http://www.autismvotes.org/site/c.frKNI3PCImE/b.3909861/k.B9DF/State_Initiatives.htm

Even if your state has laws in place to mandate insurance coverage for children with autism the process of getting services covered can be involved.

Below are some suggestions for simplifying the process:

1) Find a primary care physician who is supportive and understands the benefits of behavioral interventions for your child.

2) Contact your insurance company to find providers in your area, develop an understanding of the provider approval process.

3) Be persistent! Many insurance companies are just beginning to identify providers for these services.  Find people within your insurance company who can answer your questions related to obtaining coverage. If necessary, identify billing codes to share with your insurance company related to your requested behavioral services to assist in quickly communicating your families needs.

Check out this link as an additional resource to assist in the process of obtaining insurance coverage for your child:

http://www.insurancehelpforautism.com/index.html

“Instruction, defined functionally, produces behavior changes” (p. 43)

 Barrett, Beatrice H. (2002) The Technology of Teaching Revisited: A Reader’s Companion to B.F. Skinner’s Book. Concord, MA. Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies.            http://www.behavior.org/

If the instructor’s actions did not change student behavior, was instruction effective? 

Tip: If you are not effectively changing behavior within 3 days of instruction, try changing your method again and again.

“Each student brings to the classroom a unique genetic

endowment and a unique lifetime conditioning history as

well as an individualized set of current social and cultural

contingencies within that student’s family, community,

and peer group.” (p. 47)

Barrett, Beatrice H. (2002) The Technology of Teaching Revisited: A Reader’s Companion to B.F. Skinner’s Book. Concord, MA. Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies.            http://www.behavior.org/

What makes up a student’s behavior…

• Genetics
• Family traditions
• Cultural Traditions
• Community Rules
• Peer Rules
• Life Experiences

“Since an initial lesson description is a product of teacher behavior,

it is the teacher’s responsibility to discover and to alter whatever part

of the lesson plan is not functioning. It is not sufficient to explain

 the lack of success in terms of a deficiency on the part of the student.” (51)

Barrett, Beatrice H. (2002) The Technology of Teaching Revisited: A Reader’s Companion to B.F. Skinner’s Book. Concord, MA. Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies.            http://www.behavior.org/

• How we decide to teach someone comes from the creation of a human. 
• Formats for passing down education have been passed down to us from educators, family, and jobs. However, our society tends to blame students for not understanding what others are trying to convey and thus, the problem lies within them.
• B.F. Skinner believed that it was the educator’s job to teach the material in any format needed to get his student to understand thus, putting the effort of change onto the instructor.
• Sometimes we must take a closer look at our own behavior to understand why someone else acts as they do.

Consistency

Make sure that the message you are sending to your child is usually the same. EX- “No means no.”

Motivation

Will your child enjoy doing what you are asking of them? If not build in motivation. EX-Your child can do math but doesn’t really like to. Add in short 2 minute fun time breaks.

Expectations

Does your child know what is expected of them? Show them, tell them, and model what you want to happen. Communicate how long the task lasts, what they will be doing, and what can they get in return? EX-use visual schedules, token boards, and preferred items while modeling the behavior you want to see.

Skill Level

Check to see if your child has all the necessary pre skills to accomplish the goal. EX- Your child likes math but is having trouble completing problems. How fast can they say the numbers, add them, or count in a chain? Are the pre skills fluent or do they take a long time to accomplish?

Knowing this will help you achieve the outcome you are looking for.

1) Develop rules, examples, and a lot of practice on how to initiate conversations with others. Teach your child to understand the intent of the conversation to assist in developing strategies to initiate the conversation. For example, when the intent is to build a relationship with the person we might consider learning more about the person or talking about things the person themself is interested in. When initiating a conversation in this type of a scenario we would teach a child to develop initiation statements based of interests of the conversation partner, or initiating based-off of asking questions to learn more about the conversation partner.

2) Additionally, consider directly teaching your child strategies to maintain and join conversations. Developing your child’s ability to ask questions and make statements within conversations.

3) If your child has perseverative topics of conversation consider developing his/her ability to monitor engagement in perseverative topics and discriminating when it is “ok” to engage in perseverative topics, and when it is not. Additionally, work on developing other topics of conversations that may be of interest to peers.

4) Developing your child’s ability to ask questions to engage and expand conversations may also be a critical skill when developing his/her social language skills.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders can thrive under learning conditions that provide structure to developing abstract learning concepts.

1) Consider developing a systematic communication system in your home. Work with a knowledgeable speech pathologist to identify appropriate communication objectives and interventions for your child. Work with your speech pathologist on developing a home environment that stimulates and promotes language development in your child. For children who do have language continue working with your speech and language therapists to develop descriptive, and eventually conversational language in your child.
2) Develop a behavior management system for your home. Having a disability is not an excuse for “bad” behavior. Effective behavior management systems are important teaching tools that can be used to assist not only in decreasing problematic behaviors, but also teaching appropriate replacement behaviors.
3) Identify and support your child’s sensory needs. Begin gathering information on sensory integration disorders and understanding your child’s individual sensory needs. Provide appropriate sensory supports throughout your child’s day to assist in regulating your child’s sensory needs. “The Out of Sync Child” can be a useful tool for parents just learning about sensory processing disorders.

4) Remember your needs! Our kids need us to be happy, healthy, moms and dads. Take time to take care of you and your relationships. Develop support systems and relationships, healthy eating, sleeping patterns.

This is the introduction video to Skill Sprout