|
Aspiring Minds is a team of educational consultants who provides advocacy services to students with autism or developmental disabilities. From attendance to IEP meetings, to classroom observation, functional behavior assessments (FBA), Aspiring Minds caters to all the educational needs of children who are on the autism whether they are included in the general education classroom or in a more restrictive setting. Behaviorists on the team do home consultation and deliver ABA services in ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) as well as VB (Verbal Behavior).
Aspring Minds is actively involved in the Newark, Jersey City, Point Plesant, Princeton, Neptune, Spotswood, South Amboy, Old Bridge, Bloomfield, Teaneck, Clifton, W. Windsor, Hoboken, Burlington and East Hanover school districts.
Marie-France Akinrolabu, Ms. Ed., founder, has over 10 years of experience working directly with children with autism and related developmental disabilities.
She earned a dual bachelor's degree in history and journalism from la Sorbonne, Paris, France and later on graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a bachelors' degree in foreign languages. Her career change came about in 1998 when her godson was diagnosed with autism. Astonished by his school inability to meet his unique needs and to understand the way his brain is wired to learn, she became involved in the field of education. She later received her Master's degree in special education and an additional post-graduate certification in behavior analysis (ABA) from Rutgers University and post-graduate certificate in autism from Penn State University. She is presently working on her PhD in educational psychology, She is an active member of Autism NJ (formerly known as COSAC), of Council for Exceptional children (CEC), of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), of the New Jersey Coalition for Inclusive Education (NJCIE) and of the National Council of Parents Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA). She attends workshops internationally to continue to hone her skills and keep up to date with research and new methodologies.
Marie-France also acts as expert witness in due process cases.
Marie-France has a long standing interest in the educational perspective of treatment options. She focuses on curricular modifications and program development for students with autism with a concentration in their inclusion in the general education classroom alongside with their peers. The Staff at Aspiring Minds coaches teachers in developing strategies needed to promote active learning and maximized achievement for learners with autism. "Understanding how deficits in any of the developmental areas can affect a student's interaction within the natural environment is critical", they explain. "Teachers need to understand how a student with communication deficits, for instance, may resort to non-compliant behaviors to avoid situations in which he knows he is going to have to communicate. Untrained teachers become frustrated, label the students as "unteachable" and whisk them into self-contained classroom where they work below their potential.
Aspiring Minds strongly believes that treatment options for children with autism should be viewed from different perspectives: behavioral, developmental, educational, cognitive and medical. Many a times these perspectives overlap yet they all target different specific domains. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is demonstrated to be very effective with the autism population, however, Aspiring Minds believes that behavioral approaches in and of themselves should only be used as part of a larger comprehensive program. The primary approach should use a broad developmental framework that conceptualizes all of the vital developmental processes. Aspiring Minds believes that when working with children with autism, it is instrumental to progress beyond a focus on discrete behaviors and develop intensive, one-on-one approaches that are comprehensive, developmentally based and tailored to the individual profile of the student and of his or her family.
|
