Tag Archive for: autism education.

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New Autism Social Learning Software Takes Top SIIA Ed Tech Summit Award

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]San Diego, CA (PRWEB) May 23, 2012—Brighten Learning, creator of social learning software for children with autism, was voted the Most Likely to Succeed at The Software & Information Industry Ed Tech Summit on May 9, 2012.  The company’s first autism education software program, The Social Express, took home the coveted SIIA Ed Tech Summit Innovation Incubator award. The 350 conference attendees also voted the company a Runner Up in the Most Innovative category.

“We’re honored to receive these awards from the SIIA Ed Tech Summit,” said Marc Zimmerman, Founder and CEO. “We value this recognition and the feedback from parents about how The Social Express has helped their children.” Zimmerman continued, “Moms have told us they credit The Social Express with helping their kids with autism to begin forming friendships with other children. That really makes it all worthwhile!”

Parents and teachers of autistic children have given The Social Express, a 16-lesson interactive video modeling program, high marks for focusing on the right social skills. They also value the high-quality, Hollywood-style animation that holds children’s attention without over stimulation and the scenes that reinforce the best choices for kids to make in social situations.

Children find the characters appearing in The Social Express really engaging and many kids ask to work with The Social Express everyday. Users of the program say that it increases social awareness and learning in students with autism and promotes both social interaction and play.

When Zimmerman’s 10-year-old identical twin autistic boys joined mainstream classes, he realized that social learning was going to be key to their ability to interact well with classmates. That was the catalyst for Zimmerman to recruit the expert team that developed The Social Express. The company was bootstrapped from its founding through development and rollout of the first product. The company recently received its first seed funding which will be used to develop additional social learning software products.

About Brighten Learning, Inc.

Brighten Learning, founded by parents of autistic twins in 2008, is a privately held company based in Encinitas, California.  The company develops The Social Express™ and other interactive social learning software. The company’s mission is to help children with ADHD, Autism and Asperger’s to improve their lives by teaching social skills using video modeling. Visit the company at http://thesocialexpress.com/

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How To Navigate The Public School for Your Autistic Child’s Education Part 2

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]As we shared in our last post we learned a ton as we started our autistic twins education inside the public school district.

Having taken a ‘deer in the headlights’ approach to our first IEP (Individual Education Program) meeting, it was more of a survival technique than a strategy. The twins were just two, and we had no advanced knowledge of what an IEP was prior to being immersed in one. Here are some thoughts we learned along the way that we wanted to share with you on your journey to educate your child with autism in the public school system.

Workshops.  Our Regional Center provides meetings twice a year for parents to learn about the special education process.  This includes explaining what an IEP is, tips for preparing for the meeting, and your rights.

Standards. Your school can provide you with a pamphlet each year that outlines the standards for all subjects for your child’s grade.  This will help you see where they are headed and where your child will need a goal.

IEP. IEP’s are prepared by the school team to assess the child’s current status and prepare for the future year.  They are held annually.  Every three years they include an expanded assessment prepared by the school psychologist, and additional questionnaires prepared by the parents.

Meetings generally begin with a review of the goals from the prior IEP. The new IEP starts with an overview of Present Levels, a review of the new Goals, then Accommodations, Modifications and Services that will be provided. You are welcome to invite other team members you are working with outside of school if you have any.

Present Levels. It can be difficult for you to read about your child’s behavior, or level of functioning, seeing it on paper, while other people are around you, even though you live with it. It’s difficult. You may feel defensive or taken back, or in denial. A lot of emotion can come up.

Maybe being around them at home you get used to their behavior. Maybe you don’t see it because life forces you to ’just keep swimming’. Maybe they’re getting away with behaviors at school that they don’t even try at home or  maybe the school is exaggerating.

This is a piece of the having a child with autism in the public school system puzzle you will have to get used to on your own.  Just be aware that this could be upsetting and that everyone is there to help.  Keep in mind that you can’t get to the solutions until you examine the problem.

Goals.  Our approach has been to ask each team member in advance of the meeting for a copy of the new goal.  There’s a lot of information to go over in an IEP meeting (especially when you have 2 kids on the autism spectrum).

Having a little of that information in advance has been very helpful to us. When goals are presented to us at the meeting for the first time we often don’t have feedback, because we are just trying to take it all in.  When we have a chance to review them in advance we feel empowered to roll up our sleeves and be a part of the team.

Accommodations, Modifications and Services. The latter part of the IEP will specify what is needed in terms of personnel and provisions to accomplish the goals. Staff may assist your child in the classroom, or in small groups, or even one-to-one.

Standardized testing may be taken in a smaller setting and with more time.  Even seating in the classroom may be discussed.  Does your child do better being closer to the teacher, or closer to the board, or in the back of the classroom where no noise is behind them?

Anything that can advance the education of your child is welcome for discussion.  Please let us know if you have questions in the comments section below.  We’d also love to hear things that worked for you as you worked with the public school system for your autistic child’s education. Good Luck.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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How to Navigate the Public School System for Your Autistic Child’s Education

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]One of the things we learned early on the road traveled with our twins with autism is that the public school system provides education services to children beginning at age three if they are behind.  We weren’t prepared for the storm of activity that circles the tipping point of the Third Birthday, launching their voyage of receiving an education with autism.

The boys had already received a diagnosis of PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder- Not Otherwise Specificed) when they were two.  This led to many assessments, floor time, ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) therapy, speech, occupational and physical therapy, and social work services through the Regional Center.

We were barely on stable ground when we were told that everything we had done, and were doing, would change when the children turn three. Here is a list of the appointments we had around their third birthday prior to starting their education.

  1. Annual physical. Routine ‘it’s your birthday’ check-up.
  2. Regional Center Psychologist. PDD-NOS opens all doors when you are two, but you have to determine if your child has an autism diagnosis by age three, or doors will close.
  3. Social Worker.  Their case load changes for 3 year old’s, so you will meet with a new Social Worker to set goals. If they receive any services at this point, expect the providers to change as well.
  4. The school. Your child will have meetings with the special education teacher, speech and occupational therapist and physical education teacher, and you will schedule your first IEP (Individualized Education Program), the road map of education for children with autism.

All of this had to be scheduled between all of the therapy they were currently receiving, and, being just two, they were still in need of a nap every day.  And, of course having twins, this was all times TWO!  Did I mention finding time to figure out how to celebrate that birthday?  Oh ya, fit that in too.

So, back to school.  The child will need to have the above mentioned meetings so their new team, at their new preschool, will be able to prepare goals for their IEP. You will receive a stack of forms to fill out prior to the meeting asking you to compare your child to a typical child- whatever that is, thus providing your own input.

Having been whipped around so much in recent months caring for two toddlers with autism our first IEP meetings were a surge of information batted at us. We just sat there and tried to take it all in.  The comforting news was they were planning out a whole year.

No more bouncing around, introducing new people, constantly changing schedules.  School is a great set-up. They would now have a place to go, without us, with people we could trust, who had a plan and were ready to execute it. Happy birthday!

In our next post, we’ll share more behind the scenes about how we navigated the school district for our autistic children’s education.  We hope you find some helpful ideas for your own child with autism’s  education journey.  We’re happy to answer your questions.  Just enter them in the comments section below.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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