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CARD stands for Center for Autism and Related Disorders. I started CARD in 1990, and very
quickly thereafter I realized there’s a very large need for the type of service we
provide, which is ABA based service or intervention. After the first meeting which is usually the
diagnosis or confirmation of diagnosis, we will conduct a series of assessments. These
are both standardized tests where we’re measuring things like IQ or language ability
according to the age of the child or adaptive functioning, as well as skill assessments.
Is this child able to understand action words? Is this child able to pick up labels that
we name? Is the child able to play with a friend? Does the child have appropriate eye
contact, very very specific skills?
Once we’ve established that, we can generate a program. The child’s program has to be
very specific for him or her so that you’re only teaching those skills that are deficient
in that particular child and not just sort of doing a cook book type of approach. The
amazing thing is, as soon as you start teaching some of the basic skills, the child’s challenging
behaviors drops. They start going down because now the child has learned that one of the
very first things we teach is “requesting”. As soon as you teach a child how to request
for things he or she wants, he no longer has a tantrum to get those things.
The whole concept of ABA is based on reinforcement. When you ask a child to do something, there
has to be a fair level of reinforcement, so that the child is motivated. So the therapists
are extremely positive and they bring a lot of both social reinforcements and tangible
type of reinforcers for the children so that they will continue.