centre for early autism treatment Quarterly Newsletter ~ March 2007
Dear Families,
Spring 2003
Spring has sprung and all of our wee bunnies, and some of them not so wee, are getting ready for their Easter holiday. We always find that children thrive after a week or two away from their therapy sessions, just like all of us are more refreshed after some time off. So, close those data books, place the lids on the materials and forget about therapy for awhile, but remember to follow your behaviour support plans if your trusty Supervisor has put one in place, also a little generalisation never goes amiss. The theme of this Newsletter is „team work‟ as this is the key to any successful programme. Our Newsletters always aim to celebrate the achievements made by all of our children, to highlight the new qualifications gained or being gained by CEAT Clinicians and to promote the involvement of the parents in the on-going success of their children. However there is a whole layer of people missing from these celebrations, so it is to the many of wonderfully, dedicated therapists that we now turn our attention. Additionally, we offer you story by one of our parents. Her son Oliver participated in an early, intensive behavioural treatment programme under our supervision. His programme followed the research model set out by UCLA. Her little boy, like some of the children we work with, was able to integrate successfully into mainstream education and appear indistinguishable from his peers. As Clinicians we have the significant responsibility of setting expectations along with parents, and we hope that whenever you talk with us you feel assured by our honesty and our belief in your child. We feel as much pride when a child completes their first puzzle as when another child completes their first day at school. We celebrate when a child first exchanges a PECS picture, just as we celebrate their first spoken word or sentence. So by publishing Oliver‟s story, we are not suggesting that children “recover” from autism. Instead, we are putting forward a story of a child who received a high level of structured, individualised, 1:1 teaching at an early age and who is now able to integrate inconspicuously alongside his typical peer group. This is just one story from our CEAT family. We celebrate all children and their stories - and we have so many wonderful, different stories to tell that we would need a wholesale box of Kleenex if we were to tell the lot all in one go. We wish you all a very happy Easter. Kimmy and Mary
CEAT’s Own Discussion Forum We are proud to announce the availability of a discussion forum on our website, where you can share ideas and thoughts with other parents, therapists and friends. Please log onto www.ceatni.net and click on the “forum” button on the left hand side of the homepage. You can choose your own username and password, then type away!
Our New Home . . . We are proud to show you our new CEAT House, where we can meet children and families, provide training and work together comfortably as a team.
Centre for Early Autism Treatment 60 Belmont Avenue Belfast, BT4 3DE Phone: 028 9065 9678 Fax: 028 9065 2715 Email: information@ceatni.net Website: www.ceatni.net
Join the Fun in the Belfast Marthon Fun Run!
Its time to get out the guddies and hit the streets again in support of the Impact Trust! Team CEAT will be participating in the Belfast Marathon’s Fun Run and are seeking sponsorship.
Congratulations, Mrs Dobbs!
We would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to our Programme Supervisor, Grainne McElhone, on her marriage to Mr Mark Dobbs. They tied the knot on 16th of February at a beautiful ceremony at St John’s Church, Galbally followed by a reception in the Cavan Crystal Hotel in Cavan. We wish Grainne and Mark a lifetime of happiness.
If you or your business would like to do so, please contact us at 02890649678 or via email at information@ceatni.net. All proceeds will go towards to the Impact Trust, a charitable organization that is dedicated to improving the lives of families and children affected by autistic spectrum disorders. For more information, please see www.impacttrust.org.
The smile upon your face Can tell no lies The innocence of childhood Will always shine in your eyes Your kiss, not always gentle But means so much I can feel our unique bond With just a single touch I know you cannot speak a word But when your shout your rhyme-less song I understand you more than anyone Your truth is so strong Although your love does not always show I know that it is there And although you do not know who I am I know you know I care You mean the whole world to me You may not know that now But you will, some day, Some way, some how I love you so much There is nothing I wouldn’t do I know one day, in your own way You will say “I love you too” WRITTEN BY - CLAIRE HANNAWAY AGE 15
MY BROTHER, PEARSE
Team work is the key to any successful therapy programme so this page aims to feature the many wonderful therapists who work every day with children on EIBI and after school programmes. What many of these therapists bring to their work is immeasurable, there are so many talented material makers, which as all clinicians know is time consuming. We value our therapists so much and this is just a small thank you from us to you. Paula works as a Lead therapist to Louis who has been in an EIBI for 2 ½ years, additionally Paula has worked with another little boy in Antrim and in a school for children with ASD. Sarah works as a full-time therapist to four children. . Sarah graduated with a Masters in ASD last year and she also ran in the CEAT relay team to raise money for the Impact Trust.
Bronagh works as a fulltime therapist with four children in County Tyrone. Bronagh has been working with CEAT right from its inception and worked in the Carrickmore Unit as part of her placement at University.
Lisa has worked as a therapist to CEAT children since our arrival.. She works as a Classroom Assistant to a CEAT child and a therapist on 3 other programmes.
Derval works full-time with Dylan who has been in an EIBI programme for over three years. Derval is great at drawing which Dylan loves, especially drawings of the Champions League. Nicola has been working with children with ASD for the past 5 years. Currently Nicola is studying for a Masters Degree in ABA. She is working as a therapist with two children.
Needless to say there are many other therapists for whom we do not have photographs but we would like to mention and in no particular order. Katherine and Sarah who work with Pearse and Jack, Rosie who works with Daniel and Lucia, Arlene, Alison, Laura and Christine who work with Oran and Aoife, Alison who works with Jack, Emma who works with Tanvi, Anna and Johnny, Claire who works with James and Rachel, Caroline who works with Lee and Charlie, Damien and Helen who work with Paul, Keri who works with Louis, Tanya who works with Padraig, Jill who works with Jacob, Louise who works with Joshua and Darren, Teresa who works with Evan and Darren, Patrice who works with Finn, Leone who works with Cahir and Rachel who works with Sean.
First Annual Conference of the Division of Behaviour Analysis of the Psychological Society of Ireland. On Thursday 22nd March, Julianne and Sarah attended the first annual conference of the Division of Behaviour Analysis of the Psychological Society of Ireland. The conference was held in Trinity College Dublin and was host to a number of speakers presenting on research using the principles of behaviour analysis. There were a number of very interesting papers relating to autism, a field close to all of our hearts, but also papers on how behaviour analysis can be applied in other areas, including one titled „Can behaviour analysis save the planet?‟ This paper applied behaviour analysis to the area of climate change and how we can increase our energy saving routines. The conclusion – yes, behaviour analysis has the potential to save the planet, but sure we knew that already!!!! Of more relevance to our work, perhaps, papers were presented on ways to increase spontaneous commenting, toilet training and eliminating tantrums and aggression of children with autism. Lots of useful information was shared. The invited speaker at the conference was Bob Remington PhD, FBPsS, from The Southampton Childhood Autism Programme (SCAmp). He presented the findings of their recent field research on the effectiveness of early intensive behavioural intervention for young children with autism and their families. SCAmp conducted a 2 year evaluation of an intervention group (children receiving Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention (EIBI) and a comparison group (children receiving treatment as usual by Local Education Authorities). The groups did not differ on assessments at the start of the study but after 2 years robust differences, favouring EIBI, were observed on measures of intelligence, language, daily living skills and positive social behaviour. Additionally, measures of parental well-being produced no evidence that EIBI created increased problems for either fathers or mothers. It was wonderful to hear yet more positive research being presented in relation to ABA and children with autism and Julianne and Sarah are now looking forward to next years conference!
Congratulations to our Toilet Training Graduates!
Guess Who?
Kallum Caterina Stephen
Just a bit of fun . . . who is this aspiring supervisor? Which of us CEAT girls brightened up a room with a smile? Is it Kimmy, Mary, Sarah, Julianne, Grainne, Evelyn, Lorraine or Kirsty? Look for the answer in the next newsletter.
Learning How to Learn: Oliver’s Journey By: Michelle Robinson, Oliver’s Mummy
DIARY - 10th April 2004 (Oliver aged 2 years 10 months) “I‟ve noticed Oliver seems to be „grunting‟ a lot. Started off by impersonating a scary monster but this tone now used more often when communicating in general.A lot of screaming today, seems to be when asked to do something he doesn‟t want (mainly food issues as usual) or when we refuse a request (video, biscuits). Can occur up to 20 times a day – need to count this! Also hand flaps when doesn‟t want to do something and covers face.” So much has changed since those awful days of me coming home from work and enduring the screaming and crying. Almost three years on and we feel confident and back in control. I recall our first meeting with Kimmy and Mary in March 2004 and Mary commenting that we seemed to be afraid of Oliver. How true. We tiptoed around him, not wanting to set him off on yet another, long and aggressive temper tantrum. Oliver, 6 years this June, presented with autistic traits at 17 months. As a parent you just know. Long, severe and constant temper tantrums, delayed speech and no eye contact. He toe walked, hand flapped and pulled at my hand to point yet he was 3 years old by the time he was diagnosed with a developmental delay of 14 months. The diagnosis was a relief in many ways but we were devastated and cried like babies when we returned home. We were screaming for help and were rewarded with long waiting lists and little information. DIARY – 13th April 2004 “Closed bathroom and bedroom doors this morning 3 times each before coming downstairs . . . Very difficult getting dressed – kicking, screaming, biting, nipping – struggled through it . .. Traumatic dinner time. Used chocolate buttons as reinforcer. Refused dinner and went wild when I removed the dinner and buttons. Major tantrum then, followed by his usual „quiet period‟, cuddling into me for at least 10 minutes.” Oliver had availed of the B.E.L.B‟s pre-school intervention service (yes there is one but our experience is that it is pure luck if you come across it) which consisted of one to one play for approximately 1 ½ hours per week, from January – June 2004. I have a lot to thank his teacher, Ruth Tolerton, for. Her good work made me realise that Oliver was eager to learn and capable of learning and had a serious amount of potential to achieve. We struggled on with a mish-mash of approaches such as PECS and TEACCH yet we were stuck in a vicious circle of mis-communications, frustrations and endless temper tantrums. During this time I had searched internet websites and web forums and ABA kept coming up again and again. So many success stories and the key was early, intensive, comprehensive, one to one intervention. DIARY – 26th April 2004 “Picked him up from the Robins. Half way home he started screaming and got out of his booster seat. Tried to force him back in – very angry – then kept hitting Ellen in the back seat – she was terrified – screaming, then threw a metal car at her. I feel he‟s regressing into a dark world where I can‟t reach or comfort him.”
I was so aware that we had a small window of opportunity to work with Oliver and we needed to grasp it. Then I heard about CEAT - the timing was perfect. How lucky we were! At last Oliver was no longer just a number on a waiting list. They could provide a one to one intervention which was all about him, as opposed to a generic approach to his autism. We started our ABA programme with much trepidation. It was a major undertaking which would affect our whole family. How would we cope? Where would we find therapists? How would Oliver cope? I heard 30 hours a week and felt guilty at the thought of subjecting him to so much time which I perceived as „locked‟ in his room at his desk, but of course the reality was very different. The emphasis was very much on play, learning and constant stimulation on a one to one basis. But why do 30 hours when he could learn so much in 20 hours? Because we wanted Oliver to reach his fullest potential. There was never any question, the therapy had to be intensive. It was all or nothing. We decided to give it six months and haven‟t looked back. DIARY – 5th July 2004 “ABA WORKSHOP TODAY!! How am I going to make this work?? Oli responded better than I expected in general but it was still hard to watch this little person responding to new expectations. Slowly though he began to realise that it was fun. A long, long day for everyone, full of ABA theory and left emotionally drained. As my brother says, one step at a time and today was the 1st step of ABA………..” We met our CEAT clinic supervisor Liana Maione, fresh from Vancouver, in June 2004, completely unaware of the massive impact she would have on our lives. From his first meeting with her, Oli responded in ways I never imagined he was capable of – imitating clap hands, turn taking in a game, matching, but most of all, giving his full attention and having fun. We all hugged her when she left that day, confident in what we were about to embark upon. There‟s no doubt that it was hard work. Laminating, photocopying, printing, making schedules, circle time (hello Oli, how are you today?!!), star charts etc, but once we started to see the small steps of progress, every part of it was so worthwhile. DIARY – 6th August 2004 “Haven‟t written for a while but 1 month into the ABA programme and Oli is already showing signs of improvement in speech and communication. Most communication before ABA would have been for things he wanted -„ wah‟ (water) etc – now he‟s asking „what‟s that?‟ – I can‟t believe it! His play is becoming constructive as opposed to destructive. He‟s learning so many new words – knowledge is power!” Our ABA programme lasted just over two years, shorter I believe than most, yet it was Oliver‟s rapid progression that allowed this. We maintained an average of 30 hours per week up until the last few months of the programme. We could at last see light at the end of the tunnel and it was at this stage that it would have been so easy to become complacent in terms of the number of hours per week. Kimmy and Liana advised at least 18 hours per week minimum and that‟s what we did. Peer play featured prominently in the last months and it was this constant repetition of encouraging team work, negotiation, turntaking and positive reinforcement that today allows him the opportunity to play independently with his friends.
Oliver and Liana, July 2004
Oliver and Liana
Oliver and I
Oliver has progressed far beyond our original expectations. So much so that I often ask myself if he still fits the diagnostic criteria for autism. I doubt that he does but he still has his little idiosyncrasies in terms of his often „unconventional behaviour‟ which mainly manifests itself in loud verbal protests (that‟s where our ever faithful star charts come back into play time and time again). His self esteem and morale are at an all time high. A Trust clinical psychologist once told me that for Oliver, play is work and work is play i.e. he didn‟t know the difference. She also said that he could not respond to praise as he didn‟t understand it. If you see my boy today you will know that she was wrong, wrong, wrong. He has just started his first reading books at mainstream school and is so proud to come home and show us his new words. He told his friend last week that he wished he had all the toys in the world so that mum didn‟t do any more star charts! And finally…. There‟s good provision of ABA and poor, misleading provision of ABA i.e. those who use the principles of ABA with children with ASD but who have not received the correct training in EIBI or Autism. It depends on who delivers it. The „poor‟ ABA is what the professionals in Northern Ireland have to get over and recognise that EIBI delivered through trained and experienced hands changes the lives of children and their families. Liana once told me of one little boy in this country who after a few months of treatment was able to tell his mum that “when Liana comes, the words come out”. Equally, our lives have been transformed. Oliver has gone from approximately 5 single syllable words to including „actually‟ in his sentences. He and his sister Ellen (7 years) play dressing up and pretend husband and wife together and call each other darling (they also fight a lot and he calls her a big fat idiot!). He‟s been described by a Trust professional as a „social butterfly‟. We can take him to restaurants and Tesco! All children with autism should be able to avail of what we did, but sadly this is not the case. We are one of the lucky families and thanks to early intervention we are now at a point where we feel confident to try to find positives from Oliver‟s autism e.g. you get to the front of the queue at Disneyland and you learn that you are stronger than you ever realised you could be. We would like to thank Kimmy, Liana and Mary for all their hard work and dedication. Hopefully the work of these three not home grown clinicians can be continued through our local Supervisors, many of whom were part of Oliver‟s journey.
Michelle Robinson Tel: 028 90471977 mah_robinson@yahoo.co.uk
Thank You, From Michelle In no particular order I would like to thank the following people for all their support and hard work on our journey:
- Kirsty McCartney - Evelyn Gould - Julianne Bell - Loretta Carville - Anna Sansom - Emma Bourquin - Laura Barton
I would also like to extend my special thanks to Mark and Joan McCartan for allowing me into their home to see what a therapy session was all about and also to Cathy Burke for talking me through the ups and downs of therapy and telling me ‘everything will work itself out’ –
she wasn’t wrong!
centre for early autism treatment Quarterly Newsletter ~ June 2007
Dear Families,
Spring 2003
We have lots of events and changes to tell you all about this month, so our opening letter is shorter than usual. Over the past three months we have met many new families of young children, three little ones are starting to participate in early, intensive, behavioural intervention programmes, several older children will also be starting family support programmes. Our work is definitely reaching a wide range of children and families throughout the North Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and in Italy. In this newsletter we have chosen to feature the story of one of our children in Italy so as to bring our Italian families closer to the CEAT community. Due to the number of new families that have recently joined CEAT we will soon be hosting a summer social event. This will provide our new families with the opportunity to meet up with our more established families who can share their experiences of running a home programme with those less experienced. We will let you know the location, date and time when we have organised one! All suggestions welcome. So, hopefully we will see many of you soon! Kimmy and Mary
A Warm Thank You to Marti
Corporate Sponsorship
In early May, Marti Leimbach made a special visit to Northern Ireland to meet with the parents of children with autism. CEAT and The Greater Belfast Branch of the National Autistic Society hosted a book reading of Marti’s latest book “Daniel Isn’t Talking” at Malone House. About 70 people attended the event which allowed for book signings and cheese and wine. Marti shared her experience of her son’s diagnosis, her concerns and how she chose to put in place an early intervention programme for him.
The Mourne Mountain Challenge
Required for
On 25th July, a group of friends will run up and down Slieve Donnard 11 times each to raise money for the Impact Trust. Their aggregate climb will be twice the height of Mount Everest. This is an intense challenge and one for which we need to attract the sponsorship of companies. We ask all of our families to contact one company who might sponsor this amazing climb. All companies will be listed in our next Newsletter.
Centre for Early Autism Treatment 60 Belmont Avenue Belfast, BT4 3DE Phone: 028 9065 9678 Fax: 028 9065 2715 Email: information@ceatni.net Website: www.ceatni.net
Our Julianne is Off to America Exciting times await Julianne Bell as she heads off to study for a year at the New England Centre for Children (NECC), in Boston, USA. Julianne has been afforded this opportunity through her
Full of Eastern Promise: Applied Behaviour Analysis recognised as the leading educational intervention for children with ASD.
Masters Degree in Applied Behaviour Analysis. Julianne will work with leading experts in the field of ABA and be able to receive the stipulated number of supervision hours to become a BCBA. Julianne has worked for CEAT for over two years. She has worked with over 15 children and is dear to the hearts of many parents. CEAT will be organising a Fun Day - Leaving Do for Julianne towards the end of July, details of which we will forward once the date, time and location are scheduled. CEAT says a big thank you to Julianne.
Thank You!
Not Lost In Translation Kimmy and Mary travelled to Bucharest, Romania in May to present at a conference for professionals working with and parents of children with ASD. The conference welcomed speakers from several countries in Europe who spoke on a range of topics. Kimmy and Mary presented “Using Behaviour Analysis as an Intervention for Children with Autism”. Their talk was attended by over 300 people, all of whom were eager to learn about ABA and how they could incorporate it into their work or establish homeprogrammes for their children. CEAT would like to thank the organisers of the conference and to the Charity “Children in Distress” who made it possible for knowledge to be disseminated so effectively to a welcoming audience.
The New England Centre for Children (NECC) will manage a project to bring cutting-edge research and treatment of children with ASD to the United Arab Emirates. NECC signed the deal last week with officials in Abu Dhabi. NECC will send 50 to 60 employees over the next few years to assist in the project. Six people are scheduled to go by December to start the operation and train 30 to 40 instructors from Abu Dhabi. The Health Authority- Abu Dhabi and NECC will join to build the new center. In five years, Vincent Strully Jr., the co- founder and chief executive of NECC, said he hopes to have 100 employees at the NECC of Abu Dhabi to help 48 students. Strully said "kids with autism can learn, and they can learn from a series of very sophisticated, applied educational programs". Daniel Gould, who will be running the program in Abu Dhabi, said "It will show that the high quality of services we provide can be replicated in other places where those services don't already exist". Perhaps one day the Education Boards in Northern Ireland will recognize that educational practice needs to be based on research.
My Son, My Mattia What can you see in this picture? Two kids cycling and one child sitting alone, gazing at somewhere we cannot tell: this child is my son, my Mattia. When this picture was taken we did not know that he was autistic. Mattia is our only child. He was born in September 2002 after two miscarriages in ten years of marriage. He was always a “difficult” child, he would not accept breast-feeding, he would not sleep more than an hour. He cried and he cried. And we did not understand why.
As an infant Mattia used one word, the word “atch”, he used this to request for his bottle. “Mamma” came and disappeared. I worried more and more, as months passed all my friend’s children could talk so I slowly started to refuse to see them, it was too painful for me. When he was three years old I took him to the mainstream school, it was immediately clear that he was different from all the others. Everybody sat in circle, my child walked around the trees, making strange sounds, flapping his hands, new self-stimulatory behaviours appeared from nowhere, more and more. It was frightening. He no longer played, he would just lie in bed, staring at the reflections of the lights, night and day. I was losing him day by day and I could not stop him from going away. Two days after Christmas 2005, Mattia was seen by a specialist at the Local Health Unit, that’s when I first heard the word I had always suspected secretly in my deepest feelings. “Your child is autistic, Madam”. The internet is an incredible tool, in about a week I learned about therapies considered valuable. This is where I first learnt about ABA, how it worked and who Lovaas is. I immediately decided that I had to give this chance to my child. Not many families can afford an ABA programme in Italy. The Government does not help us, and there are few experienced professionals and their waiting lists are over a year. Early in 2006 I contacted CEAT to request for supervision and they sent me Sarah. Sarah Lavery is our "angel". I will never forget crying at the airport as soon as I saw the harp on her Ryanair flight appearing in the sky. I cried tears of joy and told everybody around me "That plane is carrying a very special person for the life of my autistic son". This is where it all started from, just over 12 months ago, in Trieste airport in Italy. Sarah found a speechless child, who had little, if any, comprehension of language, who could not imitate, who was anxious about any new situation, who found any transition challenging, who would not look at anybody’s face. No one in my team had ever worked as a therapist before, no one in my region had ever tried ABA before. We were the first Italian family for CEAT... everything we’ve done since May 2006 is just “heroic”. Sarah has been learning Italian, “heroic” indeed! We have been working for 30 hours per week for the whole year. My life has completely changed. I like to prepare the target lists for the session, the materials, to tell the therapists (4 of them) what to do, to discuss the level of reinforcement and prompts. I write the updates to Sarah, prepare the DVD for her and send them monthly to Belfast and translate most of the things Sarah writes, so that any member of the team and of my family knows exactly what to do and what to expect from Mattia. I believe this is the only way an intervention can work, and Mattia’s wonderful progress just confirms this. In May 2007, we had our 6th workshop since that first airplane landed. Mattia can now request verbally all the items and activities he needs, can play independently, can write, count up to 20, draw, paint, can say 3 words-sentences, can answer to common conversation questions and comments spontaneously on what he hears, sees and has. He enjoys reading a story, loves singing and engaging in circle time. His self-stimulatory behaviours have almost disappeared. Lots of Italian families have chosen to follow our experience: we all feel blessed to have such a high-level quality of intervention for our children. “GRAZIE, ragazze” (thank you, ladies). Paola Marangi and Mattia
Padraig two years ago learning to hold a paintbrush.
Padraig is aged 7. Over the past few years Padraig has learned many new skills and he is now able to integrate with his peers in a mainstream school. Padraig’s programme is funded by the Impact Trust and it has allowed him to receive intervention that has taught him to read, write , add and subtract. Plus have cheeky conversations!!
Covering All Areas of Learning Louis has been participating in an EIBI programme for nearly three years. Not only has Louis learned to talk, play and attend mainstream school, he has now learned to fully dress himself and independently go about his daily routine. The key to Louis’ success was careful programming by Sarah Lavery. Therapists conducted early morning sessions to ensure that Louis learned this life changing skill. Equally Louis’ parents learned to not do things for him that they would have done ordinarily. How many of us would learn to do something if it was always done for us? So, when considering your child’s programme ask questions about all areas of their development, not just language, not just play but also those areas that will allow your children to be independent as they grow up and stand tall alongside their peers and not be always searching for help. Our goal is to empower the children with whom we work, and it is not easy, for the children or for the parents, but it is necessary and we are there to help you and your child achieve these life changing goals.
Congratulations to our most recent Toilet Training Graduate! Ottavia
Thank You Sarah Sarah Lavery and four friends ran eight miles in the Belfast Marathon in May. They raised over £400 for the Impact Trust. Many Thanks go to Sarah, her friends and everybody who sponsored them.
Sarah Lavery was the baby in the March newsletter! Now, you have a new cherub to guess.
centre for early autism treatment Quarterly Newsletter ~ September 2007
Dear Families,
Spring 2003
Well, it is that time of year again. The children are back in class, schedules are in full swing and we are all preparing for a productive new school year. We’ve had an exciting summer at CEAT, complete with a day of bouncing and playing at our CEAT Fun Day as we wished Julianne Bell farewell as she moves to America for further training. Some of us also enjoyed a day climbing on helicopters and fire engines at a local RAF base as we celebrated one of the Impact Trust’s fundraising efforts. Still, much work was done during this time and several of our little ones have learned to use the toilet! We are so proud to say, “no more nappies!” We hope you enjoy this newsletter, in which you will find pictures and stories of our exciting summer. We would like to thank our Programme Supervisor, Lorraine Hoey, for editing this newsletter! Kimmy and Mary
Our Visit to the RAF Base . . . More Information, Page 4
We are pleased to host an
Understanding Behaviour Seminar Saturday, 13 October 2007 Open to all families and tutors. Please contact use soon if you would like to attend.
Finn and Johnny, Flying a Helicopter!
Centre for Early Autism Treatment 60 Belmont Avenue Belfast BT4 £DE Phone: 02890659678 Fax: 02890652715 Website: www.ceatni.net Emai: information@ceatni.net
CEAT FUNDAY At the start of August, we hosted a Family Fun Day in Belvoir Activity Centre. Over fifteen families and their therapists came together to join in the fun. It was a long and exciting afternoon of jumping on a bouncy castle, playing skittles, ball games and parachute play. It was also a great opportunities for parents, therapists and friends to relax, chat and have some nibbles. Several of our families were lucky enough to leave with raffle wins, which kept the fun going at the end of the day. Great fun was had by all!
www.ceatni.net Our Website: Use it! The Discussion Forum on our website is now up and running. We would now like to encourage our families and therapists to use it as a quick and easy way of networking with others. It can be used to: Post ads for therapists Discuss topics of interest Post motivating stories
www.ceatni.net
FAREWELL SARAH! We would like to say a huge thank you and good luck to Sarah Charlton who is moving to Australia to start her training to become an EIBI supervisor. Sarah has worked as a diligent and dedicated therapist with many families over the past few years. In addition to her time as a therapist, Sarah took to the streets in the 2006 Belfast Marathon in support of the Impact Trust. She will surely be missed! Good luck Sarah!
MATERIALS BANK As you all know, it is often difficult finding or making teaching materials for our home programmes. Therefore, we would like to set up a materials bank through which parents and therapists can share resources, send in useful website addresses and part with unused toys. Please post/email in any useful materials or website addresses to information@ceatni.net. This includes materials that have been made on the computer as we are hoping to set up a place on the website to allow you to download these.
Congratulations to our Toilet Training Graduates! Joshua Davide Giulio Jasmine
Who is the baby? Last months wee cherub was Lorraine Hoey. But can you guess which CEAT staff member this little one is?
When I grow up . . .
“I’d like to fly a helicopter”, says Johnny, 8, as he sits in the pilot seat of an RAF helicopter. Johnny and his friends enjoyed their day at the RAF base!
The Mourne Mountain Challenge One of our families, along with their friends from the RAF, took part in a grueling fund raising effort for the Impact Trust on the 23rd of June. Our friends Graham and Susan and nine accomplices ran up and down Slieve Donnard, in the Mourne Mountains, a total of sixty-six times! Together, they ran an astounding 17,600 metres in total, the equivalent to twice the height of Mount Everest! In doing so, Graham, Susan, Kevin, Stewat, Dee, Dawn, Will, Will, Andy, John and Jez raised an astounding ÂŁ5000 for the Impact Trust. We thank them, on behalf of the Impact Trust, for their time, significant effort and sore muscles. . .
A Day Out at the Air Force Base
In a follow up to this, the RAF base kindly allowed 5 CEAT kids to come and see round their base. At the base, the kids had a tour and were able to sit inside the cockpit of planes and helicopters. After this, the RAF presented the cheque to the family.
Members of the Royal Air Force proudly present parents and children of the Impact Trust with a cheque for ÂŁ5000, raised by the Mourne Mountain Challenge. Following this, children had loads of fun climbing on helicopters, playing on fire engines and watching search and attack dogs in action. Great fun was had by all.