It takes a village to raise a child

As Nicole indicated we are going to share our stories of what brought us the point of developing the 212 degree programs and why we structured them the way we did. For me the desire to see more happen was when I was working in the schools in a classroom with three children with autism. I did everything I was supposed to do and still little progress was made - especially with this one particular boy. One of the goals for this boy was to help him stop sucking his thumb. The parent's wanted to see this done, but the expectation was that this would be dealt with while he was at school. No matter what strategies were used or the energy put into eliminating the thumb I was unable to make progress because this was the role of the school. The school couldn't succeed on it's own. It takes a village to raise a child.

The next step for me was to work in the homes of children with autism. As an In Home Clinician I would develop schedules for the kids, work on life skill goals such as eating at the table, using the bathroom, cleaning up after finishing a task and so on, but every time I would return to the home, the same story was told. The child would be eating on the couch, or have a chair pushed up to the cupboards helping himself to whatever snack he desired. No matter the effort I put in when I was with the child, the progress was minimal. These strategies needed to be taught to the parents so they could follow through with it at home as well. I couldn't succeed with him on my own. It takes a village to raise a child.

One of the major concepts of our new instructional program is that the parents be fully integrated through one of our family based programs. Families will be involved and will have shared accountability with staff to implement strategies in the clinic and at home. This is a team approach between our staff and the families involved. Through dynamic intelligence being integrated both in the home and at Horizons I know we will succeed. Let's turn up the heat and work together! It's that one degree that will make all the difference...It takes a village to raise a child!