IBCCES Distinguishes Beaches Resorts as Certified Autism Centers

Personalized Autism Training and Certification Awarded To Caribbean-Based Hospitality Resort Chain

The International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards (IBCCES) is proud to welcome Beaches Resorts – the Caribbean’s leading luxury-included ®resorts for everyone – to the family of internationally-recognized Certified Autism Centers (CAC) following staff-wide autism sensitivity and awareness training within each of their three Kids Camp facilities in Jamaica and Turks and Caicos. Additionally, each of Beaches Resorts’ Kids Camp team members have received an Autism Certificate (AC) having successfully completed a demanding training program that better equips them to welcome families with individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

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Announcing the First Advanced Autism Certificate in Nigeria

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IBCCES is happy to recognize the first Advanced Certified Autism Certificate holder in Nigeria! Ajimisogbe John Temidayo works at Nobelova Gradani and The Lagos Teaching hospital Nigeria as a neuro-developmental specialist and recently completely the IBCCES Advanced ABA Training Program to earn the AAC designation.

“There is no greater feeling than been able to work with children with neurodevelopmental disorders and to attain great and remarkable functional success,” said Temidayo. “These lovely children were misunderstood because of who they found themselves to be, but exceeding joy comes from giving them and their families and friends well wishes and hope, and enabling them to have and live a better quality of life. The AAC is makes me more than adequate to achieve anything.”

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Spreading Acceptance: How to Create & Share Your Own Story

donnaBy Donna Sigurðardóttir, founder of I am UNIK

My daughter’s future is bright.  She is thriving at school because they are meeting her every need with an admirable flexibility, thoughtfulness and respect.  All of which has been achieved with close cooperation between home and school, something that I believe are key factors in improving a child’s quality of life.  Why? Because, on one hand we have the child’s parents, who are experts in the child and on the other hand we have the teacher, which is an expert in teaching methods and goal setting. When these two respect each others roles and take the time to listen and work together, magic happens!

Our teacher’s mentality is priceless.  They have so much respect for my daughter and they put every effort in customizing her curriculum and learning environment to her needs. As an example I could mention that she always arrives late for school. Is that okay? Imagine this; she arrives into an empty school building and is exposed to minimum sensory input, which means that her stress levels are low and she gets a good start of the day. Otherwise it would take her teachers about an hour to unwind her after a chaotic school start and a maximum sensory input. That kind of a solution requires flexible thinking and caring.

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How Childhood Jobs Prepared Me for Success as an Autistic Adult

Anita outsideBy Anita Lesko, BSN, RN, MS, CRNA 

I have the good fortune to be a friend of Dr. Temple Grandin. We have a lot in common. We are both autistic, and we share a very similar youth that played a big factor in our adult life. We both started having jobs at a very early age. Temple often talks about her early days, when her job was to greet guests at the door for her mom’s dinner party, and take their coats to hang up. Yes, it was a job. She was given a responsibility to carry out.

Among her numerous other childhood jobs was the one I, too, did for many years — mucking out horse stalls. In conversations with Temple on the phone, we’ve talked about those days of our teenage years spent shoveling out one stall after another. We both love horses and being around them. It was peaceful and it was also a form of therapy. In essence, it was our occupational therapy.

All the childhood jobs we did prepared us for the day when we’d start our careers. We were used to working, showing up on time, following orders from a boss, figuring out how to get a job done. It was just a regular part of our life. So, when the day came to embark into our careers, we really didn’t have to transition into anything. We were already there.

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ASD: On the Wrong Side of the Law?

IMG_3896By Carol S. Weinman, Esq., Autism Legal Specialist

What better time to initiate a conversation about encounters with the criminal justice system than during Autism Awareness Month in April? While it may be well known that many individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are victimized and bullied, it often comes as a surprise to learn that individuals with ASD are increasingly finding themselves detained in the back of a police wagon or seated in a courtroom at the defendant’s table. That’s why the demand for education and awareness on this timely topic is greater than ever before.

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IBCCES’ International Symposium on Cognitive Research & Disabilities to Feature Top Experts & Educational Leaders

Healthcare and education professionals are invited to participate in the 1st Annual International Symposium on Cognitive Research & Disabilities, which is set to take place February 13-14, 2017 at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida. The symposium is designed to equip professionals with the tools they need to increase the quality of care and improve outcomes for both students and patients with cognitive and developmental disabilities. Top cognitive research experts and educational leaders will conduct TED Talk formatted panel discussions on topics relating to healthcare and education for this 1.5 day event hosted by the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards (IBCCES).

“The latest research tells us that 94% of the population will either be personally affected by or have an immediate family member affected by one or more of the top cognitive disorders sometime in the next 20 years,” said Myron Pincomb, International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards (IBCCES) Board Chairman. “No other profession is impacted by these findings more than our educators and health care professionals.”
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Using Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Presume Competence for ALL Individuals

By: Sheryl Rosin Ph.D.,CCC-SLP, Owner/Director of Palm Beach Speech-Language Specialists, CAS and Trainer for IBCCES, Adjunct Professor, Nova Southeastern University

domMeet Dominik

I have been working with individuals with autism for 20 years and have met many interesting and exciting people along the way. In this blog, I have someone that I would like to introduce to you that I believe is an extraordinary person. His name is Dominik and he is 14-years-old. Dominik has diagnoses of autism and apraxia and is essentially non-verbal with his spoken language, but is definitely NOT non-verbal when using other means to communicate aside from the spoken word. Upon meeting Dominik, you may assume that he has limited communication skills, but since we presume competence when working with our clients, I learned that the opposite it true. Dominik has a passion for writing and using language to communicate his vast interests. One of the ways he has learned to do this is through an augmentative communication application called “Speak for Yourself (SFY).” SFY runs as a communication device on the iPad and uses synthetic speech to aid individuals with their expressive language output. It is based on core vocabulary and allows the person to communicate using generative language. Dominik has learned to use the augmentative communication system to express his wants and needs, feelings, hold conversations with others, and to communicate his expansive knowledge and interests in a variety of topics. Our conversations using AAC have ranged from the etiology of autism to future careers. Dominik thinks that vaccines “are the culprit of autism” and wants to be “a neurologist” when he is older. When Dominik communicates using AAC, he let us into his amazing world of thought. Not only does he use SFY; he can type on a computer keyboard, write with facilitated assistance, and is now starting to use verbal speech as AAC has been a bridge to developing spoken language for him.

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3 Tips for Social Workers and Autism

socialworkersBy Taveesha Guyton, Social Worker & soon-to-be CAS

I am a social work professional whose expertise is working with the intellectually-disabled and population of individuals with autism. I really love my job and who I work for.  My sole purpose in my position is to provide resources, education and advocacy for this steady growing population, which affects 1 in 68 births in the United States.

1. Listen to you clients.  What I want for my clients is very different from what they want for themselves.  Many times in the field, professionals who work with clients look at the end result versus looking at the here and now. I have learned to listen what is being said and sometimes what is not being said.

2. Provide Choices.  Providing choices. It is important to exercise the ability to choose. Providing options are the best way for people to find out what they like and do not like and it also helps create more conversation about many other things. Choice making is a skill I feel is not exercised enough with this population. (Check out great visual support ideas here.)

3. Ensure proper supports are in place.  What is needed for this individual with autism to maintain a ” normal” life is usually the question asked and how do we as  a professionally supportive community help create this world for this individual? Will the individual need vocational rehabilitation because their goal is to earn competitive wages? If the individual’s goal is to live alone, will this person need the assistance of a Supported Living Coach? Will this individual need guidance for activities of daily living such as medication management, making doctor’s appointments, meal preparation and grocery shopping? What about socialization and community-based outings? Will the individual need someone to help integrate them into the community?

In assisting in the coordination and maintenance of services for the individual with special needs or autism, social workers are able to make the lives of  individuals with autism a little better.

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Is Your “Back to School” Budget Stretched? 18 Ways to Keep it UP!

elayne photoBy Elayne Pearson, Special Needs Safety/Preparedness Specialist, CAS

More than one mother recently confided that getting her children ready to enter school with its fees, clothes, and required items was a real financial burden—and those students weren’t even in high school yet.  I recalled those same September concerns years ago, knowing taxes were also due in November, and Christmas was just around the corner.  With four amazing daughters, including Heidi (our beautiful daughter with Down syndrome and late-onset autism) my husband Rod and I felt so blessed, but our budget and stress levels were very stretched. With Heidi’s special needs for good quality vitamins/food, calming craniosacral therapy appointments each week, and educational toys and more – my motto, “keep it up!” served us well. Today’s parents can live this way, too, with some of our common sense advice.

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On the Outside of Life Looking In: Trapped Inside an Autistic Body

anita-lesko-1-500pxBy Anita Lesko, BSN, RN, MS, CRNA

Imagine going the first fifty years of your life with an invisible disorder that you don’t know you have.  It affects every move you make, every word you speak, and simply everything you do. You realize you are different than other people and never fit in, only you don’t understand why.  As a child, other children run away from you.  You try and make friends only no one wants to be your friend.  You have all kinds of sensory issues that others don’t seem to have.  Your sense of taste, smell, touch, hearing, and vision are amplified as if you live in IMAX 24/7, 365 days a year.   Every social interaction seems to end up as a negative one.  When you attempt to join in on conversations at work, everyone ignores you as if you are invisible.  You are a target of bullying and harassment, not only throughout your school years, but at your workplace as well.  You spend fifty years feeling like you are on the outside of life looking in.  As if there’s a glass shield keeping you away from joining in with others.  You see people together out in restaurants, in malls, everywhere you go, you see them laughing, talking, having fun. Yet there you are, alone.  You try and get used to it, but deep inside you long for even just one friend.  The feeling of loneliness at times totally consumes you.  Holidays are the worst, as you are aware that others are gathering for big celebrations, as you are home alone yet again.  Sadly, this is all common to individuals on the autism spectrum.

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