I know the month is already half over, and I’ll lay down a tentative promise to be more on the ball for the following months, but I want to list out some events taking place in the St. Louis area over the next few weeks that would be beneficial for anybody with autism or another developmental disability as well as their friends and family.

• Guys and Girls Night

  Tuesday, 2/14
  5-7pm
  Behavior Intervention Services
  10176 Corporate Square Dr. #220
  Creve Coeur, MO 63132
  behaviorinterventionservices.com/events
  314-395-9375

• Fostering Self Determination and Independence in Teens/Young Adults

  Thursday, 2/16
  6:30-8:30pm
  St. Louis Arc Family Center
  1177 N. Warson Rd.
  St. Louis, MO 63132
  www.slarc.org
  314-817-2275

• Glee Club

  Thursday, 2/16
  12:30-1:30pm
  Behavior Intervention Services
  10176 Corporate Square Dr. #220
  Creve Coeur, MO 63132
  behaviorinterventionservices.com/events
  314-395-9375

• Guys and Girls Night

  Tuesday, 2/21
  5-7pm
  Behavior Intervention Services
  10176 Corporate Square Dr. #220
  Creve Coeur, MO 63132
  behaviorinterventionservices.com/events
  314-395-9375

• Monthly ASD Support Group

  Wednesday, 2/22
  7-8:30pm
  Gateway Center for the Arts
  204 Elm St.
  Washington, MO
  Contact Kim: 636-239-8939

• Steps to Success: Parental Rights

  Wednesday, 2/22
  7-8:30pm
  Parkway Early Childhood Center
  14605 Clayton Rd.
  Ballwin, MO 63011

• Transition Planning & the IEP: Through the Doorway to Adult Life

  Wednesday, 2/22
  9-11am
  St. Louis Special School District
  12110 Clayton Rd.
  St. Louis, MO 63131
  www.solutionwhere.com/ssd
  314-989-7807

• What to Do This Summer Recreation Fair

  Thursday, 2/23
  7-8:30pm
  St. Louis Special School District
  12110 Clayton Rd.
  St. Louis, MO 63131
  www.solutionwhere.com/ssd
  314-989-7807

• Glee Club

  Thursday, 2/23
  12:30-1:30pm
  Behavior Intervention Services
  10176 Corporate Square Dr. #220
  Creve Coeur, MO 63132
  behaviorinterventionservices.com/events
  314-395-9375

• Relationships & Sexuality

  Thursday, 2/23
  6:30-8:30pm
  St. Louis Arc Family Center
  1177 N. Warson Rd.
  St. Louis, MO 63132
  www.slarc.org
  314-817-2275

• Teen Meet Up Group

  Friday, 2/24
  6:00pm
  Masonry Institute
  1429 S. Big Bend Blvd.
  St. Louis, MO 63117
  www.slarc.org
  314-817-2211
  $10 for participants and $5 for family members.
  Pizza served

• Working Effectively with DMH – St. Louis Regional Office to Access Resources and Services

  Saturday, 2/25
  10am-3pm
  St. Louis Arc Family Center
  1177 N. Warson Rd.
  St. Louis, MO 63132
  www.slarc.org
  314-817-2275

• Understanding the IEP Process

  Monday, 2/27
  6-9pm
  St. Louis Special School District
  12110 Clayton Rd.
  St. Louis, MO 63131
  www.solutionwhere.com/ssd
  314-989-7807

• Guys and Girls Night

  Tuesday, 2/28
  5-7pm
  Behavior Intervention Services
  10176 Corporate Square Dr. #220
  Creve Coeur, MO 63132
  behaviorinterventionservices.com/events
  314-395-9375

• Glee Club

  Thursday, 3/1
  12:30-1:30pm
  Behavior Intervention Services
  10176 Corporate Square Dr. #220
  Creve Coeur, MO 63132
  behaviorinterventionservices.com/events
  314-395-9375

• Autism & Employment Conference for Professionals

  3/6 – 3/7
  Sheraton Westport Hotal Lakeside Chalet
  191 Westport Plaza
  St. Louis, MO 63146
  800-296-5954
  joy@classicevents.net

I’ve been catching up on my reading of the Missouri Autism Report and was surprised to see in the January issue that corresponded nicely with a blog post we put up a few weeks ago about iPads and the Aeir Talk app.

The article titled, “Ipad Gift Unlocks Voice of Local Missouri Child” tells the story of Gabrielle Williams and how an iPad has changed her ability to express herself and the profound effect that has on had her life.

Gabrielle was diagnosed with autism at four and has remained nonverbal since then. Her parents tried sign language and PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System), as well as some other options but none of them seemed to work for Gabrielle.

Eventually a family member saw a TV special that outlined some of the benefits an iPad could have on the life of a person with autism and decided to buy one for Gabrielle. We spoke last time about the Aeir Talk app but Gabrielle has been using the Proloquo2Go app and it seems to be working wonders for her as she is finally able to express herself. “The frustration level has decreased since the Ipad. She can now participate in her classroom, make many of her own choices and communicate with her parents and teachers.”

Clearly the use development of apps for iPad, iPhone and Android devices to help ease communication problems for people with autism is becoming more commonplace. Hopefully, over time we’ll see such a prevalence of these types of devices that everyone who needs one can have one to help them communicate.

In the meantime, here’s some resources for obtaining an iPad or other assisted technology (AT):

• Prerequisites for obtaining AT through school system, insurance or other funding source.
• Missouri Assistive Technology has a few programs that might be able to provide funding or partner with your child’s school or other organization to “loan” equipment.
• Apps for Children with Special Needs is an organization dedicated to providing iPads to schools and families in need of them.
• There are many assisted living centers across the state that has AT rooms where users can try out various equipment.

Please take a look at the Missouri Autism Report website and if you have any information about iPad apps that have been effective please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below.

**Credit for quotes and the image in this blog post go to the Missouri Autism Report.

I wrote a few months ago about the Special Needs Soccer Organization (SPENSA). They had just finished up their fall season and were still in the process of putting together the schedule for the Spring ’12.

Well that schedule has been finalized and here it is:

I think that this would be a great opportunity for a lot of the BIS clients and I’m in the process of mobilizing staff and parents to ensure clients are involved.

SPENSA is always looking for more volunteers and if you’re interested they ask that you show up at 8:30 to help set up and greet the players. Volunteers are then assigned a player to work with hour long session. If you don’t have soccer experience that’s OK because there will be coaches on the field to give directions and provide assistance as needed.

I’ll be out there as often as I can and I hope to see a big turnout.

Please contact Shirley McBroom if you have any questions.

Southview is a school in the St. Louis Special School District educating students from 5-21 years old and this past Friday the Southview PTO held their (I think) second annual Trivia Night.

At BIS we have more than a few clients that attend Southview and so we organized a table to partake in the fundraising.

Our table struggled the first few rounds of the night and were in 21st or 22nd place after the first two rounds but there really wasn’t that many points separating us from the front runners. Over the next few rounds we worked our way up to 14th and when we made it up to 9th (and only 7 or 8 points out of first) we thought we might have a chance to comeback and win it in the final three or four rounds.

Farfalle Pasta, Not Bowtie

All in all it was a great night that included a David Bowie and Lost reference, which immediately made it a successful night in my book. It looked like everyone, not just our table, had enjoyed themselves thoroughly and I just want to thank Jane Chickey for organizing the even and working so had to make the night what it was.

We’ll be back for their next Trivia Night and we hope you’ll consider getting in on the action; it was a lot of fun. Stay tuned to the BIS Blog and we’ll let you know about the next Trivia Night as well as other local events supporting the St. Louis developmental disabilities community.

One of the hardest parts about working with clients with developmental disabilities is the communication barriers. It can be incredibly difficult to communicate with clients, even more so if they’re non-verbal.

For instance, I work with a client that is non-verbal and only knows a limited amount of sign language. He’s a bright kid and most of the time he knows what he wants to be spending his time doing. Granted he can’t always be doing that particular activity, but more often than not we’re struggling to figure out what he wants at all.

He will point and moan and become increasingly agitated because we don’t understand his needs. He has a communication book full of regularly used items or activities that he sometimes uses to communicate but it’s big and clunky and difficult to carry around and have on hand at all times.

A lot of care providers and therapists/analysts are finding that iPads and other mobile devices might be the answer to this problem of communication. New apps are constantly being developed to help educate or ease communication between kids and parents/care providers.

One such app that’s been garnering a lot of attention recently is Aeir Talk. Joseph Hill was a financial planner with two kids on the autism spectrum and after seeing some of the expensive tools speech pathologists were using to help encourage communication decided that he could build something better and cheaper. It took him months and there were unforeseen problems and delays but Joe kept hustling and the Aeir Talk app was finally released late December 2011.

There are a lot of apps out there that help simplify communication like Aeir Talk, and I don’t mean to take anything away from any of them, but Aeir Talk is so simple and easy to use that it stands out in the crowd.

Unfortunately Aeir Talk is currently only available on iPad, but I spoke with them on twitter a few days ago and they said they already have plans to release iPhone and Android apps in the future. This is great, especially if they can maintain the simplicity of the iPad app for phone version which will be on smaller screens.

Aeir Talk is only $20 and can be purchased at the iTunes store. Visit the Aeir Talk main website, blog or check them out on Twitter and/or Facebook.

Who’s using Aeir Talk and what do you think of the app? What other education and communication apps do you like for iPad, iPhone, or Android devices?

 Let’s recap our year…..

 In January 2011 legislation was put into place that mandated state insurance plans to cover Applied Behavior Analysis services for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, allowing some children to receive in home services that have been on wait lists for years! This bill has truly changed lives. BIS worked diligently to obtain contracts with many insurance companies, not an easy task! However, we are now able to see clients who are insured by Anthem, United Healthcare, MH Net, Aetna, and Tricare…just to name a few.

 BIS also expanded the services that we offer in 2011, adding in Rebecca Swendig as our social worker and Anne Kraus as our counselor. Anne and Beck have been instrumental in creating a variety of social opportunities for indivduals of all ages with developmental disabilites, including camps, art club, and SHAPE! We have also had great success with our Fun with Fitness club and our Girls and Guys night with Meghan Halbrook, and finally, after years, we now provide speech and language services! Adding in these services has been critical in offering well rounded programming and supports to our consumers.

 Seaking of continued growth…our residential program has more than doubled in the past year! We began 2011 with 5 homes and are entering 2012 with 9 homes and 3 in development! The ISL team has been hard at work this year with Darla Holloran and Sarah Brook leading the way! We look forward to continued growth in 2012.

 The past year we have also seen enormous growth in the field of Behavior Analysis, with state licensure requirements put into place for Board Certified Behavior Analysts and St. Louis University creating the first masters program in behavior analysis in the St. Louis area! BIS has been actively involved in the St. Louis University program providing field instruction to many graduate students.

 Just last month BIS moved to our new location in Creve Coeur.  We could have never predicted 3 years ago when we moved into our space on Arsenal that we would outgrow it and need to move again, but that is exactly what happened!  Everyone is finally getting settled into our new “digs” and we are looking twoard this next year to

 Brittany Thorn was announced employee of the year for 2011, nominated by all of her fellow employees.  For those of you who may not know Brittany, she is our staffing coordinator for our residential program and Darla’s right hand.  For those of us who do know Brittany, I think we can all agree that there isn’t a more deserving person.  Brittany is amazing!

 There is so much to be thankful for in 2011!  Words cannot even begin to express my gratitude to the dedicated employees that have made BIS such a success and those families that have entrusted your loved ones in our care.  BIS would not be what it is today without each and every one of you.  As we ring in the new year, I am so excited to see what 2012 will bring!  Happy New Year!

 Kimberly Salls, BCBA, LBA
Behavior Intervention Services, LLC

With Christmas right around the corner Behavior Intervention Services is getting geared up for it’s annual Client Holiday Party. Our last client party was back in late October when everyone got dressed up for Halloween, but a lot has changed since then. First and foremost, we’ve moved!! Instead of that cramped office on Arsenal we’re enjoying the luxurious spaciousness of Olivette/Creve Coeur. More office space means more party space!

More party space means a better party. Now I wasn’t at BIS for the last holiday party but if my co-workers are to be trusted (and I think they are), then last years shindig was quite the extravaganza. If we’re going to improve on that we’ll need all of our clients and their families to come out and enjoy some quality holiday treats, loud music and a good time.

Details are as such:
Client Holiday Christmas Party
Thursday Dec. 22nd.
3:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Behavior Intervention Services
10176 Corporate Square Drive
Creve Coeur, MO 63132

In the spirit of the holidays the office staff at BIS have been spending their few free moments trying to give their space a more festive look. Check out some of the pictures below.

We presented some very generic information about autism a few weeks ago. We talked about the nature of the disorder as well as what causes autism and how common it is. I want to talk today about some of the symptoms of autism, and how a parent or education professional might recognize that a full diagnosis is necessary. A lot of this information is going to come from the National Library of Medicine’s page on autism, but we’ll try to break it down a bit and make it easier to understand. Please don’t hesitate to leave comments below if you have further questions or topics you’d like to see covered.

Testing for Autism

The first thing to note about the symptoms of autism is that there isn’t a single item to look for a particular test a parent can perform to diagnose for autism because there is no biological test. As we talked about previously, we don’t know the exact causes of autism yet, so we can’t simply test whether it is present or not. Because of this it is recommended that a health care professional make the diagnosis.

With all of that said, there are signs that a parent or educational professional can look for if they suspect a professional autism diagnosis is necessary. Here we go:

Symptoms of Autism

Typically a child will start to show signs of autism by the time they’re two years old. Some signs present themselves earlier than that but aren’t necessarily the best indicators because of the child’s age and development. For instance, a child that has difficulties with the following activities might be showing early signs of autism.

• Babbling by 12 months
• Gesturing (pointing, waving bye-bye) by 12 months
• Saying single words by 16 months
• Saying two-word spontaneous phrases by 24 months (not just echoing)
• Losing any language or social skills at any age

That last one, losing language or social skills, is a sign of a regressive form of autism and should definitely be watched out for.

Generally, children with autism have difficulty with the following activities:

• Pretend play
• Social interactions
• Verbal and nonverbal communication

These are very generally defined and we’ll go into more specifics in a second but imagine trying to diagnose a disease or disorder based on this criteria. Extremely difficult to say the least, even more so when attempting to diagnose a child between 12 and 30 months old.

More Specific Indicators of Autism

People with autism sometimes have overly sensitive senses. That might mean certain stimuli is either overly interesting or aggravating. For instance, some people with autism find certain fabrics to be very itchy and will pull their clothes off or refuse to put them on because of this. I used to work with a kid who loved the feeling of rubber bands. He would constantly carry them around and twirl them between his fingers and sometime got upset when they were taken away from him. Sometimes this presents itself as a very specific movement repeated over and over again. Sometimes it can help explain an unusual attachment to various objects. Another symptom is a strong reliance on routine or a feeling of distress when routines are changed. Any of these symptoms can range from moderate to severe which makes diagnosing even more complicated.

Here’s a list of symptoms that can be observed in specific areas of a child’s development:

Communication Symptoms

• Cannot start or maintain a social conversation
• Communicates with gestures instead of words
• Develops language slowly or not at all
• Does not adjust gaze to look at objects that others are looking at
• Does not refer to self correctly (for example, says “you want water” when the child means “I want water”)
• Does not point to direct others’ attention to objects (occurs in the first 14 months of life)
• Repeats words or memorized passages, such as commercials
• Uses nonsense rhyming

Social Interaction Symptoms

• Does not make friends
• Does not play interactive games
• Is withdrawn
• May not respond to eye contact or smiles, or may avoid eye contact
• May treat others as if they are objects
• Prefers to spend time alone, rather than with others
• Shows a lack of empathy

Response to Sensory Symptoms

• Does not startle at loud noises
• Has heightened or low senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, or taste
• May find normal noises painful and hold hands over ears
• May withdraw from physical contact because it is overstimulating or overwhelming
• Rubs surfaces, mouths or licks objects
• Seems to have a heightened or low response to pain

Play Symptoms

• Doesn’t imitate the actions of others
• Prefers solitary or ritualistic play
• Shows little pretend or imaginative play

Behavioral Symptoms

• “Acts up” with intense tantrums
• Gets stuck on a single topic or task (perseveration)
• Has a short attention span
• Has very narrow interests
• Is overactive or very passive
• Shows aggression to others or self
• Shows a strong need for sameness
• Uses repetitive body movements

As I said earlier, based on these criteria diagnosis someone as having autism can be difficult, which is why we recommend that a qualified medical professional be the one making an autism diagnosis. If you suspect your child might have autism (mild or severe) it’s important to schedule an appointment with a physician so they can make an informed diagnosis.

If you are an education professional and suspect that one of your pupils may have autism you’ll want to have a conversation with the child’s parents before moving forward. This can be an extremely difficult conversation to have and certainly one to be handled gently and with a substantial amount of sensitivity. That’s an entirely different conversation, though, and we’ll come back and cover that some other time.

Leave a comment below if you have any questions about the symptoms of autism, or if you think I left anything out.

As noted in the November issue of the BUZZ, the BIS Speaker Series is coming back and this week we’ll have Jason Eden in the new office to talk about maintaining family relationships after an autism diagnosis.

Jason and his wife have two children – a daughter and a son. When their son was two years old, he was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Jason’s family’s story is nothing short of miraculous, but Jason and his wife believe that nearly every parent can have the same kind of experience if they arm themselves with the right information and approach the remediation journey with ferocity and strategic thinking. Please join us to hear Jason speak on maintaining those important family relationships.

Jason will be speaking this coming Tuesday, Nov. 22nd at 6:30pm. The event will take place at the new BIS office at 10176 Corporate Square Dr. #220, St. Louis, MO 63132.

If you’d like to attend please RSVP to Anne Kraus by calling her at 314-395-9375 or by email. The RSVP is to help us get an idea of how many people will show up. If you forget to RSVP we’d still love to see you there.

At Behavior Intervention Services we work primarily to provide services to children and adults with autism. With that in mind I thought it would be useful to talk about the disorder and some of the misconceptions that surround it.

What is Autism

Autism is a spectrum used to describe the severity of a complex group of development brain disorders. Asperger, Rett and Childhood Disintegrative are all disorders that can be folded under the autism umbrella. Autism typically develops within the first 3 years of life and can affect the development of both communication and social skills.

What causes Autism

It is still unclear what exactly causes autism but it is a very active subject of research. There are likely a number of factors that contribute to autism. Genetic factors seem to be an important factor but we still don’t know if they act on their own or in conjunction with environmental factors to cause autism.

There are a number of environmental issues that are suspected to be factors but are not yet proven. For instance:

• Mercury poisoning
• Digestive tract changes
• Diet
• The body’s inability to properly use vitamins and minerals
• Vaccine sensitivity

What DOESN’T cause Autism

For many years bad parenting was believed to be the leading cause of autism and that simply isn’t true. A prominent psychiatrist in the 1940′s developed this theory that autism was the result of cold, unloving mothers and it was perpetuated by a professor of child development.

In the 1960′s and 70′s this myth was dispelled by Dr. Bernard Rimland who helped the medical community understand that autism was a biological disorder and not caused by bad parenting/unloving parents. Unfortunately the bad parenting myth is still prevalent resulting in generations of parents dealing with the guilt of thinking they caused their children’s disability.

How Common is Autism

1.5 million Americans have been diagnosed with autism. Currently the diagnosis rate of autism, at 1 in every 110 children, is higher than that of juvenile diabetes, childhood cancer and pediatric AIDS combined. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently released a report that suggests that the diagnosis rate of autism is increasing, but it is unclear whether this is the result of a higher prevalence of the disability or better diagnosing.

It is known that autism is more common in males than in females and not by a small amount. Males are 3-4 times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than females. In the United States that might mean as many as one in 70 boys are diagnosed with autism.

Next week we’ll post some more basic info about autism and discuss the symptoms of the disorder as well as possible treatment options.

*Some of the information for this article was taken from the Autism Speaks and National Library of Medicine websites.