Educational Philosophy

Children Making Strides offers a variety of educational services that are designed to meet the needs of each individual child. These services are offered within the framework of teaching strategies that current research has shown to be effective with autistic children.

The foundation of the educational program at CMS is one that is based upon the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). ABA is a method where skills are task analyzed (broken down into sequential steps) to make the tasks easier and more attainable for the child. Skills and behaviors are initially taught in one-to-one teaching sessions. Children can thus acquire a large amount of information much quicker than in normal, everyday interactions. New skills are then generalized to a variety of situations and environments. These skills are not considered mastered until the child can demonstrate them under natural conditions with a wide variety of people found in those environments.

ABA is often though to be extremely rigid and inflexible, but this is not approach that is used in CMS's program. The manner in which the CMS therapists use these ABA procedures, takes in to account the needs of young children. Sessions are designed to include intensive, adult - directed instruction with frequent opportunities for child directed activities. In very broad terms, we tend to refer to our program as "a kinder, gentler, ABA".

In addition to using ABA, CMS also incorporates other techniques such as incidental teaching methods, interactive floor play, sensory integration, and natural teaching environments as part of its program strategies. If requested our staff can also provide information on nutritional and dietary interventions, parent advocacy, school transitions and special education (Chapter 766) services.

Our approach to treatment includes looking at the entire child. In keeping with this goal our staff is will work with in conjunction with other service providers for co-treatments with specialists such as occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, physical therapists and home health services.