The video was refreshing because I had some encounter with most of the main points Dr. Ozonoff discussed. It is important to have early screening at 18, 24 and 36 months. According to Dr.Ozonoff something may not show in the first screening and hopefully it will during level 2. These are some of the red flags the assessor should be aware of : child does not respond to name, act as if deaf, does not smile at others, does not point or use other gestures by 12 months, no babbling by 12 months or no words by 16months, talk but does not try to communicate, loss or social or communication skill. Anyone who is familiar with ASD will definitely thinks the child is on the spectrum. If a child fail at least 2 of the screening it is likely he/she has autism. I was surprised that Dr. Ozonoff had difficulty distinguished if a child is high function autism or Asperger unless she reads their charts. they have many things in common and only a few differences.
It is crucial to involve everyone who has encounter with the child daily in the assessment process. Parents are very important because they spend the most time with the child and there are time the kid will display a behavior at home but never at school. Also the teacher, OT, PT, nurse, bus monitor, para professional, lunch aid, recess aid, classmates, sibling etc. Dr. Ozonoff mentioned the assessor should have direct interaction with the child before writing a report. I find it funny that someone will write a report solely on secondary information. I understand getting the information from the team is important but one should not write a report without observation.
I think creating an FBA is important when dealing with the unknown. it is a great place to start, once the FBA is in place hopefully it will give the team a better understand if the plan is working or need to make some adjustment. I think many specialist make that mistake without being aware of it. When working with a child on the spectrum we tend to write note while the kid is waiting on us. sometimes we forget to take out a toy to keep the child engage so he or she does not get bored and wonder around. If the child is working on waiting that will be a good time to practice. Dr. Ozonoff mentioned establishing sitting, use reinforcement, use visual schedule as needed and establishing give and take, begin with the easiest item and always alternate from easy to hard items and avoid making pattern. It is common sense to get a child to attend before presenting any material otherwise the score will not show the child real ability. Clearing out the room is extremely important if you don't want the child to be distracted while being assess. Sometimes I feel like the assessor does not know if they should correct certain thing while the child is in the middle of a test and he or she does not want to make a mistake. Dr. Ozonoff believes the session should end on a good note before exhaustion occurs. I agree because you want to child to end the session on a positive note by answering the last question correctly and cashing in. I always start out my session with an easy program or something the child has mastered because it will built up his or her confident.
We used to have a team meeting at my previous job every 3 months with the entire team. If someone was not able to attend the meeting due to conflict of schedule the person will send in a report. During the meeting the parents will have an opportunity to voice their opinion and concern. and let the team know if they would like to work on particular skill at home. Each team member will have the opportunity to go over the child progress and what concern they may still have. I found these meeting helpful because I got to hear from the team. We are extremely busy so it is great to have the opportunity to bounce ideas of each other. I wished we could have the meeting more often .
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