June is the month when the Psychology Department of NSU organized A Month to Support Parents of Children with Autism in the frameworks of the project aimed at preparing specialists in the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA).
The project seeks to prepare a group of experts in ABA with both theoretical knowledge and practical skills how to work with children having autism. It is also planned to establish a special Center whose specialists will widely use the methods of ABA, which have been found very effective in western countries.
The project included a series of events which began with a seminar for parents. The subjects of the reports presented were based on the requests of the 35 parents who took part in the seminar. The parents learnt how to cooperate with a behavior analyst, how to cope with undesirable children鈥檚 behavior, how to teach a child to be independent using ABA, what to do in case of food or speech behavior, etc. The seminar wound up with a round table where specialists-to-be answered the parents鈥� questions.
鈥榃e had been preparing our reports for about a month, so the presentations were well thought out. Of course, ten minutes for a report on such a serious problem is little, but we wanted to present an overview of the methods used in ABA,鈥� says Evgenia Chulzhanova, one of the project organizers, an assistant of the Chair of Personality Psychology at NSU. 鈥楪roup work was very successful as they discussed topical questions important for the parents and many of them received necessary recommendations.鈥�
The feedback from the parents was very warm: 鈥楳y wife and I attended the seminar and it was highly important for us to learn about the ABA Center planned at NSU, to talk with the organizers and specialists and, of course, to obtain a personal consultant who is to complete a program for our family,鈥� writes one of the participants. 鈥楢s for the reports, they were short enough but interesting and to the point. We especially liked the particular examples of solving problems of children with such a diagnosis. We also appreciate it that the topicality was based on the parents鈥� survey.鈥�
The frameworks of the project allowed organizing free individual long-distance advisory support for the parents participating in the event during the whole month.
