As you may have heard, we will soon be offering LEGO-based activities at Y.A.L.E. Schools. We are purchasing new materials, but we would also like to start a “freestyle,” collection of used LEGO. If you have LEGO materials at home that you are no longer using, please feel free to drop them off at the main offices at either the upper or lower schools. The LEGO will be cleaned and sorted by our students and staff, and will be organized and prepared for use in upcoming LEGO projects (LEGO City, stop-motion films, LEGO Comics, etc).

Thank you so much for your support,

Dr. Dan

Daniel B. LeGoff, PhD, LP
Assistant Director
Y.A.L.E. Schools

The Y.A.L.E. School autism program has grown and expanded since 1997. Since its inception, it has been devoted to applying the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to instruction for children with a diagnosis of autism. ABA is a data based and analytical discipline devoted to the understanding and improvement of human behavior, and all interventions are designed to be functionally relevant for each student. The Y.A.L.E. School’s program systematically implements ABA procedures to increase functional and appropriate behaviors while decreasing inappropriate or disruptive behaviors.

As the program grows so do the needs of the students we serve. In 2005, the Y.A.L.E. School autism program expanded to add two additional satellite campuses to serve the unique needs of students with a diagnosis of autism in new locations and in new age ranges, including its Atlantic program in Hamilton Township New Jersey, that better serves students who could not travel to Voorhees to attend the autism program at Y.A.L.E. School Southeast. Similar to the program in Voorhees, the program in Hamilton Township is a comprehensive ABA program focusing on increasing academic, social, and behavioral competency. The program provides services to students between the ages of 3 and 7 in the surrounding communities and is housed in a public elementary school which allows for integration opportunities on an individualized basis.

In addition to the expansion of the autism program to Hamilton Township, another opened in Audubon New Jersey in 2005, in a public Junior-Senior high school and provides behavior analytic services to students between the ages of 12 and 21. Currently, the program consists of two classrooms within Audubon High School and is made up of students between 14 and 19 years of age. The programming for these older students also utilizes the principles of ABA; however there is an increased focus on incorporating life and work-readiness skills into the curriculum, as well as individualized transition and vocational planning for each student. Structured peer interactions, community based instruction and job sampling opportunities within the high school cafeteria and various community placements are also components of this satellite campus.

Looking towards the near future, these satellite campuses are going to continue to expand and grow as the needs of the students and the communities do. The next planned expansion will begin in July 2010 with the addition of a new elementary classroom in Audubon, providing behavior analytic instruction to students ages 8-11 in a public-school environment and allowing for beneficial integration opportunities for students on an individualized basis. In addition, the expansion of the Y.A.L.E. School autism program will continue later in the fall with the addition of another classroom at Audubon High School, as well as the addition of a second classroom in Hamilton Township. This additional classroom in Hamilton Township will allow us to provide services to students between the ages of 7 and 9 within a public elementary school environment.

The expansion of these satellite autism programs warranted an expansion of our behavior analytic staff to provide educational and clinical supervision to the students and staff in these programs. As a result, the Y.A.L.E. School is very pleased to announce the addition of Rebecca Null, Ph.D., BCBA-D as the supervising behavior analyst for the satellite autism programs. Dr. Null received her Ph.D. from Temple University and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She brings a vast amount of knowledge and experience to the Y.A.L.E. clinical team with almost 15 years of experience working with students of all ages with a diagnosis of autism. She has worked extensively in the areas of staff supervision and training, program development, Functional Behavior Assessment, the development and implementation of individualized behavior plans, and establishing functional communication systems.

Dr. Null will be working as the primary certified behavior analyst for the Y.A.L.E. School Atlantic and Audubon campuses, and will coordinate admissions, provide program development, conduct staff training and supervision, and address the academic and behavioral needs of the students in these programs.

Those who love, care for, befriend, and teach children with Asperger’s disorder or similar social communication deficits are familiar—and yes, even comfortable—with their particular, idiosyncratic, and often pedantic conversational styles. As the adults in their lives, we become proficient at supporting, guiding, and redirecting their interactions with us, adjusting our interests to accommodate their preferred topics and areas of expertise. We also ask for clarifications, explanations, and dig for information to facilitate more socially pertinent conversations and broaden personal topics. With peers or less familiar adults, however, the social interaction weakness in our youngsters is often glaringly evident and debilitating.

Difficulties identifying and disclosing narratives regarding personal experiences, valued associations, or meaningful interests can impede an ability to establish a mutual foundation with others on which to build lasting and satisfying reciprocal relationships.
All the social scripting, social stories, and good intentions combined are not sufficient to provide our youngsters with an improved and increased sense of identity or the right “ingredients” for more meaningful social communication. In an effort to find methods to help Asperger’s students generate such valuable and valued information about themselves, we drew on the experience and knowledge of Dr. Dan LeGoff—or Dr. Dan—whose positive results and accounts of the promising potential of his “All About Me” scrapbooking intervention are the inspiration for new psychologist-led, social skill activities in the youngest class at Y.A.L.E. North in Medford Lakes.

For the past five weeks, second-, third-, and fourth-graders in Mrs. Buddenbaum’s class have been developing their own unique scrapbooks. With the kind efforts of their families, we are collecting wonderful photos to help illustrate the people, events, and information important and relevant to our students. These are augmented with images from magazines and the internet and embellished with stickers, drawings, and text. Initial scrapbook pages contain factual, general information common to the types of topics we all include in casual conversations: early history, immediate family, pets, classroom membership, etc. Subsequent pages increasingly disclose more personal information such as significant events, items of emotional value, friendships, hobbies, future goals, and more.

In the first weeks of this activity, the impact, though currently contained within the groups, has been unexpected and immediate. It is remarkable to see small groups of boys with well-established conversation rituals involving simultaneous, cursory monologues, become excited and curious about each others’ photographs and information. Even on the very first day as the boys sat around baskets of scissors, glue, stickers, and paper with baby pictures in hand, the spontaneous reciprocal conversations took place. Not only did boys tell group-mates about family stories regarding their birth or first toy, but they huddled over all their scrapbook pages “oooh-ing,” complimenting one another on how cute they each were as infants, and asking questions. One group of boys gathered around to look at one boy’s sonogram. “Look!” exclaimed a peer. “Your baby hands were already practicing how to hold a video-game controller—even in your mom’s belly!” And so began an unexpected conversation about what talents they each thought they had been born with, and just one example of the regular delights brought about by scrapbooking. The activity is structured and certainly encouraged by the adult guiding the groups, but the communication between the students is often surprising, spontaneous, funny, poignant, and very, very social.

As our scrapbooks gain substance we will display them in the classroom for review during set times so that more peers can tell their stories, share information, and ask questions with support of the classroom staff. In the future, scrapbooks will be sent home to facilitate social conversations with extended family and friends. What a lovely experience it could be for a grandparent to contribute a special picture, and work with their grandchild to add a page to a scrapbook!

Although the “All About Me” scrapbooking intervention is in its infancy at Y.A.L.E. North, the early observations are encouraging and constructive. We look forward to expanding it to other classes and age groups, and developing with Dr. Dan a method to more formally assess the effectiveness of this promising method of improving our students’ relevant and reciprocal social communication.

Click here for the workshop flyer (PDF)