Lanie and Leslie Kanat, from the Northern Vermont Fragile X Community Support Network, made a presentation (on 13 Aug 2015) about adapting the Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) approach to meet the needs of those who have Fragile X Syndrome. Fifty people from the Howard Center, who provide ABA services to individuals around Burlington VT, participated in this event.
Some of the slides in this presentation have an 'o' in the bottom left corner – this is a reminder to read the additional notes for those pages. Only a few slides have additional notes. If you wonder what we said about the other slides, other than reading the assertion statement on the top of each slide, then please contact us. If you choose to use this presentation in its entirety, then plan for a two-hour event (this includes discussion during the presentation).
Some of the slides have subtle animations that require you to wait. For example, Slide 15, on reducing hyperarousal is animated. Slowly read the assertion statement and wait for the graph to build. Talk about sensory breaks, mention that a sensory diet helps keep these kids from becoming over stimulated (the green line will show up), and then talk about what happens once they are over stimulated (the red line will show up). Note: in the PowerPoint presentation mode, one can easily jump to any slide by typing the slide number and then pressing enter.
We also provided numerous color handouts produced by the National Fragile X Foundation and compiled appropriate papers that we reproduced and presented in ten binders; the list of the papers we included in the binders can be found here. We gave a binder to each of the two individuals who work with our son, their supervisor, and the director of the Howard Center. The remaining binders were given to those providers who knew (or thought) they were working with others who have FXS. We also distributed a printed version of the presentation that was reproduced with six slides per page.
Much of the material in this presentation comes from the work of the National Fragile X Foundation, Marcia Braden, Karen Riley and Developmental FX – none of this would have been possible without the their efforts and guidance over the years. Jeff Cohen came up with the idea for the antiquated fuse box (Slide 8).
Let us know what you think...