021 673 119 margot@wls.co.nz

Davis Stepping Stones

Davis Stepping Stones is the beginning steps to the Davis Autism Approach® Programme.  It has been developed to assist you in helping your child/student to develop the foundational life’s lessons needed to complete essential early childhood development stages.

 

It is a gentle, holistic programme, suitable for:

  • Autistic individuals under the age of 8
  • Autistic individuals with very limited language
  • Autistic individuals who have been using the NOIT and have begun to develop a sense of self

The structure of the programme is flexible to enable it to be delivered in the most harmonious way for your child.

STEP 1 – Tools for the Helper
You (the support person) are given a set of tools, or mental strategies to allow you to be calm and relaxed while working with your child.   These tools are called Release and Dial.

 

Release allows you to ease any stress, tension or anxiety you may be feeling.  When working with those with autism, if we are feeling anxious, we can inadvertently add to their feeling of anxiety, as they are often highly sensitive to their environment and all that it contains.  By putting ourselves in a calm state, this will allow for a calm environment for your child.

 

Dial helps you to determine and control your personal energy levels for self-regulation and positive interactions with others, particularly the child you will be working with.

 

STEP 2 – Awareness of Self
The child is assisted towards becoming more present in the world and facilitated to create an awareness of self, existing as separate from others.  This process includes:

 

  • Auditory Orientation:  a sound, specifically engineered by Ron Davis to facilitate the individual towards developing accurate, stable perception and help create an awareness of self.
  • Clay modelling of ‘self’, ‘another’ and ‘others’
  • Exploration of ‘self’, ‘another’ and ‘others’ in the real world

 

STEP 3 – Davis Stepping Stones Life Concepts
The child will then be facilitated towards gaining an understanding of fundamental life concepts, and how they relate to ‘self’ and ‘others’, through explicit teaching using clay models.

The following concepts are covered in the programme:

  • Change
  • Consequence
  • Cause/effect
  • Before/after

Each concept is covered in the following way:

  • It is introduced through demonstration and experienced together with the child in a fun way that appeals to their interest.
  • The child creates a clay model of the concept, and masters it.

Integration of Life concepts
The child has LOTS of experiences with the concept in the real world with their support person – physically interacting with these concepts in the environment is what integrates the concept into self.

Davis Stepping Stones
Autism Help
Auditory Orientataion
Autism Change

Programme Structure

Davis Stepping Stones is a flexible programme, depending on the needs of your child.
Options include:

Fully Facilitated
Margot can take your child through the full programme, while you reinforce the learning at home.

Part Facilitated
Margot can take your child through part of the programme and coach you through part of it, with her support.

Mentor Support
You can take your child through the programme yourself, with Margot’s mentor support.

Workshop
You can attend a 2-day Stepping Stones workshop to be able to take your child through the programme.  Click here to find a workshop running near you.

 

Yes, tell me more about how Stepping Stones can help my child.

 

Call Margot on 04 478 2208 or 021 673 119

I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

Margot Young

Licensed Davis Facilitator

“My student’s attention has improved dramatically and his speech production is the best we have ever heard from him.  I really was not expecting change that quickly.” – Speech-language therapist

“This programme is not like work. It is just a simple and enjoyable way of learning while going about your daily routine.”
-Cathie, mother of autistic boy

 

Davis Autism Approach® is a trademark of Ronald D. Davis©. Commercial use of this trademark to identify educational, instructional, or therapeutic services requires licensing by the trademark owner. For more information go to Davis Autism International.