November 16, 2011
I have spent 2 hours on the phone with insurance agents today. In July, 2011 a new law was passed ensuring that insurance companies must now pay for ABA services.
I have been a Board Certified Behavior Analyst since 2003. When I moved to California, I was one of 3 people in Orange County that had this certification (it came into existence in late 2001). Prior to this, California uses to have a state license option for Behavior Analysts. When the National Board Certification occur, California posted on their website, that they would now defer to the National Board Certification.
Flash forward to today! The insurance agencies are once again asking for a state license. When I explain to them that there is no license option for the work that I do (and have done for 17 years), whoever I have the National Certification, they explain to me once again, that they require a state license. Apparently, if I have a state licensed Occupational Therapist, Speech and Language Therapist, and or a Marriage and Family Therapist can supervise and oversee my work and sign off, they may consider coverage. Apparently, many organizations are doing this right now.
I appreciate the work that Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language therapists and MFT's do, however I am certain they are not able to supervise the ABA work that I do, and have spent years training to do. We work hard to keep the quality of our work, and we are not about to change now!
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July 6, 2011
Just a note...
Some of the goals and missions of our center is to help children learn how to play, how to manage themselves safely and comfortably, how to value and understand friendships, how to be more tolerant and flexible, and hopefully to make a friend! We work diligently to try and place each child in a group that will help each child meet that goal as best as they can. Part of that involves our team providing good information about what we are working on and providing you with homework and activities. Without your involvement, it is less-likely that the skills will develop as quickly as they can. Being flexible, warm, and kind is instrumental in this process. Part of social skill development is to be kind and accepting of all people. We feel very strongly about this as part of our mission at our office. While we work to teach each child individually, we have a common goal of kindness and acceptance of all. If we are all kind and accepting, appreciating each person’s unique strengths and skills, and supporting each child’s areas of need, we will all go along way to making a brighter future for all children. As adults, what we model is very important. Thank you for taking this message to heart!
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May 17, 2011
So excited! We sent the first video from our preschool video modeling series to Dr. Lynn Koegel who endorsed the video! This video was a 1.5 years of Saturday work in Joan's kitchen! This video is about early, functional play skills. Our next video we are working on is pretend play. Pretend play is so fun to teach! Watch our website for the video completion date. We are hoping to finish it in time for school to start in September!
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March 24, 2011
Food for thought:
Let's talk about the language we use when we talk to children with Asperger's and Autism and other related disabilities. I have recently encountered several scenarios that make me stop and think. For example, at a school recently I saw one adult talk to a "typical" child by saying, "Hey buddy, you can't stand on the wall, it's against the rules. Try standing over there." I heard a support staff later say to a child with autism who did the same act, "That's inappropriate". Strange, same behavior, two different tones and sets of words. I have recently had many children say to me, "I need my fidget toy". One well-known speech pathologist even promotes the use of this language with the children she teaches. When I asked 3 8-10 year old children I knew if they knew what a "fidget toy" was, they laughed and had no idea. So why do all of the children with special needs know this? We tend to use a different vernacular when we speak with children with disabilities, and in doing so, we are isolating and separating these children further. While a certain level of technical information is important to do systematic, thoughtful work, it shouldn't translate to our interactions with the children we spend time with. The children we support should be using the same language as their peers, or close to it. The way we correct should be similar. Otherwise, we are inadvertently segregating, and it goes against the very thing we are trying to accomplish!
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August 6, 2010
It's that time of year, when we wind down our summer camp programs and start thinking about getting ready to go back to school. We have had a blast this year! Recently, it seems a number of professionals have been making comments about our program, which is fascinating to me, when none of them have every visited or spent time at our program. Usually, the comments serve to make negative statements about our program, or, are attempts to discredit our program. In response, I have written a position paper, that can be found on the Social Skills in School link on the left. We spent significant time assessing each child that comes to our program, and write specific treatment goals. We are NOT a lesson-of-the-week type of program. We spent time analyzing activities that will most directly target each child's needs, while creating a natural, play-based setting. The staff are taught and trained directly by me, and must for several months before they are given their own case load; that's over 160 hours of training. So, if you need any research, feel free to take a look at the position paper! It was fun to do!
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July 9, 2010
Every Opportunity Productions! It's here! For the past year, every Saturday, I have worked with my partners, Chris Majors, Psy.D and Joan Hersh, MA filming, editing, researching and planning. We have created our first video in a series of videos on teaching play skills to preschool. It is unlike any other video. This video tells the watcher how to use the video. There is an instructional piece where we show the child viewer HOW to play the toys and activities that we have selected, with an option to include narration, or "self-talk" on how to play. We then took those toys and activities, and showed you children playing those toys, UNSTRUCTURED in a natural way! We highlight additional key social skills moments for the child viewer to notice, and the teacher or parent to review. Finally, we show you some problems that occur naturally, and provide an interactive quiz to solve those problems!
I am so excited! We will be hosting a "wrap party" in the next 2 weeks, and will do a formal "launch party" in September. In August, we start production on our next 2 videos! Call me for more information, and the website will launch soon!
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April 1, 2010
Another Autism Awareness month! This month it seems there are more activities then ever to do! Terrific! I have been spending time reading and discussing bullying information. Did you know California has a Bullying Prevention week in September? We do now. And we are planning to try and get a program/curriculum together for people to share during this week, and are looking for people to get this word out. What I have so far is this:
-A 3 pronged-approach to bulling.
1) Awareness: Special Needs Awareness and Training in school for children, schools & parents
2) Social Skills & Bullying training for children on the spectrum- dealing with bullying, not doing things that make you a target, AND not rule-policing or other activities that are perceived as bullying
3) IEP support- ensuring that IEP's support and protect children from bullying or being punished for activities that have not been properly taught that are considered bullying.
I am working on this, and will continue. I am also putting together bullying stories, so please feel free to contact me with your stories!
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March 3, 2010
As April, and Autism Awareness Month approaches, I am energized by the activities that we are working on at our clinic. For the month of February, we worked with children with social stories, video modeling, role-playing and practicing how to have play dates with their friends. We challenged students to have play dates, and many did! This month, we are inviting back a parent speaker to share how she has handled play dates for her son, from the age of 3 to 10 years old. She is a dynamic speaker, and were are excited to offer this FREE.
In April, we will announce 3 ParksForAll, as a group of Tustin moms, and a pair of professionals in Newport have decided to take on this FREE community project. Check out the website for more information.
Finally, I have HAD it with the number of parents calling me crying about issues at recess, and with bullies. One school person reason told me that the reason a boy wanders around at recess is because he "hasn't connected with anyone". Of course he hasn't~ he has autism! He needs help with that! Another parent called crying, because her son was getting too close to other kids, and was called "gay" and laughed at. Another student told me, "it doesn't matter who I tell, it doesn't help". Well, we may not fix this, but we are going to work on it. We are making April "Stop Bullying Now!" month. I am working feverishly on it now. Look to our website for more information!
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January 28, 2009
We had a delightful young man spend time with us in December, to earn community service hours for a school project. Check out below what he wrote after spending 15 hours with us, and interviewing our staff.
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December 24, 2009
As 2009 comes to a close, I think if all of the events of the year. While rates of autism rose, incomes declined. It was a challenging year for many people. I also think, however, of all of the good things. Our summer camps were a big success~ and mostly for the kids! I think of so many children that overcame fear of water and tried our slip and slide, or dealt with losing successfully during our sports camp week. I think of the number of children that took our "recess pledge" seriously, and still wear the bracelets we gave them. I think of the number of families that donated gift cards to the TACA Adopt-a-family campaign in lieu of giving gifts to our staff. I think of the movement in insurance legislation that is soon to help families (I hope!). I think of our successful, FREE, ParksForAll events, that have been a delight to see families and children going to the park and having fun, and my tireless staff and the LaunchPad OT and Dr. Christine Majors who show up time and time again. It was a good year. And I hope, 2010 will be happy and healthy for you all.
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October 14, 2009
It is my favorite time of year! We really celebrate Halloween, and this year the students again vote for my costume, this year choosing between a twister game, a convict, or a whoopie cushion! I am excited to move ParksForAll to Costa Mesa, and really hope to find a parent group to take on this project for themselves! Interested? Contact me!
I am excited to start a lecture series. I have chosen to partner with Dr. Chris Majors to discuss assessments. Rarely do I see assessments that get to the "root of a child's needs", without just random testing and hundred page reports! It is our goal to organize this workshop to help parents know what to ask for with their assessments, know what they mean, and now WHAT to do with them when they are finished. I frequently read assessment reports, and then wonder, now what? How to we apply this assessment to goals and treatment? We hope to answer that for you, as we sort it out ourselves. It is a project I have wanted to do for years, and am diving in. Check out our workshop page to register!
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August 31, 2009
Back to school time! As times continue to be financially difficult for everyone, we continue to look for ways to help students grow, to generalize their skills, and get the most "bang for their buck". We are kicking off this fall the Recess Pledge. Seems simple, and we are rolling with it. We have spent the last few weeks playing outside at our park, sitting at "lunch" talking, making plans, and playing, similar to recess. We have everyone recite the "recess pledge", and this week, we are giving each child a cool, yarn bracelet to hopefully remind them, of their recess pledge. If everyone school took the time to review the pledge each day with their students, and reward students that honor "the pledge", all students would be playing and having fun! It is an excerpt from my new book, and we are going to try it, one child at a time. See more at out activities page!
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July 18, 2009
We are spending time this month focusing on what makes each of us "special". It has been a delight to watch each child share their special strengths, and unique talents, including karate, knowledge of geography, computer skills, and many others! Spending time trying to "tap into" these special gifts is our goal. We will be working hard to help translate these skills into positive social experiences, particularly at school, by expanding the definition of "recess". Help us join these efforts by working with your school this fall to expand the definition.
We are excited that two groups in Minnesota, and one in Toronto, Canada will be carrying-on our ParksForAll mission! We will keep you posted!
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June 8, 2009
As I sit at home with a terrible sinus & upper respiratory infection, which my doctor assures me I could not have gotten from working too much, I am pleased with the article that Sam from the OC Register put together on our ParksForAll article. To describe what we did in a simple format, it was well-done. What REALLY needs to be included, however, is how much fun everyone seemed to have. I saw children that I treat at my clinic, with a little bit of help, really play. I saw parents, work hard to play with their children, and feel safe and comfortable doing so. I saw a community, with the tireless effort of my employee Alison, to the Launchpad Occupational Therapy team that came out to help again, to the Dr. Majors who came down and played, to the hard working volunteers of the Student Club of Autism Speaks from Rancho Santa Margarita Catholic school, to the hard working parents. It proves my point: if you facilitate a little, give kids something to do that may not excel and sports, then they will play too. Let's hope that in these hard economic times, some will see that a little goes a long way. Thank you so much to Paula Guerena from Curtis Michael Salon for donating the water that day!
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April, 2009.
Today was our first ParksForAll day! We had over 10 volunteers from the Rancho Santa Margarita Student Club of Autism Speaks, and of course my own hard working team, Valerie, Alison, Kristin, Diana and Christina, along with the Occupational Therapy Team from the Launchpad located at our clinic, and Grace Chao, speech and language pathologist from Island Therapies. We had over 25 children in attendence, and fun was had by all! I think we will do it again in June, and then will look at getting this project out more globally. It is such a simple concept, to bring toys and facilitate activities to help kids enjoy their park experience! Now, if we could only get schools to do this at recess, and the OC Register to cover our event, since they blew us off today. If anyone has a connection there, let me know!
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March 25, 2009
Thank you for checking my blog. I've realized that my blog has become a place where I post an idea I have, and then wait to see if anyone sees it and "calls me out on it!". A few times that has happened, so then I get off my butt and attempt to do what I actually said I would do. I have been busy. I have finally finished my book (except for the last changes this Sunday!) that my publisher has asked for, and it will hopefully be published by the end of the summer, in time for school. Fitting, since it is a book about social skills in school, and home. A few subjects were written specifically for certain schools, I wonder if they will figure out who they are! We have been wrestling with both the Regional Center and Insurance companies, both time consuming and frustrating. I thought we were making headway with Regional Center~ I went there, to sort out paperwork, because they did not have an actual application for a clinic such as ours to complete. They gave me a great deal of leeway with this, then cut the budget and reduced the payment and cut most of the billing options, making it practically impossible to use their funding now! Ugh! Some insurance companies have been paying for our services, others have not. It is proving to be endless hours, that do not make any sense. It is not my specialty, teaching social skills is, but I am trying. Finally, we are going to attempt to launch our ParksForAll project. I am so excited to be working with the Santa Margarita School Club for Autism Speaks, thanks to the hard work of several students there! This could prove to be a very successful program! Wish us luck, and hope to see you there!
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January 5th, 2009
A new year! We felt proud to be a part of many activities and efforts this year, including supporting REACT Foundation, a scholarship program for families, helping to get New Vista School up and running, holding our popular summer camps, raising money for the Autism Speaks walk, and bringing piles of toys for Toys for Tots!
We will be holding our first ParksforAll community meeting on Friday, January 30th, 9am. If you are interested, please let us know. We are looking for a great 2009!
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December 15, 2008
I wanted to take a few minutes to wish everyone a happy holdiays. These economic times are difficult for everyone, and added is stress is not what any of us needs. Take care of yourself and your family. I am reminded during these times of my own upbringing in Maine. It was a simple upbringing, with family and our needs coming first. My parents were firm, kind, and put my sister and I first. Keep your life simple, and remember what is important this holiday season.
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October 17, 2008
Community Parks for All! Well, that is the working title for a new community project that we will be pulling together, with a target initial start date for January, 2009. We intend to target 3 parks initially in Orange County, where we will have trained volunteers, organized games and activities, and a safe and welcoming place for all children, and especially for children with autism. If you are interested in coordinating this with me, email me @ Kellymckinnon@kellymckinnonassociates.com. I am pretty excited about this idea. I have talked about it at many talks I give and with many professionals, and it just does not get off the ground. Well now maybe it will!
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September 29, 2008
Regional Center, for the first time (despite what they tell you) has agreed to allow a center-based vendorship for children over 3 to work on social skills. They have sent me the paperwork, and I am going through it now. It is time-consuming. I have to make sure the facility is up to standards. At the same time, I recently spoke with a Regional Center representative that informed me that the funding may be cut. So I will continue to go through the process, however keep in mind the regional center may cut funding or amounts they are willing to pay.
At the same time, many states are passing laws that require insurance companies to pay for ABA services. California does not have that position at this time. Only change from families will make that happen. Complicating the issue, is that California transfer their state licensing for ABA professionals to the National Boards, the BACB. So, when I speak to insurance companies, they ask for a state license number. When I explain, and give my BCBA number, they deny claims based on that. Finally, they do not offer procedure codes for ABA services in their codes lists. So an insurance company will tell you that they can't reimburse due to a lack of a procedure code by providers, yet they do not have a code for us to use. Nice double-edge sword, huh? Speak to your providers. Push them. Write letters to congress. It is the only way for change.
During these difficult times, we all have to work together. We will continue to offer our free parent seminars. We will have one in October. I will also be speaking, free of charge, at the Irvine SEECAC meeting this October.
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September 1, 2008
Back to school! It has been a fun summer. Now, back to school. I took the last week off to rest and get ready, and to finally finish a draft of my new book. You can see an excerpt on the school information portion of this website. Make sure and consider our tip sheet to create information for your teacher at school. We will be getting our parent trainings together this month soon, depending on interest, so let me know your thoughts!
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August 16, 2008
Yesterday marked our first every music & variety show! I was very nervous~ we had run a camp all week for about 18 students, and then on our Friday, 15 more joined, and we had to coordinate acts for 33+ children in one day! Thank goodness for my team. They were amazing. When the kids started getting too excited and HOT at the end of the day, my team kept them occupied. They didn't even get to see the show, which was amazing. It came out far better then I ever thought it would! As soon as the kids got out on stage, they sprung into action! We had taped ourselves doing most of the skits, and then let the kids watch the movies, which turned out to be extremely useful. Having the jokes written out allowed most kids to really interact, and Aubree Ocana on the drums providing the drum sound after each joke really topped it off. It was the hardest and tiring, yet most rewarding event in my career thus far! We ended the drama camp with bubbles, and the Stevie Wonder song "As" that was the end song from autism the musical, while Andy Edmunds, our amazing student narrator named each student and they walked out in the bubbles and took a bow! I know several parents picked up on the song reference and were bawling! We are working on making our video copy a DVD. The OC Register published about it on the autism blog. Check www.ocregister.com/autism. Go to archive section, check Autism the Musical.
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August 10, 2008
Welcome! I have been so inspired by the summer camps that we are running, that I decided to start a small blog to comment on our happenings at our clinic, or in the world of autism in general!
We are running our second summer of Friday in the Park camps. They have been a blast! The topics we picked have been fun, and the mixture of children diagnosed and non-diagnosed children have worked well! We have had all of our slots filled, and for the first time this summer, Regional Center of Orange County agreed to allow some families to use respite funds to help pay.
We had our first ever sports week series last week, where we taught various recess sports, and it was a hit! Watching the kids improve in their ability to lose, wait and share from Monday to Friday was great. My team were exhausted by Friday, and continue to amaze me in their willingness to try each new thing I throw at them!
Next week we start Drama camp~ we have never done this, so we will see how it goes! I am working on it right now!
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