Rethink Autism

SILVER SPRING, Md. (WUSA) -- Nanci Puwalski's 9-year-old daughter, Sophie, was diagnosed with Autism when she was two-years-old.

Puwalski says she home-schooled all three of her children, but it still didn't prepare her for the extra time, training and attention Sophie required.

Like any parent wanting to provide the best education for their child, Nanci says, "You need to study and learn what the best methods are and apply them as best you can."

So it was no different when it came to determining the best care for Sophie.

In addition to Sophie's basic instructions, she also received developmental therapy and special education assistance through Montgomery County.

Nanci says the extra instruction time amounted to an average of five hours. This, Nanci explains, afforded Sophie a lot of time to absorb each lesson or skill.

However, it would take extra time, skill and effort to teach Sophie the essential skills for the future. Skills, such as, how to control the disruptive behaviors that can set kids with autism apart, or the barriers to communicating their wants and needs.

Many of these concerns are the shared concerns of the over 1.5 million families involved in the fight to better understand autism.

Nanci says it may seem like a simple tool, but a web based program called ReThink Autism helps address the challenges.

The basis of the program Nanci describes is that, "..you're trying to decide whether you want that behavior to increase or if you want that behavior decrease."

At the heart of ReThink Autism is a technique called Applied Behavioral Analysis. The website allows parents and caregivers to watch hundreds of videos that show them how to do it.

For example, Nanci explains that when she started the program, "...you'd start off with teaching how to follow basic directions."

Commands Nanci says, like, "come here, sit down," would prepare Sophie for learning the next step of instruction or level of learning.

These "Children don't learn incidentally, the way other children learn. They pick up things by listening and paying attention," explains Nanci. But on the flip side, parents have to ignore or show great disdain for behaviors they want stopped, which can be a challenge.

Each family that subscribes to ReThink Autism gets an individualized treatment plan.

The convenience of the program allows Nanci to coordinate several people and make the most out of each instruction. 

"To add a new program, all I have to do is send an email out to Sophie's team and say we're going to add this program, watch this video and when you come in, you'll be ready to work with it," says Nanci.

Sophie is already making new strides.

"I can decorate my bracelet," Sophie says.

The fee to subscribe to the website is about $100 a month. Parents of ReThink Autism says that this cost is less than the cost of a one hour session with a progessional therapist.