(PRWEB) July 09, 2012
The Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD), the worlds largest provider of state-of-the-art, early intensive behavioral intervention for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) announces Minnesota Autism Center (MAC) will begin using Skills, CARDs online autism solution, beginning August 1, 2012. MAC staff will receive four days of Skills training as early as July 1st. Approximately 250 children and youth affected by ASD will benefit from the behavioral health treatment program.
MAC currently services individuals ages 2 to 21 throughout the state of Minnesota through a variety of programs, says MACs Executive Director Kathyrn Marshall. Skills is aligned with our curriculum in that the program tailors to meet the individualized needs of each person. We are excited to begin using Skills and feel confident it will help us continue to provide effective care and support for those affected by autism spectrum disorder.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in every 88 children in the U.S. is diagnosed with an ASD, making it more prevalent than juvenile diabetes, pediatric cancer and childhood AIDS combined. CARD develops and utilizes technology to increase access to training for professionals who work with individuals who have been diagnosed with ASD.
We are honored to have the Minnesota Autism Center choose Skills as their online autism solution, says Skills co-creator Adel Najdowski, PhD, BCBA-D. “Unlike other curriculum design tools for the treatment of autism, Skills has an assessment with a corresponding curriculum that addresses every skill a child learns in typical development from infancy to adolescence across every area of human development. Skills offers the first and only ABA-based comprehensive social skills, social cognition, and executive functions curricula available. Its also one of the only online programs available that provides the ability to write behavior intervention plans for challenging behavior. When creating Skills, we really tried to make it as comprehensive and self-explanatory as possible with the goal of achieving positive results with every child.
MAC has a staff of highly trained professionals who provide applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy on an individualized basis with the goal of reducing and eliminating the signs and symptoms of ASD in children and youth, and help reduce future supplementary support.
Skills is designed to give the educators of children with ASD access to the most comprehensive assessment of a childs development available. The results of the assessment are linked directly to a set of eight curricula that provide individualized lesson plans with step-by-step instructions for teaching children with ASD the skills they need. Skills is based on empirically supported treatment. And while the system will automate a program for users, it allows users the flexibility to tailor the program to the childs unique needs. Each of nearly 4,000 lesson activities also includes IEP goals, worksheets, visual aids, tracking forms, and lesson videos.
Teachers, parents and practitioners can also use Skills as an effective management tool. The online program can evaluate treatment progress one child at a time. Skills provides charts and graphs that track treatment progress and the impact of various events (including other treatments and life events) on the childs progress. Plus, by allowing the user to look at progress across a number of children, the user can evaluate treatment integrity down to the individual teacher.
Skills features:
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