Return to COMMUNITY

Inclusive Education and Community Partnership (IECP)

Rick Clemens, M.A.

117 Fillmore Ave

Oxnard, CA 93035

Tel: (805) 985-4808  Fax: (805) 985-7623

RickClemens@aol.com

Mission Statement:

Our Mission is to support schools, families, and community agencies in providing full access to life’s experiences for individuals with disabilities. This includes making friends, playing, accessing school and community, learning, loving, being loved, and living life to the fullest.

Philosophy Statement:

Every child should have the opportunity to share in the common experiences that are typical for children their age. For some children these opportunities come naturally and for others they must be facilitated and supported. “Access” refers to not mere physical access, but rather emotional, social, and cognitive access. This is best accomplished by utilizing the natural supports in the given environments and supporting them through education (training, providing resources, hands on modeling, etc.). Although extra supports may at times need to be provided, the goal is to find a match between the child and the environment without the need for artificial supports. We believe that through this process true inclusion in life can be a reality for all children!

Community Needs:

School inclusion programs are now a common option for children with autism and other developmental disabilities and the success of these programs has been widely documented. However, inclusion in life outside of school has not been as readily available for children with disabilities. Although the Americans with Disabilities Act along with other Federal and State laws mandates equal access to most community activities, the reality is that the necessary supports needed to insure participation are not available. Therefore, the opportunities that students with autism and other developmental disabilities have in their communities are greatly limited, and for some children are nonexistent. The absence of such opportunities adversely effects children, families, and communities as a whole.

Furthermore, children with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities experience an absence of friendships, socialization, and social play opportunities with their peers without disabilities outside of school. One need not look far into the literature to find the importance of friendship, socialization, and play on children’s emotional, social, and cognitive development. However, facilitating friendships and play for children with autism and other developmental disabilities is difficult and requires specific training and knowledge that many families do not yet possess. Moreover, specifically for children with autism spectrum disorder, social play is a skill that needs to be systematically developed in facilitated interactions with education and coaching provided to them and to their peers. In short, many children with autism and other developmental disabilities are not receiving the support necessary to make these opportunities a reality.

There is a significant need to make inclusion in life a reality for all children.

Program Design/Services Provided:

To make access to community activities, friendship and social play opportunities successful will require a multi-faceted and multi-step program. The service delivery will be individualized and will include detailed assessment, community research and both consultative and direct services. The start up will require an assessment of the interest, abilities, and need of the child, along with the wishes and values of the family. In regard to community activities and social play, research will be conducted to determine the most appropriate options. Once programs have been developed, the needs of the child and the adults will determine how services will be provided.

IECP offers an array of services to support children with disabilities in inclusive school and community settings. All services are based on the highest standard of service delivery and are designed to maximize natural supports and provide life long opportunities for the individuals we serve. The following is a description of the services we provide through our vendor ship with Regional Center:

Social Play Development & Friendship Development Program:

This program is designed to meet the social play needs of children with autism spectrum disorder. Consultation on facilitating play dates and developing and fostering friendships is available to families who have children with other disabilities, but the direct interventions are based specifically on research relating to children with autism. The goals of this program are as follows:

• To develop and strengthen the social play skills of the child with autism spectrum disorder.

• To develop and strengthen the social play skills of the typically developing child in relation to their friend with autism.

• To develop the skills of the child with autism and those of their friends, and the repertoire of activities, to allow independent, unfacilitated and natural play to occur.

• To create opportunities and successful interactions that lead to the development of genuine and long lasting friendships.

In general, this program involves facilitating social play between a child with autism spectrum disorder and a typically developing friend. The focus is on developing the social play skills of the child with autism and educating the child without autism on how to play and engage with the child with autism. The interventions involve working through a sequence of developmental social play skills which include attunement, joint attention, reciprocal interactions, topic maintenance, and topic maintenance on a non-preferred topic. Interwoven and aligned with those play skills the intervention will include working through isolated play, parallel play, interactive play, and cooperative play. The program is a social play development intervention program with the important addition of peer training so that the play can be continued in the absence of adult facilitation.

Through this program IECP will also be assisting families in arranging play dates with typically developing children if the family needs assistance in this area. If the child is included or integrated in a general education class, the goal will be to arrange play dates and foster friendships with the children from the child’s class. This is because we know that outside of school friendships foster stronger inside of school friendships and visa-versa. If the child is not included or integrated the goal will be to arrange play dates and foster friendships with children from the child’s neighborhood (which will include children from the child’s home/neighborhood school). Our staff will work with the schools in identifying the most appropriate children to facilitate play dates with.

If the child is included or integrated, this will be with children who the child with autism spectrum disorder is already demonstrating a natural attraction towards and visa-versa. (Based on the extensive work and partnerships that Rick Clemens and his associates have established with the schools, IECP is in a unique position to accomplish the above.)

Specifically, based on initial and ongoing assessments of each individual child, services will be provided in one of the following manners for children deemed eligible for the service:

• Direct intervention for five hours a week (two 2 ½ hour sessions), or two and a half hours a week (one 2 ½ hour session). This time includes set up, facilitating the play, clean up, and parent training. All programs will be developed and supervised by a Masters level Associate. Supervision of the program will occur in the natural environment in which the services are being delivered and occur no less than two hours every six weeks.

• For older children, services will be delivered less often and will focus more on peer training. This may take the form of a “friends meeting” for one or two hours between once every two weeks to two months and be facilitated and taught by a Masters level Associate.

• Consultation to families on developing and facilitating play dates. This will be provided by a Masters Level Associate and include a one time consult with follow up as needed.

Community Activity & Summer Camp Inclusion Program:

This program is designed to facilitate the inclusion of children with autism and other developmental disabilities into after-school community activities and summer camps. The goals of this program are as follows:

• To provide children with developmental disabilities full access (cognitive, social, emotional and physical), to the community activities and summer camps of the child’s and family’s choice.

• To educate community agencies and individual providers in effective inclusion practices, so to break down the barriers to inclusion and give them the tools to independently include all children.

In general, this program involves consultation and collaboration with community agency staff and individual providers in the inclusion of the child in their care. The focus is on collaborating with them on developing and designing a program that most effectively includes the child and on giving them the tools to implement the program using their natural resources. This will include making adaptations to their activities, positive behavioral supports, peer education, and other supports as deemed necessary. If the child requires an assistant, consultation on the appropriate use of the assistant will be provided. This includes using the assistant as an “extra adult assistant” for the whole group and only working with the identified child when needed. Also, strategies of assuring that the child views the activity leader as their leader, as opposed to the assistant, will be provided. The impetus is on program design, so that the child can be successful in accessing the activity in the most natural way possible.

Through this program IECP will also assist families in identifying the most appropriate community activities for their child. The focus will be on the child’s interest, and the family’s values. Choosing a community activity for a child with disabilities ought to be no different than choosing one for a child with out disabilities. It is IECP’s belief that with appropriate supports and adaptations, all children can access the community activities of their choice.

Another variable that will be considered in choosing a community activity or summer camp is an understanding of which activities and camps the child’s friends from their school and their neighborhood attend (Again, with the goal of developing and maintaining friendships, shared experiences should be emphasized). IECP will work with the schools in determining which community activities and summer camps the children from school and/or the neighborhood are attending. An extra emphasis will be placed on determining the above for the children in which the child with a disability is demonstrating a natural attraction towards and visa-versa. All services will be provided by a Masters level Associate from IECP. If it is determined that the child requires an assistant, an assistant will be hired by the parent or by the community agency through an agreement with Regional Center and the assistant will not be an employee of IECP.

Specifically, based on initial and ongoing assessments of each individual child, services will be provided in one of the following manners for children deemed eligible for the service:

• An initial consult of up to three hours and ongoing consultation with the community agency staff in developing activity adaptations, behavior interventions, and peer supports, up to one hour a week, or two hours every other week or less often depending on the needs of the child and the staff.

• Upfront services to assist in the development and design of the child’s program with follow-up as needed. This would include a one-time consult of up to three hours.

• Consultation to families on determining the most appropriate community activities and/or summer camps. This would include a one-time consult and possibly a school visit, combined not to exceed two hours.

Assessment Process:

An assessment will be required for both the Social Play Development/Friendship Development Program and the Community Activity/Summer Camp Program. If the request is for both services, still one assessment will be performed and will include the relevant information needed for both programs.
The purpose of the assessment will be twofold in that it will establish the child’s need for service as well to gather the information necessary to begin
the development of the program if the child is deemed eligible.

Assessments will be conducted to determine preferred community activities and challenges in accessing those activities and/or friendship and social play needs. Assessments will also determine appropriate levels of supports and services to match these needs.

• A caregiver/teacher/child questionnaire will be provided to determine the family and child’s priorities, and the child’s interest, needs, and current levels of performance in the area of social play (i.e. attunement, turn taking, interactive play, etc.). An interview will be conducted along with the questionnaire. The focus will be on creating child and family self-determination.

• An observation of the child will be conducted in the environment(s) that are most similar to those that are being planned for the child. If the child is not involved in play dates or included in community activities, then the observation would most likely occur at the child’s school during a recess period and/or an activity most similar to the desired community activity.

• All assessments will be performed by a Master level Associate and will typically be five hours in length.

• Assessments will be completed and a report submitted to Regional Center within thirty days of the initial request to IECP.

The result of the assessment will be a recommendation on the eligibility for services and a recommendation on the appropriate level of services (this will align with one of the service descriptions listed under Program Design/Services Provided). For the Social Play Development/Friendship Development Program, the level of service will typically be correlated with the child’s severity of autism spectrum disorder and their cognitive abilities.

Children with more severe autism and/or with cognitive delays will require more frequent intervention in order to benefit from the service. For the community activity and summer camp inclusion program the level of service will be based on the intensity of the adaptations needed and on the skills and abilities of the community and camp staff.

Documentation on Progress:

Inclusive Education and Community Partnership will provide the family and Regional Center with quarterly progress reports for each program that a child is accessing. The reports will include progress made, present levels of performance, and current needs and recommendations for services.

Success Stories:

Social Play Development/friendship Development Program

Community Activity/Summer Camp Inclusion Program