Redwood Learning Center, founded in May, 1998, provides comprehensive early intervention services to young children diagnosed by qualified psychologists with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), autism, or a related disorder throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. Please note that Redwood Learning Center does not provide psychological diagnostic services before, during, or after these early intervention services. The Center is directed by Steven Michalski who, prior to founding Redwood Learning Center, founded and worked as director of The Early Childhood Intervention Center (ECIC) from December, 1994 - April, 1998. Mr. Michalski received his training at the UCLA Clinic for the Behavioral Treatment of Children (renamed the Lovaas Institute for Early Intervention). Redwood's staff consists of individuals who desire a long-term career working to advance the overall level of functioning of children with learning disabilities. Redwood's staff consists of an assistant director, center supervisors, senior instructors, and instructors. Mr. Michalski directly supervises all Redwood staff members, and each person receives ongoing training, and undergoes quality control measures.
Our program is based on the methodology developed by O. Ivar Lovaas, Ph.D., and encompasses more than 30 years of scientific research and clinical experience. Specifically, O. Ivar Lovaas, Ph.D. and his associates (Lovaas, 1987: Lovaas & Smith, 1988: McEachin, Smith, and Lovaas, 1993), published controlled evaluations of the effectiveness of an early intervention behavioral treatment program, performed at a high intensity with parental involvement. Lovaas (1987) studied three groups of children who received either 40 hours of one-to-one instruction per week, 10 hours or less of one-to-one instruction per week, or no instruction at all. Nine of the 19 children receiving intensive instruction successfully passed first grade in regular classes without any special intervention and performed within the normal range on standardized intelligence tests. Only 1 of the 40 children in the two remaining groups achieved such an outcome. Among children who do not achieve normal intellectual and academic functioning, large variability of outcome exists. Most children do show a significant increase in appropriate skills and a decrease in negative behaviors. Additionally, most children acquire a means of communication, and are able to transition into either aphasia or special education classrooms.
Our program encompasses all areas of functioning. We target the development and acquisition of receptive and expressive language, toy play, peer play, socialization, abstract concepts, and self-help skills. Teaching of appropriate behaviors proceeds in incremental, systematic steps in an instructional environment structured to maximize a child's success. It is our experience that a child needs approximately 35-40 hours per week of one-to-one instruction in the home in order to learn appropriate behaviors and dissipate negative behaviors most effectively. Cognitively demanding concepts are intermixed with less demanding concepts, and one-to-one instruction is interspersed with play activities. Each instructional session lasts approximately 2-3 hours. During a session, the child engages in a specific task (1-3 minutes) and then takes a short break (1-3 minutes). A longer break (10 minutes) is taken each hour of a session. In addition to providing the child with time away from the instructional setting, the break allows for generalization of mastered skills to the everyday environment. If any aspect of the program is particularly difficult, it is modified to accommodate the child's specific needs.
A team of 3-6 adults provides instruction. Each team member should provide 6-12 hours of one-to-one instruction per week; enough time to establish procedural competence and a positive rapport, while not spending so much time that the child becomes dependent on any one member. Parents are an integral part of the instructional team. We recommend that parents provide 2-5 hours of one-to-one instruction per week, enabling them to maintain a consistent approach across all of their child's waking hours, and generalize mastered skills to everyday environments. Parents should attend all weekly staff meetings, participate in selecting new goals, offer observations, evaluate staff, and approve all procedures implemented.
Once a child learns appropriate foundation behaviors and skills, and negative behaviors have dissipated, he or she is then gradually integrated into an appropriate classroom. The particular setting chosen is based on the child's success in the period of one-to-one instruction in the home. In all cases we want to provide a child with a setting conducive to maximizing success and minimizing failure, with the most appropriate models of social behavior and language. A member of the instructional team accompanies the child to facilitate integration into the classroom routine, shift reinforcement to same age peers, and assist the child in acquiring new behaviors in a group setting. Deficits that exist in the child's behavioral repertoire in school are targeted in one-to-one instruction, and then generalized to school. Initially, a child spends as little as 30 minutes a day in class. As a child is successful, class time is systematically increased. Eventually, a child will attend school approximately 15 hours per week, and participate in one-to-one instruction 15-20 hours per week. Approximately 6-9 hours of the one-to-one time will be spent playing one-to-one with same-aged peers from his/her class.
We are not able to predict how well a child will respond to early intervention prior to the inception of the program. Currently, the best indicator of a child's outcome is how a child responds to the program in the initial phases. The rate of acquisition of new appropriate behaviors and the reduction of negative or inappropriate behaviors in the first 3-6 months of instruction is highly indicative of a child's long-term learning.
If you have further questions or would like to schedule a consultation, please telephone (973) 665-1166, Monday-Friday, between the hours of 9AM-4PM (EST). A recorded message may be left 24 hours a day.