Episode #146: Early Intervention and Project Impact with Anna Dvortcsak and Dr. Brook Ingersoll

My guests today, Anna Dvortsak and Dr. Brook Ingersoll, are the creators of Project ImPACT, an important initiative in the field to provide access for parent coaching and train parents for a collaborative approach to therapy.

Project ImPACT is a systemic approach to parent mediated intervention for parents of young children with social communication delays, with or without a diagnosis. This parent coaching teaches parents to work with their children to create relevant skills and goals for their community and needs in four main targets; Social Engagement, Communication, Imitation, and Play.

There are many programs and systems that may not be attainable for some providers. Anna and Dr. Ingersoll have worked to make this an accessible program with an easy to follow and systemic coaching guide. For those who want more training with Project ImPACT is available but not required.

Collaboration is such an important part of a young child’s intervention, not just with providers but with their family and their community. That’s why Anna and Dr. Ingersoll created this program with a holistic view of a child’s needs beyond the therapy room, with strategies parents can implement daily.

You can find out more about Project ImPACT by visiting their website.

#autism #speechtherapy

Today’s Guest:

Anna Dvortcsak, a licensed speech and language pathologist, specializes in parent-mediated intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders. In 2004, Ms. Dvortcsak founded Dvortcsak Speech and Language Services (DSLSI) which provides individual and group training to families with children with autism and related disorders, individualized speech and language services, and training to professionals working with children with autism and related disorders. Anna consults with school districts, private practices, and hospitals to train staff to use naturalistic treatment strategies to enhance children’s engagement, imitation, language, and play skills and to use parent mediated interventions. Anna’s areas of focus are with program development and improving access to services to help all children be able to communicate and advocate for themselves within their home and community environment. Anna is the co-author of Teaching Social Communication to Children with Autism, an internationally-recognized parent coaching curriculum for autistic children.

Dr. Ingersoll is a professor of clinical science and the director of the MSU Autism Research Lab. She received her PhD in experimental psychology at University of California, San Diego and completed a clinical post-doc in child psychology at Oregon Health & Science University. She is a licensed psychologist and board certified behavior analyst. Dr. Ingersoll’s research focuses on the development of community-viable interventions for autistic children and their families. A major emphasis of her current work is on NDBI-based parent-mediated interventions. Dr. Ingersoll has published more than 100 articles and book chapters on autism, and is the co-author of Teaching Social Communication to Children with Autism, an internationally-recognized parent coaching curriculum for autistic children.

What’s Inside:

• What is Project ImPACT?
• How Anna Dvortscak and Dr. Ingersoll created a parent curriculum.
• Four targets for social communication.
• A systematic approach to parent coaching.

Mentioned In This Episode

• Project ImPACT
• Membership – ABA Speech

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