Dear Project Supporters,
While this project is no longer active, we are excited to share that your support helped purchase and ship school supplies that were recently received by the ABA Senegal Team. These supplies are already making an impact on Autism therapy in Senegal.
The ABA Senegal Team said-
We began using the art supplies yesterday and unboxed the new puzzles and games. Such a relief to have these materials we'd been missing for so long. Our sensory items had all broken, so our children will get the refreshers this week - especially the rubber chewy necklaces that help to redirect biting behaviors.
Your support has made a difference for students with autism in the Dakar region of Senegal.
While this project is no longer active you can learn more about ABA Senegal program at https://www.abasenegal.org/
If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at GlobalGiving@developafrica.org.
Warm Regards,
The ABA Senegal Team & Develop Africa Team
Links:
Dear Project Supporters,
Thank you for your continued support that is making an impact for Autism therapy in Senegal.
This past month has been difficult for all of Senegal. Our families and staff have been staying home since the end of March, where situations - both behavioral and financial - can reach extremes.
How can we adapt Telehealth to our urban West-African setting?
Telehealth, or delivering care via video and audio technology, relies on an internet connection. As we are in the middle of the nation's capital, most of our families are fortunate enough to have wifi in the home. However, some do not. So we asked ourselves: Is it feasible to bring telehealth to our families here in Dakar? If so, who would participate?
Most telehealth procedures start with a resource assessment: Do they have the internet? A camera? A microphone? A place to put the camera? A quiet space in the home?
Rarely will all families have all these resources in their home to do telehealth with us, but it would be a shame to declare telehealth impossible within these limitations. There is always a way forward, it might just take some creativity!
One positive note is that smartphones have become very popular in the last few years, so most families have a smartphone in their house, even if they do not have wifi. Some also have tablets.
There are several models of telehealth to choose from. We have decided that the most realistic option for us is...
Online parent coaching via live video calls
Connection: For families without internet, there is a possibility we can send internet credit via Orange Money for Whatsapp video calls, though it remains to be tested. We can also keep the option open to send an interventionist to their home (who can record videos), or maintain the temporary halt on services. Consultation calls where possible are ongoing.
Model: As most of our students are very young and working on basic communication and language skills, we would plan to train parents in conducting Pivotal Response Treatment, the First Words program (Adair is certified at Level II for the moment). This means there will be more play and less tabletop work time.
Inspired by the evidence-based Social ABC's parent training model by this Canadian team, which utilizes PRT, we hope to empower parents during these tough times to conduct this open, naturalistic, and flexible therapy independently with their own household materials they have on hand (some even have toys and therapy materials in their homes from past therapy sessions!). The BCBA will begin with meetings about therapy goals and PRT techniques, then jump into highly-supported sessions where parents are coached live through their earphones. As the parent progresses in their training, the BCBA will fade out support to once per week.
Materials: The best option at the moment seems to be light, flexible, smartphone tripods, and wire-free earbuds so the parent can play with their child - with full freedom of movement. The tripod will be placed at full length in the corner of the room with the phone screen facing towards the wall (to minimize distraction). The BCBA will watch on the camera and talk into the parent's ear through the earbuds.
Children will need plenty of time to get used to the new piece of furniture in their space! The family may also need time to adjust to the materials and learn how to use them. These items would be discreetly dropped off at a family's home before beginning, to minimize infection, with sanitization instructions.
Testing: Though we are still formulating ideas, we have ordered these items from Jumia.sn and will hope to test this method soon in our own office before trying it out with a pilot family (including sending internet credit from phone to another). We want to make sure that everything we do is best for families - As such, this will be a collaborative process of trial-and-error, and we will welcome any and all feedback from our families as we go through this learning process together. Nio far!
Thanks For Your Support: Your support has made a difference for students with autism in the Dakar region of Senegal. We could not have done this without your generosity and kindness.
Phasing Out: After a review during these unprecedented times, we have decided to streamline our fundraising efforts. We have decided to phase out some project listings here on GlobalGiving. This will help us to be more efficient and make better use of our time.
With this in mind, we will be unfortunately be phasing out this project shortly.
Should you be interested in supporting another youth or education-related project here on GlobalGiving, we warmly invite you to join us in educating leaders in Sierra Leone.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to email us at globalgiving@developafrica.org.
With much gratitude,
The Dakar Team & Develop Africa Team
Dear Project Supporters,
Thank you for your continued support that is making an impact for Autism therapy in Senegal. Below is a field update from the Dakar Team.
Dear followers,
We have several pieces of good news a few weeks ago! Let's get right on it.
First, congratulations to our current behavior tech and office assistant Fatimata, who is getting married this month! We thank you for all your hard work these last 6 months at ABA Senegal and wish you nothing but best wishes and happiness in the coming years. Thank you for sticking with us through thick and thin.
Second, in light of our recent discouraging news that the BACB will no longer be certifying individuals
as therapy supervisors outside of North America, a brand new, international grassroots credentialing association has sprung up out of the ashes! This new organization calls
itself the International Behavior Analyst Organization, or IBAO. The IBAO will be providing behavior analyst certifications at near-identical parameters as the BACB of North America. Adair has signed on as a Professional Advisor, representing the population’s needs within her corner of Africa. She will be a voice among many all around the world, talking about how education can be accessed in each region, including distance and online options, as well as cultural factors that may affect things like ethics training. Everyone has the right to an education and career path in the field they are most passionate about. Helping professionals means helping families, and that’s what ABA Senegal is here for.
Third, we’d like to welcome our two new students these past couple of months. We hope to bring breakthroughs for all families we welcome into our care.
With fresh optimism in place, we shoulder on.
Until next time,
Your ABA Senegal team
Your support has made a difference for students with autism in the Dakar region of Senegal. We encourage you to start a monthly recurring donation here to continue helping students with Autism in the Dakar region of Senegal. Even a few dollars a month will go a long way. Please also share this with your contacts and invite them to consider supporting this ongoing project.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at GlobalGiving@developafrica.org.
Warm Regards,
The Dakar Team & Develop Africa Team
Dear Project Supporters,
Thank you for your continued support that is making an impact for Autism therapy in Senegal. Below is a field update from the Dakar Team.
Dear followers,
Best wishes to all and happy holidays to all from ABA Senegal!
During the holiday vacation, our students had two weeks off from school (per the French system that is active here in Senegal). During this time, we increase home activities for most of our students. For students receiving only school support, we do some extra-special activities at home with their school shadow. Sometimes it's not possible with everyone's travel plans and family structures, but we always do our best to keep in contact and practice our skill goals during each 2-week break.
And now for some news: After the very lovely holiday season of 2019, ABA Senegal received a concerning email from the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB). The BACB is the only current certification body for ABA, our model of therapy and hundreds of ABA therapy supervisors all over the globe have been certified by their standards and via their examinations, which are available in 13 languages and offered in dozens of countries worldwide. The BACB announced on Dec 31 st 2019 that it will cease certifying individuals outside of the United States and Canada in the near future. It will also run exams in only the English language. This news will have a huge impact on ABA Senegal and its employees, whose project core included offering a training pathway to Senegalese individuals up to the supervisor level. We are now in contact with other ABA entities across Africa to re-organize our collective plans and trajectories. This may mean that Africa will need to develop its own certification board (or boards). Quality control will be a major factor.
For now, ABA Senegal will continue running as a service for local families and as an employer to local staff. The value of these activities should not be minimized in the shadow of this news. We hope to continue our plans as a training center and overcome this new barrier in partnership with other ABA providers throughout Africa. Despite this bump in the road, we still remain optimistic about the difference we can make for the autism community in Senegal.
Sincerely,
The ABA Senegal team
Your support has made a difference for students with autism in the Dakar region of Senegal. We encourage you to start a monthly recurring donation here to continue helping students with Autism in the Dakar region of Senegal. Even a few dollars a month will go a long way. Please also share this with your contacts and invite them to consider supporting this ongoing project.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at GlobalGiving@developafrica.org.
Warm Regards,
The Dakar Team & Develop Africa Team
Links:
Dear Project Supporters,
Thank you for your continued support that is making an impact for Autism therapy in Senegal. Below is a field update from the Dakar Team.
Dear followers,
This month we want to give special recognition to a wonderful boy (we’ll call him Amadou) who has been with us since September. When we started school inclusion for Amadou, he was the first boy the teacher had ever seen “like this.” Though the school is experienced with school shadows, the school had not yet been ready to accept children of Amadou’s profile: Pre-verbal with LOTS of energy! Normally children like him are sent to “specialized schools” which are often overcrowded, underfunded, and undertrained. His teachers were so overwhelmed that they began speaking of not letting him back in school. We really didn’t want this to happen!
In the beginning, he was only able to sit for about 5 seconds in total. He preferred wandering around the room and “getting into things” (exploring his new environment), jumping and screaming (letting out internal energy), and climbing over the children, including pulling the girls’ hair (pre-social initiations). We knew this could all be shaped and replaced over time.
Here’s what we did: At home, we began to make the table a FUN space! Though there were a couple of toys he could play with on the floor, the really special ones (the ones that Adair brought) he had to play with while seated at the table. We kept them in a clear box so he couldn’t access them without an adult’s help (a strategy to encourage communication). We did tabletop time like this for 2 weeks before school started, pairing the word “sit” with these fun activities. Then, for most of September, we did the same procedure at school. We didn’t let him touch anything in the classroom except his toys and the table (gentle blocking and redirecting). If he approached us or the table, he was showered with positivity and offered a quiet toy to hold on to and hugs. If he left, he had to leave his toys on the table, and he did not get very much attention at all. We always left the classroom every 15 minutes and would also leave if he started getting particularly squirmy (but not yet upset). By the end of September, he was seated nicely with a small toy for 10-30 minutes on a regular basis. He would respond to the instruction “sit down please.” He was doing the same at home.
Once this was mastered, we began being a lot stricter about the sitting (he no longer had the right to walk around), while simultaneously giving him ways to say “all done” if he wanted to leave the classroom. We gave him some relaxing and useful things to work on outside! Though he wasn’t allowed to play (play is for recess time only), he was able to start potty training with us, started using sign language and working on his autonomy (getting his own snack and water bottle), and also doing some more classic therapy work like picture recognition (in exchange for a couple of cookies). Then we would go back inside and see what the class what up to. His shadow was trained to stay outside if it wasn’t something useful for him. If it was active, social, artsy, or involved music, then we were good to go back inside!
Today, Amadou loves school and the teachers are satisfied with his goals, progress, and support. He has 1-2 goals for each activity during the day. He’s high-fiving other kids and even passing balls and toys around. He has begun imitating some words and, combined with the sign language he has learned as well as his frequent movement breaks, his negative behaviors have gone down to almost zero. We are extremely proud of Amadou, and we are optimistic that he has a great year ahead of him!
We wish we could post some photographs of this wonderful boy, but we need to respect confidentially guidelines. Instead, we’ll post some alternative photos.
Sincerely,
-Your ABA Senegal team
Your support has made a difference for students with autism in the Dakar region of Senegal. We encourage you to start a monthly recurring donation here to continue helping students with Autism in the Dakar region of Senegal. Even a few dollars a month will go a long way. Please also share this with your contacts and invite them to consider supporting this ongoing project.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at GlobalGiving@developafrica.org.
Warm Regards,
The Dakar Team & Develop Africa Team
Links:
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