Autism Clinic Provides Unique Service to Kids and Parents
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 22, 2005
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Rebecca Lytle, Adapted Physical Education
530-898-4298
Autism Clinic Provides Unique Service to Kids and Parents
Rebecca Lytle, coordinator of the Adapted Physical Education (APE) Program, California State University, Chico, saw a need for a lab devoted just to children with autism and their parents, and proceeded to meet it. Lytle, with help from APE graduate students, created the first lab experience especially for children with autism in the fall of 2003.
Lytle and her students have held a Saturday program called “Kidsplay” for children with disabilities for about six years. The loud and active environment that was characteristic of the Kidsplay gym and pool program was not conducive to learning for the children with autism. It often overloaded their already-sensitive nervous systems.
“I realized that we could really serve these kids better if we worked with them individually. We needed to be able to do more thorough assessments, design individualized programs, and work with them one-on-one,” said Lytle. “We had a wonderful new facility in Yolo where we could create a sensory motor clinic. So, we started the first semester with a six-week class designed for children with autism.
The clinic was designed and run with students from the APE teacher training program. It now serves children individually in the clinic, with the assistance of graduate students from a variety of disciplines.
In the spring of 2005, Lytle received some funding through the College of Communications Arts and Education for this interdisciplinary program. The money funded five graduate students, one each from speech pathology, psychology, special education, adapted physical education and nutrition. The money supported individual work with kids and families. Twelve graduate students are currently enrolled in the new autism programming class.
Each graduate student has a role—some work directly with the children, some do research and some focus on data collection. The students in nutrition, for example, help parents refine programs the parents have established for their children’s special nutritional needs.
“The focus of our lab is to bring the children in and find out what their sensory needs are. Typically, the kids have a very different set of sensory needs than most of us. Kids might be either hypersensitive or hyposensitive,” said Lytle. The clinic allows staff to set up a learning environment that meets the needs of the child. Lytle pointed out that we all have differing sensory needs—some people, for example, may need a cup of coffee to wake up and get going in the morning. The kids are the same way, she said. “For a kid who is under stimulated, we might put them on a therapy ball and bounce them to bring them into a more alert state; for another, swinging may be calming. Each child’s program is designed specifically to put him or her in a positive and alert state that is optimal for learning,” said Lytle. “In that positive state, we can then work with them on new skills, whether that’s motor skills, speech and language, or academic.”
The program charges parents a $20 fee for each session, and the Far Northern Regional Center, a resource to families of children with developmental disabilities, provides funding for some families. Unfortunately, the program’s funding for the graduate students runs out soon, and Lytle is searching to find more. The parents and children both love the program, said Lytle. She is doing everything she can to see that it continues. Lytle said that she hopes to put together a faculty development grant for next semester. Her biggest challenge, she said, is that CSU, Chico is not a research institution or connected to a medical facility, so it’s ineligible for some funding sources.
“What we are doing is following current research from places such as the M.I.N.D. Institute at UC Davis to ensure that we are following best practices,” said Lytle. “That’s what our role is: to look at research related to the application of best current practices for providing autistic children with opportunities for learning through sensory and motor training.”
###