DURHAM, N.C. During a recent behavior therapy session in Durham, Kimberly Tyler held out two different Play-Doh molds, and asked 11-year-old Chloe Young to choose between them.
Tyler, an assistant behavior analyst with the Carolina Center for Applied Behavior Analysis and Autism Treatment, was working with Chloe, who has a severe form of autism, a developmental disorder.
The exercise was to help her to learn to verbalize her own choices instead of echoing or repeating what another person says, Tyler said. They also painted her nails, since one of her goals is to tolerate grooming, she said.
Their activities are broken into small steps, Tyler said. Chloe is offered reinforcement through activities that she said are motivating to her.
Located in a building on Yorktown Avenue in Durham, the office is where Tracy Vail, an autism consultant and speech pathologist, has helped to launch a facility that combines different service providers for people with autism.
Vail co-owns Let's Talk, a speech and language services company. In addition to Let's Talk and the Carolina Center for Applied Behavior Analysis and Autism Treatment, two other providers are in the building. Pediatric Possibilities, an occupational therapy practice, leases space there, as does a psychologist with a practice called Spectrum Services.
The office got off the ground in November, Vail said. Not all of the office space is leased. The providers have their own patient bases, she said, and three of the four providers have other office locations in addition to the one in Durham.
Vail said the idea is that the providers can work collaboratively to provide services for patients.
"We're starting with just the clinical services ., and the idea being that no one person could meet all the needs of the people with autism," she said.
Molli Young, Chloe's mother, works in the office in Durham. Her daughter didn't talk until she was 7, she said. She said the behavior therapists fed off of what does motivate her.
Originally posted here:
NC office opens to provide autism services