INTERNATIONAL CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER “They may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel” Carol Buchner
Shema Kolainu – Hear Our Voices offers a broad spectrum of evidence-based education and therapeutic programs to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related disabilities in a warm and nurturing environment. Programs are designed to help children overcome the disabilities caused by autism, including teaching them to communicate, socialize, play, read and write. Children participate in academic and therapy programs while learning to become a member of their family and community. Because autism knows no national or cultural boundaries, Shema Kolainu shares its pioneering programs and research with professionals locally and abroad so that all people who struggle with developmental disabilities and autism may benefit from our expertise. In 2014, Ms. Vardanyan attended the ICare4Autism International Autism Conference in New York City. This conference gave Ms. Vardanyan an opportunity to get acquainted with ICare4Autism Founder and President, Joshua Weinstein Ph.D., M.B.A. She inquired about Shema Kolainu – Hear Our Voices School and Center for Children with Autism. A special trip to Shema Kolainu was organized for Ms. Vardanyan, which helped her gather insights and methods used in the United States based on the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA) to treat children with autism in an educational setting. Ms. Vardanyan met with Shema Kolainu wonderful staff and students. This was the starting point for continuous collaboration. Dr. Weinstein and Gili Rechany provided an opportunity for Ms. Vardanyan and Ms. Yengoyan to be trained in Shema Kolainu. This year from mid. July, Ms. Vardanyan and Ms. Yengoyan passed a full month of extensive training in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). Besides the 12 workshops conducted for them the stress was put on the training of the two assessment methods -VB MAPP and ABLLS-R that will give them an opportunity to organize an assessment of all students of the center, to train therapists and parents as well. During the training they also learned to organize the structure of the school and learning process that increase the level of education and outcomes. After completion of all workshops, Ms. Vardanyan and Ms. Yengoyan received certificates. “This was an excellent training: very complete, practical, with concrete strategies and techniques that can be used in our center directly. All instructors (professionals) are very skilled and competent. The whole training was conducted under the supervision of Gili Rechany, MA, SBL, BCBA and Chani Katz, MA, BCBA. We hope that our collaboration with ICare4Autism and Shema Kolainu will be continuous and in the near future we can accept the professionals form ICare4Autism and Dr. Weinstain in our center” said Ms. Vardanyan. Special warm thanks to Shema Kolainu President Dr. Joshua Weinstein, to Program Director Suri Gruen, to Educational Director Gili Rechany, IEP Coordinator Chani Katz, Rivki, the teachers and staff for the best training and knowledge they share with us, for the support they provided through the ICare4Autism partnership. It takes a huge effort to organize such an educational training program which was available for us. We look forward to seeing the outcomes in the future.
