Unsurprisingly, I was hoping for an unsubtle special needs parallel … and was disappointed when Percy’s difference is revealed to be a matter of minor cosmetics. However, I am not a chicken, and I do not live in a world where a small variation in my appearance would get me ejected from my home.
Percy’s mom continues to protect him. When he reaches adulthood, he flies above the barnyard and is treated to views he’d never before encountered — including those of the three governing hens. From his new perspective, he sees that each hen has one of the forbidden imperfections, and confronts them.
I admit to a bit of discomfort with those scenes. We try to run a positive-thinking household, and pointing out someone’s else’s imperfections — even during self-advocacy — is not something we model. But it is also important that our children learn to recognize and reject hypocrites, especially those who wield influence or power. Otherwise, our kids will be taught to strive for that which they and indeed most people in their community do not represent (body image or materialism, anyone?). I want my kids to know that, as Percy’s mom says, “Perfect is something that doesn’t exist.”
Of course Mali doesn’t care about any of my analysis. She thinks Percy is an awesome book and reads it every day:
Coolness: Percy the Perfectly Imperfect Chicken was published through FastPencil.
Filed under: books, review | Tags: autism, Liking Myself, Pat Palmer, scripting, social skills, The Mouse The Monster and Me
Liking Myself and The Mouse, The Monster, and Me are two very sweet self-help books for kids by Pat Palmer. They are full of good advice and exercises for children who need help strengthening their identity and self-awareness. I imagine they’d be especially nice for conversational kids with autism, but they’d be appropriate for any child whose self-esteem is affected by social challenges.
My youngest, almost-five Mali, appreciated the emotional permission granted by Liking Myself and its simple yet important messages such as “Anger is an OK feeling” and “It is okay to like yourself and be your own good friend.” She did not notice that these messages were gently reinforced and repeated in several different formats — she just liked that Liking Myself had games, and encouraged her to draw and write right in the book.
Children who can read Liking Myself on their own should definitely do so, but I recommend reading Liking Myself with your child, at least once. Mali was much more willing to talk about her feelings when questions were posed “by the book.” And many of her responses were surprising — I think of her as a confident and content child, but when “the book” asked her what she liked about herself, she shrugged. Eventually she said, “I like that I have a great Mommy” (awww) but that was not an answer about herself. So we continued reading, and went over the book’s descriptions of nice traits some people have. She was then able to identify several excellent points about her excellent self. I don’t think the concept of “liking herself” had been posed to her before, and was glad to see her explore it. If you’d like to see her explore Liking Myself, click on either video clip:
The Mouse, the Monster, and Me is for older kids like Mali’s ten-year-old sister Izzy, and deals with thornier topics like assertiveness, handling criticism, and the difference between compliments and flattery. It reinforces its lessons with exercises and checklists. It is right up Izzy’s alley.
Both books are small, floppy, workbook-format paperbacks. They are printed in black and white, and hand-lettered with homespun illustrations. I wonder if this lets them slide down more easily than the bright-colored, gender-based, and task-oriented American Girls self-help series. I certainly found them more self-friendly, if such a term exists — they focus less on finding solutions to common social problems, and more on helping children know, accept, and better themselves so they can be more confident and caring social beings in the first place.
If you’re looking for material to enable your child’s self-acceptance and social awareness, and especially if your child likes scripts or tends towards perseveration, I really do recommend Liking Myself and The Mouse, the Monster, and Me.
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Compensation disclosure: I received one free review copy of each book. I so heart free books!
Filed under: ABA therapy, Bridget Taylor, Rethink Autism, autism, autism blog, behavioralist, challenging behaviors
For many parents and families with children on the autism spectrum problem behavior can be challenging. That’s why this month’s free live webinar focuses on the best problem behavior treatment and prevention strategies available. You’ll learn how to begin immediately applying these techniques with your child and have a chance to ask questions via live chat with autism expert Dr. Bridget Taylor, a leader in the field of autism treatment and research, and rethink autism’s senior clinical adviser.Register for a webinar session now by clicking a date below:
All of the Rethink Autism’s teaching techniques and procedures are based on research that has been conducted in the field of applied behavior analysis. The techniques that I will discuss about managing challenging behavior are based on general principles of learning, and how challenging behavior is usually a result of the interaction between environment and behavior. That is, behavior occurs in relationship to certain events occurring in the environment. If we can identify those events and determine the reason for the challenging behavior, we can change behavior for the better. The pager prompt study is one example of how you can teach an individual with autism to attend to specific cues in the environment in order to reduce a behavior of concern. In this case eating too quickly.
Today is my 40th birthday. If I were the type who considered such milestones opportunities to dwell upon unachieved dreams, I would moan bitterly about the very cool new kids’ educational online world, Wonder Rotunda, and gripe bout why I should have been the one to create it given that I and my two Geography degrees have been creating and improving upon that which used to be called “edutainment,” for almost fifteen years.
Instead, I’ll pause to appreciate all the loveliness in my life, remark that contract gigs combining geography, education, and interactivity are my very favorite kind of paid endeavor, and commence with the review.
Wonder Rotunda is an online, exploration-based learning environment for kids age seven – twelvish who want to learn more about the world around them, or whose parents would like them to learn more and understand that game-like environments are very good carrots. Specifically:
“The Wonder Rotunda is a virtual, educational theme park designed to open the eyes of youngsters to the wonders of our world, much the way world’s fairs and expos did for prior generations. It is designed to get kids thinking about our world, finding things that they’re passionate about, and exploring how they might make their mark some day.
“Set on an island in New York Harbor, the Wonder Rotunda’s fifteen, interactive, animated adventures cover topics as diverse as tropical rainforests, African wildlife, marine life, the human body’s digestive system, money and business, American government, nutrition, globalization, film making, classical music, performing and visual arts, space exploration and, making a difference in the world. The adventures move briskly and with excitement, while affording youngsters the option of probing more deeply where they have the interest.”
Parents worried about Webkinz or Club Penguin-like unmonitored social environments will be pleased with Wonder Rotunda. Though it’s web-based, there are no social networking or commercial options, no advertising. And there are considerable parental controls, such as requiring parents to create their own, administrative account before the child’s account can be created, allowing parents to create their own avatar so they can tag along with their kids (the Wonder Rotunda folks liken it to visiting a museum together), and the ability to browse your child’s Wonder Rotunda’s trail, to see where they have been spending the most time — so you can tell what subjects they’re most interested in, and encourage them to pursue them.
I have to admit, given Wonder Rotunda’s squeaky-clean appearance, its earnest goals, and the home page’s tour, I have not felt the need to monitor my ten-year-old Iz as she explores Wonder Rotunda. She finds WR’s subject matter motivating, and has been tearing around all by herself, popping out occasionally to blurt newly acquired facts:”iguanas can fall from a height of 40 feet without getting hurt!” and decry the occasional factual error: “Thomas Jefferson was the third U.S. President, not the second, tell them that right now, Mommy!” (To their credit, the Wonder Rotunda staff fixed the error immediately. Gotta love online content.)
The graphics are nicely done, the content has depth (always a concern, Iz gets bored quickly), and — most tellingly — I had to rip Iz away from the screen so she could do her homework. This led to a debate about my priorities — did I want to send her brain chasing after the new facts, systems, and synergies Wonder Rotunda offered, or did I want it to stagnate in revisiting concepts and worksheets it had already mastered? I recommend that you avoid such scenarios by requiring that your children finish their homework before they get to “play” with Wonder Rotunda.
I approve of Wonder Rotunda’s mission wholeheartedly. I would likely have purchased it for my kids independently, but we were gifted a one month unlimited access pass worth $12. (Unlimited access for one year is $45, and can be renewed each year for $35). If you have the kind of kids who love The Magic Schoolbus and The Discovery Channel — or are looking to nudge your kids in that direction — Wonder Rotunda is a safe, mentally enriching, fun place to send them.
**TIME CHANGE!** Now 12:00 – 1:30
A free local autism and hippotherapy event is coming up next Friday. Author Rupert Isaacson will be coming to speak about his book The Horse Boy, and talk about his family’s journey to heal their son’s autism through hippotherapy. I am particularly interested in hearing what Mr. Isaacson has to say after reading this quote about him:
“He told us he didn’t want a cure for autism. He wants healing. Isaacson said that he doesn’t want his son to suffer, but that he wants him to keep his personality – that is what makes him special.”
Here’s some official information about the event, which I am hoping to attend:
The National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy (NCEFT) of Woodside is proud to welcome Rupert Isaacson, author of the best selling book and award winning documentary film The Horse Boy on Friday October 16, 2009.Mr. Isaacson will be reading from his book and discussing the benefits of equine assisted therapy, his son’s autism, and his family’s personal, spirtual, healing, horse-centric journey. He will be available to sign copies of his best seller after the presentation.
WHERE
NCEFT, a non-profit Woodside Hippotherapy center
Mounted Patrol Grounds
521 Kings Mountain Road
Woodside, CAWHEN
Friday October 16, 2009TIME
10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.For more information please visit our website at www.nceft.org
Filed under: ABA therapy, Rethink Autism, autism, content production, interview, website production
If you read this blog and my posts on BlogHer, you know I consider Rethink Autism’s “web-based autism treatment platform for parents and professionals” an incredibly useful and long-needed addition to the autism and education fields.
What you may not know is that I am a former software producer, and so am floored by the scale of Rethink Autism’s production effort, and its resulting product quality. I could tell that Rethink Autism is a truly content-rich, dynamic, and flexible learning resource for autism families and professionals, but I wanted to know more about the process and philosophy behind the site: How was it developed, and why? How does the team decide what kind of lessons to include? Who are they planning to reach, and how will they make it more accessible to families with financial and language concerns?
Fortunately for me and for you, Jamie Pagliaro from Rethink Autism agreed to answer these questions, and more. Please do leave a comment if you have a question of your own, or would like clarification.
Can you tell us, briefly, why Rethink Autism was founded? Who was the primary team? What are your primary goals? Who are you trying to reach?
The mission of rethink autism is to offer parents and educators immediate access to effective and affordable Applied Behavior Analysis-based intervention tools for the growing population affected by autism spectrum disorders. Our core team has expertise in three main areas: clinical, technology, and filmmaking.
I have personally worked in the field of autism education for the past fifteen years, most recently as Executive Director of a public charter for children with autism in New York (the New York Center for Autism Charter School). During that time, I have been faced with many desperate parents trying to gain access to services, and many educators struggling to appropriately meet the needs of children with autism. With growing numbers of newly diagnosed children, the task ahead for policy makers and the professional community is even more daunting. For parents, this means longer wait lists, more diluted funds, and limited access to experts. What compelled me to join Rethink Autism was the idea of making research-based treatment tools accessible to everyone — not just a select few — in a cost-effective way.
Simply put, our goal is reach as many children with autism [as we can] through parent and organizational subscribers. We currently have individual parent subscribers around the globe. Some are in rural areas working with limited access to professional support, while others have professional support and are using the system to coordinate treatment across team members. We also have a number of organizational users across the country, including public school districts, early intervention providers, and nonprofit service agencies. They are using our platform to enhance their staff training, curriculum planning, and outcome monitoring. We are committed to keeping all of our users on the cutting edge of autism treatment research.
Can you tell us the scale of the Rethink Autism effort, and how long it took to build content and develop the site?
The entire site and its content were developed in one year. This was a tremendous undertaking that took a team of committed professionals on the clinical, technology, and filmmaking fronts. On the clinical side, we worked with about forty families in NYC who brought their children with autism in for filming sessions with our therapists on a weekly basis. During the year, we filmed thousands of hours of therapeutic sessions, each one carefully planned to help us create our 400+ training and lesson videos.
Our clinical team was also fully integrated into the filmmaking aspect, working with our production team to coordinate shoots, and edit each session. In fact, each lesson video was reviewed for clinical integrity by at least three separate clinicians. Our senior clinical advisor, Dr. Bridget Taylor, personally worked with our therapists to plan each lesson before filming, and reviewed each lesson for clinical integrity as a final checkpoint before adding it to our library.
In parallel, we designed the website interface to be aesthetically pleasing and incredibly user friendly. The families that we worked with also helped us test the interface at every step of development. For this reason, we are proud to say it has been parent tested and approved! It is also worth noting that thanks to their insights and suggestions for improvements on the design, using the website requires no formal training, explanation, or manual once you log on.
Do you plan to keep expanding the content and curriculum? If so, via existing plans or community feedback?
Absolutely! One of the aspects of this project that attracted me was the opportunity to continuously evolve and develop new content. And because we are web-based, this happens seamlessly for our users (i.e., they don’t need to buy or download anything new — it’s added automatically!).
We are creating new content in our production studio every week. The ideas come from parent requests for specific lessons, suggestions from our scientific advisors, and plans that we have developed internally for curriculum expansion. For example, a few weeks ago a parent asked us about getting her son to tolerate wearing a band-aid. We developed a lesson to teach this, filmed it, and within two weeks added the lesson to our site. We also spent some time with one of our scientific advisors earlier this summer, Dr. Peter Gerhardt from the Organization for Autism Research, and he worked with us on developing new content for adolescents (e.g., pre-vocational and self-care skills) and higher functioning children with autism.
Sections of the site are freely available/not password protected, e.g., the sections on general autism information and advice. Do you have plans to expand those sections as well?
Yes — in fact this September we rolled out a series of free back-to-school webinars, which included live chat with our senior clinical advisor, Dr. Bridget Taylor. There was also a free back-to-school tips video that accompanied the webinar. The response to this was overwhelmingly positive, so we will be doing additional free “tips” videos and live webinars on a monthly basis. Coming soon is Participating in Social Events, and later this fall we will have two special webinars on Managing Problem Behavior at Home and an Orientation to Parents of Newly Diagnosed Children. The later we are doing in conjunction with our friends at Autism Speaks.
How does email support work? Do you have behavioralists on staff to answer email queries, a professional customer support staff, or a combination?
We have a team of committed clinicians on staff to respond to parent questions regarding use of our curriculum. They are led by a PhD-level Behavior Analyst, and all of them have significant experience working with children with autism at home and in school programs. We want to be clear that we cannot offer formal clinical recommendations to families, as we do not come out to directly observe or work with your child. However, the Curriculum Support we offer has been an invaluable resource to many families working with limited or no professional support at home. All of the Curriculum Support is done via email, and we always respond within 24 hours during the week.
Rethink Autism is currently available in English. Do you have plans to translate the site and content into other languages? (As a former software producer for content-heavy products like world atlases, I understand the massive scale of a localization effort. But I also live in California, and constantly see families affected by autism falling through the cracks due to language barriers.)
Our goal is to begin translating into Spanish next year (2010). We recognize the need for translation, and have already had requests from individual families and organizations throughout the world. Once we have a critical mass of English-speaking users, we hope to deploy more resources into this international dissemination effort. As you have noted, this is a massive undertaking due to the amount of video content we currently have, and would therefore need to translate.
Do you plan to offer a sliding scale or scholarships for families and institutions in need? The $100/month personal subscription exceeds many autism families’ budgets, especially during current financial tough times.
We fully recognize that there are many families in need, and our commitment is to making Rethink Autism accessible and affordable to as many of those families as possible. One of our goals is to be a self-sustaining company that keeps the cost of a monthly subscription at a level roughly equivalent to one hour of professional consultation. In the future, as our company grows we hope to offer subscription assistance to low income families, and have started to engage local and national nonprofit organizations about this. We have already donated free content to a number of these organizations as a way to support them in the short-term.
Rethink Autism has already hosted webinars, as well as live chats with professionals like Dr. Bridget Taylor. Are there any plans to host live, IRL seminars or conferences?
We are actively considering many different options, including live seminars. We already attend and exhibit at a number of national conferences in an effort to raise awareness about Rethink Autism. In the coming months we will be exhibiting at:
- Autism NJ conference in Atlantic City, NJ (Oct. 8-10)
- American Academy of Pediatrics conference in Washington, D.C. (Oct. 16-18)
- Organization for Autism Research conference in Arlington, VA (Oct. 22-24)
- NY State Association for Behavior Analysis conference in Albany, NY (Nov. 4-6)
- National Autism Association conference in Weston, FL (Nov. 12-13),
- OCALI conference in Columbus, OH (Nov. 17-19).
Needless to say, I’m hoping my family will recognize me by Thanksgiving!
We are also continuing with the Free Live Webinars this fall, and will be sure to keep you posted!
I finally polished off the novel Badger gave me, A Fistful of Sky. I enjoyed it thoroughly, have passed it to a delighted Iz, and recommend it with many exclamation points. (!!!!!!!)
The cover art and blurbs are silly and misleading, so ignore them — this is not a book about an ugly duckling who transcends her misfit ways, so let’s pause for a nose-thumb to crappy and insulting stereotypes. Rather, it’s about a confident young woman, Gypsum, who is happy with her non-mainstream appearance despite the disapproval of her conventionally beautiful, trim, stylish mother and her (literally) charming ways. Gypsum’s struggle has little to do with her outward self, but instead concerns her status as the only non-magical kid among five siblings.
I love the book’s exploration of style and girlyness and body size through unpredictable magicks, and the way those factors are handled with humor and empathy, yet with few judgments and certainly no concessions to the what the author calls “girl torture.” There are a couple of elements some parents may object to; in one scene Gympum sees two two people “going at it” behind some bushes, and there is also a mention of rape, but neither of these are explicit enough to deem it unsuitable for Iz’s sixth grade peers, at least in my opinion.
I have to write, I am totally freaked out by how many similar themes run through A Fistful of Sky and my own unfinished story manuscript. (I usually wouldn’t mention anything I was working on unless it was in a state worth mentioning, but feel I should record my freaked-outedness now — because if I ever do finish my story, I don’t want Nina Kiriki Hoffman to sue me.) So many eerie parallels with regards to how magical families might live amongst the rest of us in contemporary California, the traditions and rules such families might uphold, and the importance of training one’s kids in potential post-apocalyptic community survival skills. Too weird. But so beautifully told. If I produce something even half as creative and moving, I’ll be content.
In case you haven’t seen Rethink Autism, it is a new online program for delivering video-based ABA therapy training, collaborative data tracking — and really good, compassionate, sensible information about autism in general — to families who might not otherwise have access to ABA resources. It is available to anyone with a computer and internet connection, for $100/month (personal account). The program covers academics, social skills, behavior, and motor skills. Here’s my recent writeup from this blog:
http://www.squidalicious.com/2009/08/aba-affordably-on-demand-rethink-autism.html
Since that post, people have asked me questions about accessibility with regards to costs, languages, offline populations, and general direction. I don’t have the answers myself, but the Rethink Autism team has agreed to answer such queries during a 9/21 Q&A on my blog. If you would like to submit a question, please send it to me by Thursday, 9/10.
I’m not aligned with or compensated by Rethink Autism except intermittent site access for evaluation purposes. I just think it’s a wonderful and much-needed resource for the ABA therapy-using segment of the autism community, and want to help them make it even better.
Filed under: ABA therapy, Rethink Autism, autim, autism blog, behavior, home program, review
If you’re at all familiar with ABA Therapy (Applied Behavioral Analysis), you know that you can use its anchor techniques of carefully planned positive feedback and reward/reinforcer systems to influence almost anyone’s behavior. And that’s what I wrote about at BlogHer this week (I hope people decide to use their newfound behavioral powers for non-nefarious purposes):
BlogHer: Using Behavioral Approaches in Autism (And on Anyone)
I also wrote about ABA therapy in general, why it can be so useful for helping children with autism learn, and — most importantly — a new way for autism families who want but normally wouldn’t have access to an ABA program to bring it to their child: an comprehensive online program called Rethink Autism. As I said on BlogHer:
Rethink Autism creates a customized ABA curriculum for your child, provides hundreds of concise but thorough video-based lessons supplemented by printed lesson plans to teach you how to teach your child, allows automated scheduling so that you can coordinate with with your ABA team as to who’s teaching your child what and when, and produces really straightforward data tracking and analysis. They even provide email curriculum support. This is a valuable and very well done resource, and I recommend it.
But here is something that I didn’t mention on BlogHer, and which I think new, overwhelmed autism families need to understand: You can use Rethink Autism’s many, many videos to learn how to interact with your child. If the integrated data tracking and scheduling is too overwhelming, then put it off until you’re ready.
Instead, browse the topics — which include motor skills and social skills as well as academics — watch the videos and print the lesson plans, and start practicing those techniques with your child. Learning to communicate and motivate children with autism aren’t skills that come naturally to many parents, and how-to manuals can only describe, not model. Video demonstrations, however — those show exactly what to do. And if you need clarification, Rethink Autism provides email support. Once you’re comfortable using the techniques, start incorporating the data tracking elements.
I’ve included some screenshots of the Rethink Autism interface below, so that you can see for yourself how well organized and planned the program is. I found it easy to use and the interface beautifully and gracefully designed. Click on the screenshots to enlarge them:
Individual lesson plan interface
Tracking data and team comments within a lesson plan
Video lesson interface: choosing steps
Video Lesson demonstration, including physical prompt
Regarding cost, as I wrote on BlogHer:
Rethink autism is also affordable. In fact the monthly Personal (as opposed to Organziational) subscription rate is less than one hour’s time with a veteran behavioral therapist. While this is an incredible value, if it’s still outside your family’s budget, there are organizations like ACT Today! that help autism families fund their children’s needs.
Rethink Autism provides excellent resources beyond its paid ABA therapy programming. It also provides free-of-charge resources for new autism families in its What Is Autism section, including a thoughtful Coping/Living With Autism area that reminds parents to appreciate and accept their child, themselves, and to act instead of reacting. There is also a Community section, in which Rethink Autism participants can ask questions of the staff and each other about issues and concerns.
Rethink Autism is a resource that the ABA therapy-using section of the autism community has needed for a long time: comprehensive, easy to use, and accessible by any individual with a computer, internet connection, and browser. I am grateful to the good folks at Rethink Autism for creating these tools, and I encourage those of you who reach out to or mentor families with new autism diagnoses to spread the word.
Disclosure: Rethink Autism granted me a few days of trial access, but I was otherwise not compensated in any way. What I have written above is my honest opinion, as it always has been and will continue to be in any reviews that I post in this space.
