NGAC- North Georgia Autism Center - Gordon County, GA

12/17/2022

Gordon County families and friends, we invite you to begin following our NGAC- North Georgia Autism Center page if you aren’t already! We are merging the pages to provide more consistent updates. Thank you!

11/01/2022

Halloween is a fun night of costumes and candy for kids of all ages. But for those on the autism spectrum, it can be a little intimidating. Unusual sights and sounds, people dressed up in costume, wearing an unfamiliar outfit, and going out at night can easily be overstimulating and uncomfortable. At NGAC, we put on a special Trick-Or-Treating event each year to help our kiddos desensitize to the “novel” activity it in a more comfortable setting, so they feel ready and confident to go out Halloween night and have fun!

What is desensitizing?

Desensitization means being exposed to small amounts of the aversive (or “disliked”) situation until the learner is able to be calm during the presentation of the step and receive reinforcement. So, for example, if the learner was afraid of dogs, the first step would be calmly looking at a picture of a dog, then touching a stuffed dog, then being in close proximity to a real dog, and then eventually petting the dog calmly. In the context of Halloween, we are desensitizing to the task of wearing a costume, going door-to-door, and receiving candy from unfamiliar adults while remaining calm and comfortable!

Yesterday, NGAC’s Trick-Or-Treaters practiced going door to door with their therapist, knocking, and asking for candy in whatever way is easiest to communicate for them! Our kiddos had a blast, and we always enjoy seeing their adorable costumes!

10/31/2022

10/24/2022

It's ABA Monday! Let's find out what NGAC's ABA Word of the Week is!

NGAC's Word of the Week is VB-MAPP!

If you’ve been to NGAC for any amount of time, there’s a good change you’ve heard about the VB-MAPP!

The VB-MAPP is a criterion-referenced assessment tool, curriculum guide, and skill tracking system that is designed for children with autism, and other individuals who demonstrate language delays. There are five components of the VB-MAPP, and collectively they provide a baseline level of performance, a direction for intervention, a system for tracking skill acquisition, a tool for outcome measures and other language research projects, and a framework for curriculum planning. (Summarized from: https://marksundberg.com/vb-mapp/ )

Essentially, the VB-MAPP is the assessment tool on which most ABA interventions are based on! It gives us a clear picture of the important developmental milestones our clients need to reach.

What ABA word should we do next?

10/17/2022

It's ABA Monday! Let's find out what NGAC's ABA Word of the Week is!

NGAC's Word of the Week is Intraverbal!

Intraverbals are the basis of social verbal exchange/conversation. The learner’s verbal response is controlled by the verbal responses of others. In ABA, we often refer to intraverbals as sentence fill-ins. An example of a simple intraverbal may be:

“The itsy bitsy spider…” (The learner responds, “Went up the water spout.”)

In a conversational setting, intraverbals are integral to being able to carry out a verbal exchange with someone. When greeting a familiar person, they may ask you, “How are you today?” The response requires use of an intraverbal sentence fill-in, where you may respond, “I’m doing great!”

Of course, in ABA, we start much simpler and work our way up! Intraverbals are typically first taught using something fun and natural, like song fill-ins or making animal sounds!

What ABA word should we do next?

10/10/2022

It's ABA Monday! Let's find out what NGAC's ABA Word of the Week is!

NGAC's Word of the Week is Task Analysis!

A Task Analysis is a step-by-step list of actions necessary to complete a specific behavior. The behavior is broken down into its component parts and then the learner is asked to engage in the behavior, for instance, “brush teeth”. Depending on their skill level the task analysis may be 10 steps or 40 steps. A task analysis may be in text or picture form. As the learner becomes more fluent with the task, the task analysis is shortened until the learner can perform the skill independently.

Here’s a simple example of a task analysis!

Washing Hands
Turn on water
Put hands under water
Push soap dispenser to put soap on hands
Rub hands together to lather soap
Put hands under water to rinse
Turn off water
Use a paper towel/cloth towel to dry hands

A Task Analysis for one person may look different than one for another- there’s more than one way to do most things! What’s important is that the child is able to learn to do a new skill independently!

What ABA word should we do next?

10/03/2022

It's ABA Monday! Let's find out what NGAC's ABA Word of the Week is!

NGAC's Word of the Week is Tact!

A tact is a form of verbal behavior where the speaker sees, hears, smells, tastes something and then comments about it. The tact is often associated with expressive labels.

Most essentially, a tact is a label. For example, a child is playing in the park and they see someone walking their dog. The child says, “Dog!”, therefore expressively labeling what they see. Like the description below, we can tact sights, smells, textures, tastes, emotions, people, places, things- you name it! Anything you can label- you can TACT!

What ABA word should we do next?

10/01/2022

Happy International Coffee Day!

09/30/2022

We made it to the end of September! Let’s celebrate by going back and taking a look at what has happened at North Georgia Autism Center in the past month!

Calhoun:

Holidays: NGAC celebrated Labor day at the beginning of the month! This month’s fun Fridays included make your own rainbow day, wear your favorite color day, and Community Helpers Day

Birthdays: Savannah Smith and Logan Burdette had birthdays this month. Happy Birthday!!

Annuals: Darius Washington celebrated 2 years with NGAC this month, and Nicole Rayburn and Chantel Barnette celebrated one year with NGAC!

Client graduations: NGAC Calhoun had five clients graduate this month! We wish you all the best!

Here’s to another month of learning, growing, and fun!

09/29/2022

When NGAC celebrates an anniversary, we celebrate in STYLE!

North Georgia Autism Center's Calhoun Location celebrated its two year anniversary this past month! The festivities included dressing up in themed team costumes, tie-dyeing shirts, playing fun games, taking group pictures, and the afternoon ended in a relaxing float down the river!

We are so grateful for our Calhoun team! Happy Anniversary!

09/26/2022

It's ABA Monday! Let's find out what NGAC's ABA Word of the Week is!

NGAC's Word of the Week is Mand!

“Mand” is a Verbal Behavior term. A mand is basically a "demand" or “command”. This is being able to request something that one wants or needs. Or, additionally, it may be a request to end or remove an unwanted stimulus.

Mands can look like many different things, especially for individuals with Autism. Mands can range anywhere from simply looking in the direction of a desired item, reaching toward it, pointing, making verbal approximations, using a communication device, and of course asking using words and full sentences. Manding is integral to communication, and something we work on every day with our clients at North Georgia Autism Center!

09/19/2022

It's ABA Monday! Let's find out what NGAC's ABA Word of the Week is!

NGAC's Word of the Week is Extinction Burst!

Have you ever heard the phrase, “It’s going to get worse before it gets better?” This is a fairly accurate description of what an Extinction Burst looks like.

Extinction burst is a term used to describe a fairly common phenomena in therapeutic treatment. Namely, when the therapist, program, or even individual tries to stop an unwanted behavior by no longer reinforcing it, that behavior will reassert itself for a time, and can increase in intensity before it goes away.
Extinction bursts can be frustrating. Your child is finally cleaning up their toys on their own instead of throwing them across the room! However, one day seemingly out of the blue, they begin throwing their toys again. You may ask yourself why or what you’re doing wrong- and the answer is simply, nothing! Extinction bursts are natural and happen often. The best thing to do when your child is going through an extinction burst is to consult your BCBA, and stay strong! It will get worse before it gets better, but once it’s gone, it’s less likely to come back again!