EARLY START AUTISM LLC
STUART, FLORIDA

Early Start Autism’s founder, Melissa K. Burkhardt, M.S. Ed., BCBA, draws from her vast experience, knowledge, expertise, and compassion in her work with young children with autism and their families. Early Intervention is her passion and she has over twenty years of experience working hands-on with young children with autism, working closely with their families, Speech and Language Pathologists and Occupational Therapists. Through her drive to help the young child with autism in reaching their greatest potential, she has continued her education over the years, always seeking to find treatments that are supported by current brain research and scientific evidence on autism and learning. The support therapists at Early Start Autism are carefully chosen for their experience and knowledge in child development and have undergone extensive training to be able to use the Early  Start Denver Model with fidelity. Early Start Autism teams with knowledgeable Occupational Therapists and Speech Pathologists to help provide the best team and the best care for your child. We look forward to helping your child reach his/her maximum potential. DISCLAIMER of Melissa Burkhardt and MH Sub I, LLC as hosting company dba TherapySites. There are seven main elements to the ESDM philosophy, and each is actualized in the day to day delivery of ESDM with young children. children's learning and assure that the learning opportunities that therapists and parents are providing, and the approaches to problem behaviors that we are using, are built upon the principles of applied behavior analysis. Children are assessed using the ESDM Curriculum Checklist every twelve weeks, and from that information and their parents' goals their team leader writes a set of 15-25 objectives that map out the skills that the interventionists and parents will focus on for the next 12 weeks. Each one of those objectives is then broken down into around 6 teaching steps, and these steps map out the child\'s intervention activities for each hour of intervention. These steps also form the data sheet that is completed every 15 minutes of intervention and allows for child progress to be examined daily. Parents also incorporate a focus on teaching steps into their daily play and caregiving routines. For problem behaviors, a functional assessment of the behavior is carried out and a positive behavior support plan is developed and put into place. Progress data are reviewed weekly and intervention plans are updated weekly from the data. The intervention procedures that ESDM therapists and parents use to teach the steps and skills focus on creating a joint activity with the child that begins from the child's choice or interest in a particular toy, game, food, or other type of activity. From the child's interest, the adult then develops a joint activity that has four steps: a set-up, a theme, one or more variations, and a closing. The two interact in a reciprocal, turn taking fashion in which both are inventing and participating in the activity, sharing roles, sharing materials, imitating each other, talking about the activity, having fun. The adult weaves several of the teaching steps from various objectives into each joint activity, so that children's communication and other learning objectives are being targeted inside the interaction. The adult provides many learning opportunities marked by clear antecedent-behavior-consequence (ABC) relationships, to reinforce children's efforts to respond appropriately with the activity or object the child desired at the start of the interaction (the intrinsic reward) and to use teaching procedures that may involve prompting, shaping, chaining, and/or fading to assure that the child carries out the target behavior as independently as possible. Building spontaneous, meaningful speech is a very important teaching target in ESDM, and the approach used to do so begins by building up a repertoire of nonverbal actions and gestures as children develop increasing use of their voice as a communication tool. Over 90% of children enrolled in the ESDM studies develop useful, communicative speech in the first two years after their enrollment. ESDM is an intervention approach for young children with ASD, ages 12-48 months. Our research studies have demonstrated that best outcomes are attained when children receive 15 or more hours weekly at home from a trained deliverer in addition to parents using the ESDM techniques during their ongoing play and caregiving activities at home. Both previous and ongoing studies indicate that ESDM can be carried out in small groups with ratios of 1 adult to 2 children, but we do not know yet whether children attain the same level of outcomes that they do from individual delivery. We have seen ESDM well-delivered inside community day care centers and in early childhood inclusive group programs within the general program structure, as long as there are sufficient numbers of trained teaching staff to support the child with ASD, and children with ASD can learn side by side with their typically developing peers. We have also learned that most parents who want to can learn ESDM techniques and can use them at home. However, autism is a major developmental disorder, and while parents can provide extremely important learning opportunities in their daily lives, we assume that both parent intervention and additional intervention from others will be needed to attain best outcomes for the majority of young children with ASD. All the ESDM materials are published and in the public domain. However, most professionals will need access to both materials and training in order to provide ESDM to children and families at a high level of skill. We look forward to helping your child reach his/her maximum potential. DISCLAIMER of Melissa Burkhardt and MH Sub I, LLC as hosting company dba TherapySites. By clicking send you agree that the phone number you provided may be used to contact you (including autodialed or pre-recorded calls). Consent is not a condition of purchase.