The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office is pleased to announce the Take Me Home program for adults and children who are non-verbal or verbally impaired due to a developmental disability or other cognitive impairment!  The Take Me Home program is a database maintained by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office Communications Division and is only accessible to law enforcement personnel.  The system includes a picture, disability, physical description and emergency contact information for all registered individuals.  If a person in the Take Me Home program is encountered alone by a police officer, or is reported missing, the officer can access the database by the person’s name or description to locate their enrollment record.  With this information at hand, the officer can appropriately assist the person.

This is a FREE service offered to developmentally and cognitively disabled citizens who live in Johnson County, Kansas.

Attached, you will find downloadable information about the program and how to register an individual, as well as, a registration form that you may download and fill out to bring to registration if you wish.  This information will not be available on the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office website until a press release is issued approximately one week before the first registration date.  Eventually we hope to offer online registration, but at this time, registration dates are as follows:

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 from 3:00-7:00 p.m. at the Johnson County Administration building, 111 S. Cherry St. Olathe, KS room #201.

Thursday, February 10, 2011 from 3:00-7:00 p.m. at the Johnson County Northeast offices, 6000 Lamar Mission, KS conference room B.

Please feel free to forward this information to any group or person that may be interested in registering an individual.  You may direct questions via e-mail to alison.anderson@jocogov.org until the program goes live in early February and the information is available on the Sheriff’s Office website.

Thank you!

Johnson County Sheriff’s Office

Communication Division

An autism diagnosis for any child is serious. It means that they probably have trouble with communicating (wants and needs as well as social information), lack social skills, inappropriate or no play skills. Depressingly, the list could go on and on. However, typically a child's most urgent needs when diagnosed are decreasing aberrant behavior (tantrumming, self-injurious and aggressive behavior) and increasing language. Parents want their children to talk. Rightfully so, attention, focus and therapy go towards getting children to communicate and to decrease undesirable behaviors. With intensive 1:1 therapy, gradually these kids do learn to talk, request their wants and needs, request attention, and even to have basic conversations about their interests. Learning these skills takes time and these children get a little older... as do their peers. While children with autism are working on learning to effectively communicate, their peers (who had no trouble learning to talk) are learning how to be social and are learning how to learn in a group. They go to preschool, learn new things at circle time, centers, and on the playground. They even learn while watching TV! They are not only learning new "stuff", they are also learning how to talk to each other, negotiate play, and enjoy each other's company. While children with autism who are being treated are making progress with their communication skills, their progress in these other areas, "learning-to-learn-in-a- group" and "social language" may be delayed when compared to their peers.

    Parents who have children that have "high-functioning" autism or who have children who have received significant services may feel that their children are neglected by the mainstream educational system or even some autism service providers. Why? Their children can communicate their wants and needs. Their children "look" like "typical" children. Why would they feel they need more?

    While families are elated that their children diagnosed with autism have learned to talk, they know that it is not enough. It is not enough that they can request their wants and needs. It is not enough that they can "blend in" with the other children because they do not demonstrate aberrant behaviors. It is not enough if their children cannot learn new skills in a group setting (like their typical peers) or navigate social situations.  It is not enough if their children cannot experience true friendship with others. The goal does not stop with functional communication. Their goal is to continue making progress in all areas of need.

    The thing is, this is where it gets "hard". As far as intervention for children with autism goes, this is as high level as it gets. Frankly, there may be lots of service providers (not as many as there should be...) that can teach basic, beginner level curricula to a child with autism. And those beginner skills, they are important.  They are necessary.  The problem is, sometimes programs seem to end there. Often professionals and even schools seem unsure about what to do next. Children cannot be successful in regular education settings (which is the goal for many families) without higher level learning and social skills.  So what needs to happen next is to teach higher level learning skills and social skills. You really can't do that in a one on one setting. If the goal is for a child to be successful learning in a classroom, then the child must be taught "how" to do that. Teaching must occur in first 1:1, then in very small groups, then larger and larger groups. They must learn skills like listening when a teacher is talking to the group, following instructions posed to a group, how and when to raise their hands to answer questions, how to acquire new academic skills when being taught in a group, and many more skills. 

    Children with autism often have narrow interests and demonstrate little interest in incorporating others into their activities. They may be very literal and have a hard time understanding slang. Having functional language skills does not mean a child can communicate socially. It also does not address their ability to make friends, maintain friendships, and interact with peers in a classroom. These skills may need to be taught specifically, as well. It is one thing to teach a rote response to the question, "How are you?" but wholly another for a child to understand the question, "What's up?" or "How's it going?".  Yes, you can teach a rote response, but does it make sense to teach rote responses to every question under the sun when what should be taught is the social meaning behind the question and the ability to respond in a social (as opposed to rote) way?

    I'm mentioning all of this because it's important. I talk to families all of the time who have spent years running intensive ABA programs for their children. They taught literally thousands of needed skills. Now their children are school-aged but do not necessarily have the learning-in-a-group skills or social language skills needed to truly be successful in a regular education setting. Some parents even believe that while ABA was necessary when their child was young, now they need something different to teach these target skills. This is not true. ABA can be used to effectively and efficiently teach beginning skills but it should absolutely be used to teach higher-level, group and social skills. I believe that the reasons it often isn't used in that way are: 1.) Behavior Analysts are used to teaching in 1:1 settings and do not have access to environments with multiple children (and appropriate peers) and 2.) Professionals that classically have access to many children (schools) may not have the expertise necessary to teach social language and learning-to-learn-in-a-group skills.  Frankly, it may not even be on their radar; it may not be top priority; or it may seem impractical.

    In conclusion, plan your ABA program with the end in mind. What are your goals for your child? For many children with autism, group instruction can happen very early in their ABA programming. For some children, the cost of some “group time" may not outweigh the benefits that can come with exclusive, intensive 1:1 time early in their course of therapy. Make sure social skills instruction and learning-to-learn-in-a-group instruction happens for your child.  Children with autism typically don't learn these skills without intervention. Just because a child is 5 and can now enter kindergarten, does not mean he/she has the skills to be successful in kindergarten. Work with your ABA provider to create a plan to integrate learning-to-learn-in-a-group skills and social skills into your child's ABA program. Work with your school to create a plan to address these areas. These skills can complete an autism program and give your child the final push necessary to be successful with their peers.