BY YOUR SIDE Autism Podcast

Ginny is a Senior Manager of ABA Therapy at BYS. She’s a licensed clinical social worker and board certified behavior analyst. Ginny defines the ABC’s of Applied Behavior Analysis. What it means, how it’s performed, and how it’s a team effort as parent training, supervision, and assessment are all part of the ABA plan.

An emotional, and sometimes poignant interview, with three of BY YOUR SIDE’s ABA Therapist, each who have a younger brother with autism. Alex, Lizzie, and Natalija give their insight to being in a profession that hits close to home.

Preparation is your friend. Katurri walks us through an example of dealing with a situation where you go to the grocery store and your child is not ready to come out of the car. What started as an interview that was going to cover many topics, ended up with Katurri going into specific detail on how to handle difficult behaviors when it comes to a child needing guidance going places.

BYS’s Marketing and Community outreach team of Thom Trimingham, Nimra Irfan and Kimberly Childs discuss working for an autism business and how surprises of what they’ve witnessed has shaped the way they market the business, including what they saw of what therapist can do with bubbles, and the calming effect it has with kids on the spectrum.

Sandie Beierwaltes has been teaching elementary school for 29 years at St John Brebeuf in Niles IL. Sandie and her husband Dave have three children, their youngest Michael, who is now age 16, is on the spectrum. In this touching and insightful interview, Sandie shares the high and low times of their sixteen year journey.

What are parents and doctors quick to dismiss? How do we define conversation and communication when dealing with autism? In episode number eight, we have the pleasure to talk with Karen Kabaki-Sisto, M.S., CCC-SLP. She has been helping children with autism all over the world for 20 years. She is the creator of “I Can Have Conversations With You!™”, an interactive iPad program that enhances social skills and language abilities.

Sarah is a licensed and board certified occupational therapist. Since graduating from Saint Ambrose University she has worked with children in outpatient clinics and schools. Sarah is one of our therapists who works both the school and clinic. Since Sarah works in the schools, I started the conversation asking her perspective on what therapy looks like in a school setting and what techniques she uses in that environment.

Cindy has a 14 year old daughter who has been dealing with seizures her whole life. Cindy talks about a very scary moment in the middle of the night where her daughter was having an episode, and a touching insight when her other daughter wrote a paper for school about her sister seizures, a feeling Cindy never knew until she reading the assignment.

We spend the full podcast discussing why it’s sometimes difficult for a child with autism to transition from one place to another and tips on how those transitions can be made easier. The conversation moves into the topic of chance, which can have its own set of challenges.

Eunice has become the parent that we send other parents to talk to if they have questions about having a child with autism. She tells us of her low points and how community involvement has been one of the best moves she’s made.