Emerge Seeks Behavior Specialist/Behavior Analyst

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Emerge

Emerge is looking to hire a Behavior Specialist to join their team.  Experience working with children or prior knowledge in the are of ABA/Autism Spectrum Disorders is preferred.  Training in Applied Behavior Analysis, or BACB certification (BCBA or BCaBA) a plus.  Behavior Specialists in our practice work closely with young children and their families who have sought early intensive behavioral intervention for autism or other developmental challenges.

 

Job responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Providing exemplary, in-home, ABA-based treatment to children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
  • Attending regular supervision and training meeting at the Emerge office in Denver.
  • Maintaining high quality records for all client contact.
  • Adhering to exemplary ethical and legal standards fo care.
  • Demonstrating strong communication skills with clients, parents, professionals, and Emerge team members.
Minimum Qualifications:
  • Bachelors Degree in progress or higher
  • Background check
  • Must pass jurisprudence exam through DORA to register as an unlicensed psychotherapist with the state of Colorado
For immediate consideration, please send your resume to lindsay@emergeprofessionals.com
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Academic and Educational Testing

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Emerge

 

 

Have you ever wondered if your son or daughter…

  • Is gifted or talented?
  • Has a learning disorder?
  • Could pay attention better?
  • Is going through “a phase” or has significant challenges?

OR

Have you had problems with…

  • Reading
  • Writing
  • Listening
  • Speaking
  • Reasoning
  • And doing math?

Emerge can provide answers to these questions and others, as well as strategies and resources to help.

There are many different reasons to have academic or educational testing done for yourself or child.  Academic testing can be used to rule out dyslexia, dysgraphia, mathematics disorder, and other nonverbal learning disorders.  At Emerge, we evaluate all academic areas as well as assess cognitive skills and processing strengths and weaknesses.

If you are interested in having academic and educational testing done or have additional questions about academic and educational testing, please call our office at

(303) 322-9000.

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Emerge Goes To The Capitol

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Emerge

On Friday November 18th Dr. Huckabee joined a group of individuals including other professionals and parents from the autism community to testify at the capitol in support of treatment for autism being included in the Essential Health Benefits package.  Essential Health Benefits are the benefits that must be provided by certain insurance plans purchased through the competitive marketplaces created under the new healthcare reform law starting in 2014 (www.ncsl.org).  While many families have health insurance, most insurance policies exclude any treatments for autism as a covered benefit.  If successful, the bill will require that all autism treatments and services be included in the Essential Health Benefits” package under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

Autism Speaks has worked on enacting insurance reform laws nationally and in 2009 the Health Insurance Mandated Autism Treatment Law (HIMAT) was passed.  The HIMAT law requires private group health insurance policies regulated by the Colorado Division of Insurance to cover services to treat autism up to $34,000 a year (www.autismcolorado.org).  While the HIMAT law covers many small group insurance policies, it does not cover individual policies or policies that are under an ERISA plan.

There are ten categories of Essential Health Benefits in the PPACA.  Two categories that affect autism are the “mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health” (1302(b)(1)(G)) and “rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices” (1302(b)(1)(G)) (www.gao.gov).  In response to the second category, Autism Speaks along with 20 other national organizations formed the Habilitation Benefits Coalition.  The coalition is fighting for the rehabilitative and habilitative services to be provided to individuals regardless of their condition or diagnosis (The White Paper – Autism Speaks).  The bill would mandate insurance companies to allow these treatments to be covered by individual policies and ERISA plans as well as plans offered by state based exchanges.

For more information on Federal Health Care Reform and its effect on Autism see the links below.

http://www.autismvotes.org/site/c.frKNI3PCImE/b.6518557/k.5A3A/Federal_Health_Care_Reform.htm

- Autism Speaks

http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=21393

- National Conference of State Legislatures

http://autismcolorado.org/index.php/helpful-resources/himat

- Autism Society of Colorado

©  Lindsay Van Dusseldorp

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Childhood Trauma and Neglect change the Brain

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Emerge

Heather Twitty, MA, LPC attended the International Trauma Conference this year in Boston, MA. One of the esteemed presenters was Bruce Perry, MD, Ph.D. who is the Senior Fellow of the Child Trauma Academy (www.ChildTrauma.org), a consultant to the FBI, the former Chief of Psychiatry at Texas Children’s Hospital, and former Vice-Chairman for Research in the Department of Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Perry is the author of “The boy who was raised as a dog and other stories from a child psychiatrist’s notebook: What traumatized children can teach us about loss, love and healing”. During this year’s conference Dr. Perry discussed how the brain changes in response to abuse and how the brain may not develop as needed when children are neglected. Dr. Perry highlighted the following issues as being very important in considering brain development:

1. The developing brain is very vulnerable to the effects of chemicals when in utero- such as alcohol, nicotine and other drugs.
2. After birth the primary stress regulator for the infant/child is the caregiver. The caregiver’s ability and consistency in providing appropriate care and nurturance for physical and emotional needs is massively important.
3. A variety of things can interfere in the process of providing care and nurturance, such as caregiver depression, caregiver illness, caregiver separation from child, caregiver aggression/abuse and caregiver lack of involvement or neglect, among others.
4. Difficulties such as those listed above significantly impact the child’s developing brain, and can even change it neurobiologically!
5. It’s not only the presence of bad things happening, but the absence of good things happening that affects development. Neglect or inconsistent care can result in disorganized brain development.

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