Our aim is to provide personalized interventions that integrate proven therapies benefiting both the child and their family. We celebrate the insights that people with autism spectrum disorders offer to our society. Our mission is to prepare our clients to be happy and socially successful people who make and maintain friendships throughout life.
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Beth Wagner Brust knows there are few things more difficult than watching your child struggle to make friends. Her youngest son, Ben, was diagnosed with ADHD in kindergarten, but by third grade he still didn't have any friends.
"My pediatrician said he had Asperger's," explained Brust, a Carmel Valley resident. Asperger's is considered a higher form of autism that makes social interaction, among other things, difficult. "Like any parent, I was thrown for a loop. Then I heard about the Friends Club in Carlsbad."
The Friends Club is a safe, non-threatening and non-stressful environment where kids with Asperger's get together to learn the "unwritten" social skills. Now it's inspired Brust and Cynthia La Brie Norall, Ph.D., to write "Quirky, Yes — Hopeless, No: Practical Tips to Help Your Child with Asperger's Syndrome Be More Socially Accepted" (St. Martin's Griffin).
Asperger's children are often the kids who are bullied, sit alone at lunch and rarely get an invitation to a birthday party. But at the club, they learn such skills as making eye contact, greeting people, letting others talk about their interests and being less rigid through games, breaking skills into baby steps and role playing.
By learning the subtle social cues that typical children take for granted, they can begin making friends. And that's exactly what happened with Ben.
"By the end of the first year, I heard him ask another kid, 'Am I boring you?' and I almost fell over," recalled Brust. "I'd never heard him say that before. It was amazing to see that growth in six months."
The Friends Club was the brainchild of Norall, an educational behavior psychologist. While working at a preschool in Valley Center in 1992, she first encountered children with autism. That's around the time that autism diagnoses began to rise dramatically. Today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 out of every 100 8-year-olds is autistic.
"I just found this population fascinating," Norall said. "I went to every seminar and conference I could on autism. I really wanted to help them."
QUIRKY, YES—HOPELESS, NOIn the world of autism there seems to be two camps. Those who celebrate the individuals that we are lucky enough to work with by translating and facilitating in social settings and those that want to treat with a biomedical model. CASE is definitely in the first camp.
I am proud to have begun posting on some sites within the Autism Hub. There is one specific site I like to blog on. One Dads Opinion webpage at click here to go to Onedadsopinion.com is in line with our beliefs at CASE, Inc.
I have finally found a positive media report about autism and bloggers from the Autism Hub are featured. Please check out the ABC news article from Good Morning America click here to view the article.
Cynthia
" When I approach a child
He inspires in me two sentiments:
Tenderness for what he is,
And respect for what he may become."
-Louis Pasteur