Continuing to Learn

Parent Education for Real World Autism

The JumpStart Continuing to Learn programs are designed for children ages 3-8 who have been involved in 1 or more years of intensive, autism-specific, intervention. These interventions are designed to target specific areas of needed education and training to fill gaps in caregivers' knowledge and skills. The goal of Continuing to Learn programs is to help families cope with their child's autism in real-world settings and situations, when he is not in intervention. Continuing to Learn Programs are conducted with 1 family at a time. The focus of a Continuing to Learn Program is individualized based on each family's needs and interests.

We offer two levels of program

Level 1 Program

This program is an intensive intervention designed for parents who have had little targeted parent training or have several target questions. Families who participate in this program receive parent education which is similar in scope and depth to our Learning to Learn Program. Families participate in a level 1 Continuing to-Learn Program for a total of 22-42 hours depending on need.

Intake: The program begins with a 2 hour initial consultation where parents, JumpStart staff, and any other interested parties (other caregivers, school district or regional center personnel, etc) meet to understand 1) the child's current developmental profile, 2) the child's needs and 3) targets of the parent training program. Families are helped to narrow the focus of their program to no more than 3 targets for the program (see examples of program targets below).

Continuing to Learn Week: Following the intake, families (caregivers and child) meet with appropriate JumpStart staff (behavioral coach, social development coach, speech consultant, and/ or program director) for up to 6 hours per day over 3-5 days in a single week. During these sessions parents will be exposed to strategies from behavioral, play-based, speech, and educational philosophies. The curriculum includes the following educational components

• Direct Child Teaching: The direct child teaching portion of the program uses developmentally appropriate applied behavior analysis (ABA) techniques to teach new skills and address challenging behaviors. Techniques used include developmentally-based ABA, DTT, and PRT.

Play Sessions and Play Teaching: In play sessions parents learn the importance of building meaningful play and social experience into their child's daily activities. We use a variety of developmentally oriented play-based approaches in these sessions including Floor-time, RDI, and SCERTS.

Communication Development: Throughout the Jumpstart program there is an emphasis on incorporating communication goals in learning opportunities. Our communication program focuses on building foundational communication skills such as joint attention, referencing, spontaneity, and reciprocity. We teach families to recognize, respond to, and support their child's verbal and non-verbal (eye gaze, gesture) communication attempts. We also provide communication consultation from a speech therapist, when appropriate. These sessions draw from techniques used in Hannen and augmentative and assistive communication (AAC) approaches.

Teaching in Context: The best natural teaching opportunities for children with autism are in the context of daily routines and activities (e.g., eating a meal, choosing activities at the park, participating in a mommy and me class, taking a bath, going to the grocery store). Often these same activities can be a very challenging portion of the family's day.

During the JumpStart program parents learn to incorporate behavioral, play-based, and communication strategies in the context of natural family routines and activities. We begin by problem solving any behavioral issues that arise during these activities. Then families learn to incorporate learning, play, and social interaction opportunities into the activity very easily and naturally.

Follow-up: After the completion of the Continuing to Learn week, families are provided with up to 6 hours of educational consultation and 4 hours of follow up. The goal of these sessions is to help families bring lessons learned during the program back to their home and community.
Our educational consultation services are designed to help parents understand the therapeutic aspects of the child's current educational services, how to be an effective member of their child's IEP team, and how to extend what is being taught by therapists and teachers to naturally occurring events in the home. Additionally, when desired, we will offer recommendations regarding alternative educational strategies.

The follow-up session(s) are designed to help families trouble shoot issues at home and fine tune the strategies they are using with their child. These sessions take place 4-6 weeks following the Continuing to Learn week.

Examples of target goals for a Continuing to Learn Level 1 program include:

• Gaining a better understanding of your child's autism spectrum disorder, current development, and learning style
• Understanding how to extend learning at home during every day routines and activities
• Finding appropriate family and parent-child activities
• Choosing social and play activities in the community
• Finding appropriate methods and environments for inclusion
• Understanding how specific techniques from behavioral (ABA. DTT), play-based (Floor-time, RDI, SCERTS), speech (VIA, Hannen), and/or educational (TEACCH, Special day class, inclusion) perspectives meet your child's needs.
• Understanding how your child's current educational program or offered educational program will meet his or her needs.
• Supporting your child in challenging environments (e.g., grocery store, malls, parks, etc).
• Addressing a specific behavioral issue
• Helping your child learn to play appropriately with toys
• Encouraging joint attention
• Sibling issues

Level 2 Program

The level 2 Continuing to Learn program is a targeted intervention designed to help families address a single and highly specific issue in a brief and intensive format. Issues are addressed from a single perspective –behavioral (ABA, PRT, DTT) or play-based (Floor-time, SCERTS, RDI). Skills are taught in the context of broader best-practice techniques (e.g., why is a particular strategy chosen) so that families can generalize skills learned to other settings and issues as they arise. Level 2 programs involve a total of 10 hours of service.

Intake: This program begins with an initial consultation with the program director and coach (behavioral or social development) who will be working with the family. The goal of this consultation is for JumpStart staff to become familiar with the target issue or question for the Continuing to Learn Program. At the completion of the intake, JumpStart staff will determine if the target question can be appropriately addressed in a level 2 program format (see examples of target questions below). If the determination is made that the question is not appropriate for level 2, a recommendation for a level 1 program will be made.

Continuing to Learn Day: Following the intake, parents meet with a JumpStart coach for 1 day (up to 6 hours) to intensively address the target topic. Training will be conducted by either the senior behavioral or social development coach. Training will include direct instruction, modeling, and coaching in our clinic and, when appropriate, in the target environment.

Follow up: Families will receive a 2 hour follow-up consultation from their Continuing to Learn coach. The follow-up session is designed to help families fine tune the strategies they are using with their child. This session takes place 4-6 weeks following the Continuing to Learn day.

Examples of target goals for a Continuing to Learn Level 2 program include:

• How do I teach my child to behave in a challenging setting so that I can complete an errand (e.g., grocery store)
• My child runs away in open spaces, how do I teach him to stay close and come when I call
• My child plays repetitively with the same toy, how do I help him develop new play skills
• Teaching your child to independently complete self-help skills (e.g., brushing teeth, combing hair)
• Supporting your child in environments with typically developing children (e.g., park, classes, etc)