Back to School

As the air cools and leaves begin to change their color in the US, the sun begins to burn brighter here in Ghana. Similar to the US, September not only begins a change in weather, it also signifies the reopening of a new school year. During the summer months, AACT had about 15 students who regularly attended the center with just about one caregiver for every child. Many of the other students traveled with their families or stayed home with other siblings on vacation. Over the past few weeks, all of these students have returned. Now a typical day at AACT has about 25 students, being taught by 12 caregivers, 3 directors, and a few volunteers. Not including the daily visitors, there are over 40 moving bodies in the center on a regular basis, at least half of whom have autism.



Due to increased attendance, it became necessary to find more effective ways to keep groups of students engaged. With support from Auntie Baaba and help from two new volunteers, we put together a more structured morning routine for the middle classroom. We choose this room to focus on first, because they typically have the most students with the least amount of caregivers. The routine involves the students identifying “who is here today” by moving pictures of themselves to the appropriate area, going through the day of the week, month, year, and then identifying the weather. So far, it seems to be working well!



There has been a lot of other excitement over the past few weeks. On September 8th, a television series called Impact Africa came to film an episode at AACT. This included footage of the students activities and interviews with Auntie Serwah and I. Last week, the Rotary Club came to present a donation to the center. There were over 25 members who came for the ceremony. It was a great opportunity for them to learn more about children with autism and the services provided at AACT.



On top of all of this, I have been continuing correspondence with a variety of others. Caroline Pongo, the creator of a local educational puppet theater, came to the center last Thursday. Her and I discussed getting the students involved with a puppet making workshop, as well as planning a performance at the center. Stacey Reynolds, an Occupational Therapy professor at Virginia Commonwealth University has agreed to include AACT on their annual service trip next May. This is especially exciting because there are currently no Occupational Therapists in Ghana. This coming Monday, I have a meeting with Nana Ocran, the Director of Education at the Ghana National Museum, to begin setting up educational programs at the museum modified for children with autism.

In regards to administrative tasks, I have been involved with developing job descriptions and creating an employee code of conduct. These will be compiled into an employee handbook and be available in the future for new employees. As volunteers come and go, we have been asking for their feedback as well, in order to continuously improve the current volunteer handbook. The point of all of this is documentation. Keeping records, putting job rules and regulations on paper, tracking the number of volunteers in a given time period, etc. It all helps to strengthen an organization’s permanence.


Last but not least, the Caregiver Challenge, a fundraiser started about a week and a half ago, has already raise 130GHc (about equal to about $90 US Dollars)! Auntie Serwah has created a bank account that is specifically for donations. The goal is to not touch this money until there is enough to build, buy, or rent an additional, desperately needed, facility.

All in all, things are progressing! And as much as I miss the beautiful fall weather, the warm sun doesn’t feel too bad. Thanks again for reading.

Until next time,
Casey

Dear Readers,

It has been a great couple weeks at AACT!

Back during the first week of the service project, Brad and Lori took baseline data on functional communication opportunities. Their data was taken during snack time on 15 separate students. According to the observations and despite dedicated staff, the baseline showed minimal to no spontaneous communication. After three weeks of training, making communication aids, and modeling effective techniques, we found their spontaneous communication rose to an average of about 6 opportunities during a 5 minute period. Over the past weeks, I have taken follow-up data. In most cases, the students’ opportunities to functionally communicate had stayed consistent, while a couple others actually increased. This was great news! The caregivers are continuing to use their acquired skills and resources and the students are learning meaningful communication, slowly but surely.


Along these lines, back in July the Global Autism Project volunteers made many new PECS pictures available in each classroom. These are proving to be very useful, especially within the youngest classroom. In addition to this and after a meeting with Auntie Baaba & Auntie Serwah, we found it necessary to being creating visual schedules for each student. With the help from one student, one caregiver and Auntie Baaba, we made 14 individual schedules along with an extra sheets of various motivational pictures. Providing the caregivers use the time tables effectively and the students positively respond, a new PECS organizational system has been put into place to make it easier to create more of these in the future.

On Friday, July 21st Auntie Serwah and I presented to 31 New York University study abroad students about volunteering at AACT. It was organized by their academic director and included many other Ghanaian schools, NGOs, and businesses looking for volunteers. Personally, this was a remarkable opportunity. Just five years ago, I was that same study abroad student being first introduced to the beautiful country of Ghana.


Last week, I began to focus on fund raising ideas. With families in and out of this center every day looking for services and one serious traffic problem in Accra, there is a true need for a second facility. Keeping every day needs in mind, I anticipate raising enough money to fund an entire new center will be a long process. With that said, we decided to start fund raising ASAP. The first fundraiser, the Caregiver Challenge, will begin this Friday. The objective behind this is to have the staff compete to see who can raise the most amount of money in one month. There will be a chart displayed publicly that tracks each caregivers progress and an overall total. As incentive the person who raises the most will earn 20% of the grand total, with second and third places also receiving a portion and certificates of accomplishment.

Other planned fundraisers include professional days at the center, monthly benefit dinners, and a Walk for Autism Awareness in April. The key behind all of these is that they rely on a local population. Everything that I have been doing here is done with the idea of sustainability first. Always asking: Will the center be able to maintain the work the volunteers have been doing in the future? Will they use these resources, trainings, and fund raising ideas to continuously enhance the services provided? For now the answer is yes. According to our data, although only officially on communication opportunities, there has been a heightening of motivation to work more effectively as a center.


As for me, life in Ghana is exciting as always. Over the past two months, I have already learned more both personally and professionally than I anticipated for my entire stay here (including a tolerance for geckos in my bedroom and a serious love for plantains in any form).

Take care,
Casey

Greetings!

It’s hard to believe it has already been 5 weeks in Ghana. Despite feeling more accustom to the routine, every day presents new challenges and unexpected obstacles (such as shoes breaking in mid step and unannounced bus route changes). On the other hand, I also am constantly blown away by Ghanaian generosity and the beauty of this country.

This past Wednesday, I had the privilege of finally meeting Auntie Serwah, the founder and director of AACT. She had left for the US right before our service trip, to accept the Heartspring Award. This is an award that recognizes innovation and creativity in special education worldwide. There are only ten recipients of this award every year. From what I have seen and heard, she deserves it. Congratulations Auntie Serwah and Akwaaba (welcome – back)! For more information about the Heartspring Award check out http://www.heartspring.org/award/.

I really focused this week on modeling positive reinforcement. Not just here in Ghana, but around the world we tend to focus on negative aspects within society. Watch the news for ten minutes and there is guaranteed to be stories about violence, corruption, dishonestly, disrespect, etc. As a global society, we need to shift our attention. Encourage people with stories of success; inspire improvement through positive innovations. This is the general philosophy behind positive reinforcement. We need to make sure the students are being encouraged to participate (not yelled at), following through when asked to complete a task (versus letting students run away) and then praising them for listening to our directions. By modeling positive reinforcement throughout the school day, the students are being given the praise they deserve while also providing naturally occurring examples for the caregivers to learn from.

When not working directly with the students, caregivers, or completing administrative tasks, I continued to help spread awareness about the centre. Through the recommendation of a German Occupational therapist, who visited the centre a couple weeks ago, I have gotten in touch with a woman named Caroline Pongo. She is the creator of Beans & Gari, an educational puppet theater performance. Our hope is to have her bring the show to the centre come September.

Every day there are new developments with the centre. With Auntie Serwah back from Heartspring, she has made a point to emphasize the importance of attitude. Baaba has just completed an Autism course and plans to train the staff in the coming weeks. Nana Akua, a speech therapist, has the next couple weeks off of work and has said that she would like to help brainstorm ways to fundraise. Never a dull moment here at AACT!

…or in Ghana for that matter! Yesterday, I was invited to attend a traditional Ghanaian funeral. This was an all day event, filled with dancing, drumming, eating delicious Banku & stew, while trying to stay cool under a large Baobab tree. I crawled into bed last night exhausted.

Thanks for reading!
Casey

New interactive way to teach number identification!

Saturday August 8, '09

Once again, another busy week here in Ghana…

Every morning at the centre, the students sit in a circle and routinely sing good morning to each other and participate in a variety of other basic welcoming songs. It is a wonderful opportunity for the students to learn appropriate social interactions and communication. Equally as important, it is a time for the staff to be modeling and positively reinforcing this behavior. This week I was able to participate in the morning circle not only to help with these goals, but also as a way to continuously build the relationships between myself, the staff and students.

One of the goals of the Global Autism Project is to also help establish more connections for AACT. Ultimately, these are local professionals and community members, as to keep with our sustainable practices. Although sometimes due to limited resources this is not as readily available. To my knowledge the centre does not have an occupational therapist and in fact no one knows if there even are any in Ghana. So I turned to the internet, where I quickly found a couple different US universities that had conducted OT service projects in Ghana. The most overwhelming response was from Stacey Reynolds, an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University Occupational Therapy Department. This past May, she came to Ghana with a team of students. They were involved with a few different service projects, but mainly all relating to OT services. This week we have started communicating about how they could most effectively help AACT, while also understanding the idea of sustainability.

Along the same line, I have been exchanging emails with one of the academic directors of the School for International Training – Ghana. 5 years ago, when I first came to Ghana, he was actually one of my directors. He works in conjunction with the University of Ghana and has shown immediate interest in our efforts to raise autism awareness.

On Monday and Tuesday afternoons, Jessi (an Ikando volunteer studying special education at Vanderbilt) and I conducted trainings on effective lesson planning. This involved basic lesson planning order of operations, as well as brainstorming with the staff on creative ways to teach these lessons. Throughout the week we not only saw the staff utilizing some of these ideas, there was one caregiver that came the next day with an entire week of lessons plans written out for her student!

Thursday, two art students from the University of Ghana came to conduct an art therapy session with all the students. Then on Friday, our good friend Louis Wonder conducted a drumming and dance workshop with all the students and staff. Every day there are new families walking into the centre, interested in services. There is actually such a need, that AACT currently has a waiting list for students.

Thanks for reading!
Casey

Saturday August 1, '09

Last weekend Lori, Brad and Alicia all flew back to the US. It was sad to see them go, but know they accomplished an incredible amount over the course of their three weeks in Ghana.

Work started with the development and implementation of preference assessments. These will be used to determine potential reinforcers for communication opportunities and academic work. In collaboration with Baaba, we helped to create an afternoon activity schedule. This not only gives the students more structure, it also puts selected staff in leadership positions, increasing overall accountability.

Throughout the trip, Lori and Brad put together workshops for the staff. These included trainings on the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT), and Functional Behavior Assessments. Along with the workshops, we all helped to make the necessary PECS pictures cards and provided consultation on their use. The BI Capture was also set up. The AACT staff was taught how to use it when evaluating problem behavior or modeling effective techniques.

Last, but certainly not least, Alicia built four specially modified workstations. The materials used were all locally acquired, in order for more of them to be created by AACT staff in the future. Needless to say, Lori, Brad and Alicia were fantastic on many levels. They will certainly be missed here in Ghana.

As for the past week...

Baaba came into work Monday morning with a mission to clean. Every day we choose one room or space to tackle. Broken, chewed, unuseful toys were thrown away. Selected toys and teaching tools, including all stuffed animals, were washed. Once inventory was taken, we were able to make every child there own set of supplies. Each pouch included a new box of crayons, colored pencils, a pen, a pencil, sharpener, and eraser. The individual classrooms were also given the appropriate toys and teaching materials according to the needs of the students.

Once again, a personal thank you to Lori, Brad and Alicia for being excellent volunteers. Can't wait to work with you again next summer in India!

Going now to enjoy some delicious grilled plantain.
Casey

Friday, July 24

Greetings!

This is Lori again. We had a very exciting day today at the centre! In the morning Brad helped the centre with evaluating a new potential student. I went with the Casey to print out all of our training summaries as well as the graph showing the number of functional communication statements made by students during snack before we started training and after we started training. The data was very impressive! Casey will be taking data a week or so after we leave so we can measure if this change in staff behavior (increased opportunities for communication) is maintained. Considering the enthusiasm by the staff over the impact this has had on the students, I believe that this change will be maintained after we are gone.

In the afternoon, Brad and I did our third Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) workshop with the staff. The response from the staff was amazing! In all three workshops the staff had excellent questions and were really beginning to understand the functions of behavior. After one of the workshops, two staff members came up to Brad and I to tell us this was the best training they had received in five years working with kids with Autism. They told us that often times people in the community turn to them for answers about what is Autism and how can Autism be treated and they are often unsure of the answer. They said the workshops from this training trip helped them understand Autism and Applied Behavior Analysis so that they could answer the questions of people in their community. One of the staff members even told us that every day since the beginning of our visit she has gone home and shared with her family what she had learned from us that day. All of the comments from the workshops were incredibly powerful, but these in particular were very touching and meaningful to us. It is such an honor to be able to provide knowledge and information to individuals who are so dedicated to their work and hungry to learn more.

During the FBA workshops we also showed the staff how to use the BI Capture. In the morning, the staff set up the BI Capture (with a little guidance from us) and used the BI Capture to get videos of a student’s biting behavior. The supervisor at the centre will review these videos with the staff to determine the function of the behavior and be able to come up with an effective intervention plan.

Alicia finished modifying the desks today! They look absolutely amazing and are the best desks I have seen for Autism intervention. The pull-out drawer leaves space for data taking and lesson plans without placing too much onto the desktop. The beads make data collection easy which allows for faster teaching. There is even a spot on the desk where the reinforcer is placed so that staff does not forget to determine what the child will be working for before beginning teaching. The staff was very excited about these new desks and we look forward to their feedback as they begin using them.

After our day at the centre, Brad and I had a drum workshop with a local drummer. This was a truly remarkable experience! We sat in his drum workshop (where you can watch cattle passing by) and played our African drums together! Then we had a traditional ceremony where liquor is poured on the floor (and a little on the drums) as a blessing. I have to say, I have never had an experience quite like it!

Alicia and Casey went to the market and then met us for dinner at the vegan restaurant (again) where we had some delicious veggie stir fry, pasta and yam fries. I am very sad to say goodbye! I look forward to keeping in touch with the staff at the centre as many of them want to continue to learn more about Autism and ABA. I cannot express how meaningful this trip has been to me. Being able to see an Autism centre in another part of the world and collaborate with the staff there has been a great pleasure and wonderful learning experience.

As always, thanks for reading! I look forward to sharing future trips with you!

Afua (this is my Ghanian name!)

Day 17: Thursday July 23, '09

Today we all worked to wrap up all the many projects started over the course of the past few weeks.

Alicia finished adding the drawers, affixed a divider to create a designated spot for a reinforcement item, and attached a wire with locally made beads as a counter for easier data collection.  All together she was able to make four complete desk and chair sets, specifically modified for students with autism and their caregivers/therapists. While back in the US, she will be working on the instruction manual to send to AACT, in order for the staff to create more of these desks in the future. 

Brad and Lori spent the morning making sure all of the training sessions were well documented and the appropriate certificates were available.  Once the paperwork was completed, we ran over to Busy Internet to print out a hard copy for AACT's new training log binder.  I spent the rest of the day continuing to help the caregivers run the students programs, as well as be a human shield for the desks that still had spots of wet paint. 

In the evening, Brad and Lori had the opportunity to partake in a traditional drumming ceremony and receive their own drums made by Lewis, a local Akuma Village musician.   We all then enjoyed another wonderful Ghanaian dinner. 

Casey

Day 16: Wenesday July 22, '09

Hi everyone!

The week seems to be flying by here in Ghana. It's hard to believe that it's already halfway over. This morning Alicia went right to work on her desks, adding the last coats of paint and beginning to add the drawers. Lori continued to organize the many PECS picture cards and Brad worked on the training logs. During all of this, I met with Baba to begin planning a professional open house and information session at the centre. The idea behind this is to not only raise awareness about autism, but also introducing them to local services available at AACT. After our meeting, I was able to speak with Dr. Marbell, the head of the Neurological Development Clinic at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, about attending this event with some of the other doctors. She was extremely receptive to this idea.
After a delicious lunch of fresh mango and pineapple, I had the opportunity to sit in on Brad and Lori's second afternoon of training. Once again, they did an excellent job presenting on Functional Behavioral Assessments and using the BI Capture. While the training was happening, the rest of the AACT staff and volunteers successfully ran the new afternoon programs for the second day.
In the evening, we headed to Osu to do some more souvenir shopping and eat dinner. As Lori and Alicia were getting beautiful Ghanaian dresses specially altered, Brad and I enjoyed some great Lebanese food.

Until next time...

Casey

Day 15: July 21, 2009

Greetings and salutations,

Today was another day jam packed with work and steady progress. Alicia is nearly finished with her desk project; when finished the centre will have four retrofitted desks at their disposal. The new design of these desks will make instruction and data collection more effective and efficient.
I spent my morning working with a staff member to review, revise, and develop a number of new training and assessment documents. These documents included a PECS and PRT procedure poster for each of the classrooms, an A-B-C chart for use with functional behavior assessments, and a brand new preference assessment worksheet. This collaboration was an excellent example of how the Global Autism Project works to empower existing resources within the centre. Lori, a staff member, and I spent the afternoon conducting a workshop on functional behavior assessments. Again, it was great to work side by side with staff member who had so much knowledge and experience to share with the staff and us.
Casey spent her morning drafting an AACT volunteer questionnaire; this document will be used in the continuous refinement of volunteer roles, duties, expectations, etc. Casey’s afternoon was split across training a staff member in PECS and helping to facilitate the newly created afternoon structured play activities. While giving the staff and students something new to do, these activities aim to provide staff and students with continued opportunities to utilize PECS and PRT.
Our evening was filled with a quick trip to the National Cultural Centre (place where all the souvenirs are sold) where the girls picked up some last minute gifts: wooden spoons, a wooden boar (which was actually a rhino), and jewelry. After this, we had another delicious catered dinner courtesy of a friend of the project. We were joined by a number of volunteers that are also working with the centre.
Tomorrow we will continue to focus on finishing up our works in progress…
Thanks for reading.

Respect,

brad herron

Day 14: Monday July 20, 2009

Hello beloved readers!

Today was a wonderful day at the centre! Alicia got a first coat of paint on ALL of the desks and chairs that she is working on modifying (they will be set up to create a more efficient way for the teachers to take data while teaching). They look amazing!

We have found another project for Alicia (like she was not busy enough!). We will hopefully be modifying another desk to become a wheeling cart that will hold the BI Capture. This way the staff can wheel the BI Capture wherever it needs to be! Alicia made a trip to the hardware store but as of now the wheels have not been found. We hope for more success in the future!
Brad, Casey and I tackled the task of getting the BI Capture up, running and in use today. I am happy to report it was a success! We were able to teach a staff member at the centre how to record videos of any problematic behaviors during his teaching session. He did a phenomenal job both getting the videos and teaching! We will use the videos taken today for the Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) workshops that will happen on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon this week. During these workshops we will also teach the staff how to use the BI Capture to improve teaching and determine the function of problematic behaviors.

At snack time today I was overjoyed to see the staff members setting up language opportunities for the students (what we worked on in the workshops last week). In the preschool classroom, one teacher had all the snacks and each child needed to request the snack (either with a picture card or verbally) before receiving it. In the other two classrooms each staff member set up repeated language opportunities for the student he/she was working with. It is incredible to see the increase in spontaneous communication for these students in only a week!
We also worked together with the staff (and some students) to make more PECS picture cards. We used a list generated by the staff of all the preferred items/activities for the students using PECS and made all of the picture cards requested. The staff will be putting together communication books for each student who will be using PECS and there will also be picture cards located in different areas of the school so staff will be able to easily set up language opportunities throughout the school day.

On Thursday we will be presenting to a group of local doctors (thanks to Casey!) on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). We are very excited about this opportunity to continue to increase awareness and knowledge of ASD in Ghana, especially within the medical community.
After a productive and exhilarating day at the centre, Casey, Alicia, Brad and I traveled to circle market where we did some fabric shopping on the way to our tro tro. We had an excellent meal at our local vegan restaurant and ended the day by relaxing on our patio listening to the waves.

Looking forward to another great day at the centre tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!

Lori

Day 13: Sunday, July 19, 2009

The roosters went off bright and early this morning to ensure that Molly and company were awake to see her off to the airport. Taking back only one plastic tub and her “Ghana Go Home” bag, she assured that she loved us for 10,000 years and bade us farewell. Until next week in New York!

After dropping Molly off at the airport, Brad, Lori and I ventured off to the National Museum. The Museum was small albeit informative, as there is a wealth of history here in Ghana.
Our next stop was the National Theatre. Unfortunately it was closed because there are no shows currently going on, but we were still able to walk around and take photos of the famous male and female drums on display.

We ended our day in Osu with time well spent working and enjoying tasty Chinese food at Tip Top Restaurant. For some reason the stir-fry noodles and vegetables still haven’t gotten old yet.
Back to work we go tomorrow. We are all really excited for our last week in Ghana, and are looking forward to hitting the ground running…there is still plenty of training and desk making to be had!

Stay Classy!

Alicia

Day 12: Saturday July 18, 2009

Greetings and salutations,

Our Saturday began as Lori, Alicia, and myself were awoken at the crack of dawn (we had spent the night in camping in the rain forest) by our park guide in Kumasi National Park. He had arrived to take us on a hike to the park’s skywalk. We reached the skywalk after a short hike up and through the park. The skywalk is a series of bridges and platforms that are suspended across the canopy of the rain forest. The walk was exhilarating, an excellent way to start the day and yes, we all made it across.

After this we began the trip back to Kaneshie Station in Accra. Once we arrived back at Akuma Village we split up, with Molly and Casey heading out to wrap up some loose ends, while the rest of recuperated by doing laundry, napping, and cleaning the bathroom (thanks Lori!).

We sent Molly off in style by having a roof top beverage at the ultra swanky Citizen Kofi in Osu. Molly, who was still recovering from a minor stomach bug, indulged herself by consuming truffle-infused mashed potatoes; according to Casey these potatoes were “incredibly amazing.” After this we headed to Mama Mia for some delicious pasta. We ended the evening early and got some much needed rest, that is until Casey and Molly inadvertently woke me while trying to detain a potentially lethal gecko. Luckily it escaped the pokes from Casey’s mosquito net pole and vanished into someone’s luggage.

Our final week is sure to be a whirlwind...

Respect,

brad herron

Day 11: Friday July 19, 2009

We woke up Friday morning to an overcast coast (surprisingly, reminded me of Oregon). Lori and Brad took off for an early run, as Molly, Alicia and I assessed our stomachs. It had now been about a day since Alicia or I had really eaten anything substantial, so breakfast was sounding like a great idea to me. While enjoying the roof top view and attempting to eat a meal, it dawned on us that Lori and Brad had been gone quite a while. It seems some how, their “loop” run turned into an hour and a half lost sight-seeing adventure around Cape Coast, ending in a cab ride back to the hotel.

Alicia, Brad and Lori then went to Cape Coast Castle. This is one of the old castles used in the West African slave trade that now runs guided tours to the public. One week prior, President Obama had visited and presented a commemorative plaque to this castle. They then met Molly and I at the Coconut Beach Resort. Here we all enjoyed lunch on the ocean.

That night, the fearless three, headed out to Kakum National Park to spend the night on a tree platform in the Ghanaian rainforest. Unfortunately, Molly and I were still not feeling great and made the executive decision to spend another night in the beautiful Sammo.

When in Ghana….

Casey

Day 10: Thursday July 16, 2009

Our trip today to Cape Coast was a bit delayed, as Casey and I came down with a bout of food poisoning from dinner the night before. I have never had food poisoning before, and I doubt that it will ever be like it was today ever again. After some due diligence, we realized that it was from the vegetarian pizza that we shared the night before at dinner. Looks like we won’t be making that mistake again!

We left for Cape Coast in the late afternoon and traveled via the “American Ford Car.” It was quite a luxury to say the least, complete with a nice interior and air conditioning. Upon arriving in Cape Coast we checked into the Samo Guest House. Casey and I spent most of the remainder of the evening in our guest house room trying to recover, while Lori, Brad and Molly had dinner at the roof top restaurant.

Hopefully we can pick up steam again tomorrow and visit the Cape Coast Castle, among the many other local attractions here.

Stay Classy!

Alicia

Day 9: Wednesday July 15, 2009

Salutations from Accra!

This is Lori. We had a truly amazing Wednesday! It was excursion day at AACT; so we all packed into a bus and traveled to the University of Lagion’s Botanical Gardens. The children were wonderful on the bus ride, although traffic was occasionally a challenge. We arrived to the botanical gardens where we were given a tour of the grounds. We enjoyed a boat ride in a small lagoon (well, Alicia enjoyed it while Brad and I paddled the boat). We also went with the children and staff at AACT to see various farm animals including goats and chickens. Some of the children enjoyed chasing the chickens.

At the botanical gardens there was an amazing playground. The children (and adults) enjoyed a fantastic seesaw that went up high and could spin around (I enjoyed trying it out!). There were other seesaws, slides, swings, and cars that the children could peddle. Everyone enjoyed playing for hours! I also witnessed several staff members creating communication opportunities during mealtime and on the playground (something we discussed in our workshops earlier this week).
Lewis, a local drummer who volunteers time at the centre, played drums for the children both at the centre before we left for the field trip and at the botanical gardens. He even played on the bus ride home. It felt like a party bus as music was played and staff and children were dancing and clapping the entire ride home.

Brad and I recently finished our first staff workshops on teaching communication using PECS and Pivotal Response Treatments (PRT). I was overwhelmed by the quality of questions and comments the staff had during this workshop. I also enjoyed one of the most interesting conversations I have ever had on perceptions of autism in various communities and the challenges of working with individuals with of autism. I found it very interesting that the challenges the staff mentioned at AACT are very similar to challenges I have faced working at various centers in the US. Some of the challenges they mentioned were raising awareness about autism within the community so that families would be able to bring their children into the community without fear of judgment. They also mentioned that training parents and making sure that intervention is consistent across home and school is often a challenge. Selected the best intervention and teaching methods for each child is another challenge they mentioned.
This trip has been an incredible learning experience for me as I have now been able to see that autism is the same in other parts of the world and that individuals who dedicate their time to improve the lives of individuals with autism often face similar challenges all over the world.
After our excursion we enjoyed some more delicious Italian food at a local restaurant called Mamma Mia. We then visited a sky lounge that overlooks the city. It looked like any place you would visit in the US. There are many times that I will be in a place such as a restaurant or a lounge here and forget where I am so much so that I am surprised when I step outside to see the large street gutters and vendors walking by. AACT is one of those places. I often forget that I am in a developing country as I feel like this centre could be anywhere in the US. They are individuals who are dedicated to research based interventions for children with autism in a place where it often perceived that the cause of autism is an evil spirit possessing the individual.

Tomorrow we will be visiting a place called Cape Coast!

Thanks for reading!
Lori

Day 8: July 14

Greetings from Brad,

We had another busy day at the centre, working with the staff to develop and implement a preference assessment for all of the students. The preference assessment will be used to gain some insight into what motivates each student. We will then use these "motivators" as reinforces for appropriate communication and academic demands.

Lori and I also continued with the PECS and PRT trainings that we had started on Monday. The staff responded amazingly, jumping into the demonstration and showing that these skills are like many that they are already using. We are confident that the staff will be able to apply these approaches to their interactions with the students.

Alicia continues to make progress with her project by having completed all of the sanding. In addition, she started painting (with a color scheme of grey for the legs and blue for the tops) the desks.

After handing out the certificates of achievement to the local staff we headed back to our village to prepare for our personally cooked meal. Before the meal we worked up an appetite by taking a walk to Independence Square. We took in all of the sights, the memorial arch and the conference centre, which are really stunning. Back to the meal, through a mutual friend we had an amazing typical Ghanaian meal that consisted of a pasta with seasonings, jolof rice (similar to spanish rice), and a salad of cabbage, potatoes, and salad cream. This was all topped off with an amazing orange crepe dessert that I hear was incredibly delicious (there was no vegan option, so I had more jolof).

Tomorrow we are heading out on an excursion to the botanical gardens. Lewis, the official drummer of the Global Autism Project will be joining us to provide a drumming workshop for the students. This is going to be great!

Respect,

brad "kofi" herron

Day 7: Monday July 13, 2009

Greetings from Ghana. This is Casey, the new country director for the Global Autism Project. I am thrilled to have come back to Ghana after studying here five years ago. Today, I went to the center for the first time. It was immediately clear, that this place was special. The many staff and volunteers all arrived with smiles and ready to help make a difference in these kids lives.

As Molly introduced me to everyone, Brad and Lori got right to work. Over the past week, they have been organizing training sessions for the staff of AACT. Today they presented the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), as well as facilitated an amazing discussions on the topic of autism.

Later in the morning, Molly and I got the privilege of meeting with Nana Akua Owusu. She is the speech and language pathologist for the center, who also runs a private practice and an NGO. It was exciting to start brainstorming with her about our work together in these coming months.

While all this was happening, Alicia was hard at work designing and building the draws for the center's desks! With this said, it was an incredibly productive day for all of us here. And what a better way to end the day than fresh pineapple and a bag of vanilla fanice (best ice cream in the world).

Casey

Day 6: Sunday, July, 12, 2009

A Day at the Market and the Football Stadium - Today we started our day with a slow breakfast overlooking the ocean at the Akuma Village. The banana pancakes were especially good today, along with the fresh squeezed pineapple juice.

After breakfast we headed over to the National Cultural Centre, where the haggling began! Molly, Lori, Casey, Brad and I were able to find many local crafts and gifts for our friends back at home. Lori won the best bargain award today, with the acquisition of her solid wood elephant stool for 25 Cedis, instead of the initially suggested price of 50 Cedis. We attended a football match with local teams Mirren versus Chelsea. The crowd wasn't completely what I I was hoping for because the stadium was a bit empty, but it was still a good game nonetheless.

Dinner commenced with the five of us luckily being able to fit into one taxi whilst en route to Champs for Mexican food.

Stay Classy!

Alicia

Day 5: Saturday, July 11

Greetings from the Obama-mania capital of the world today! Everyone is thrilled to death with Obama’s choice to visit Ghana for his first visit to Africa as U.S. President! We decided to head to the beach last night to mostly avoid the mass hysteria and absolute pandemonium that was expected to ensue as Air Force One hit the ground. Literally, every single Ghanaian we spoke with had planned to head to the airport to greet President Obama and his family.

We got to watch his helicopters fly overhead from the beach during our African dancing lesson. We danced for him, and I am confident that he enjoyed it! His message to Africa was simple yet inspiring and reflected the values of the Global Autism Project. Obama, like the Global Autism Project feel that there is a great amount of potential and promise in Africa. We particularly enjoyed hearing him say, "But the true sign of success is not whether we are a source of perpetual aid that helps people scrape by — it's whether we are partners in building the capacity for transformational change." in his speech to Ghanaians today.

The Global Autism Project is committed to being not an AID organization, providing a simplistic short term solution, but in building the capacity for transformational change for the lives of children with autism, not only in Ghana and Africa, but all over the world as well. It was refreshing and inspiring to hear these ideals that guide our work from arguably the single most popular man in the World today.

In other news, today CASEY ARRIVED via Cairo!! Not many people can get off a plane still smiling having just ridden through the desert on camels that morning, and having slept through the night for the last time about four nights ago, but the new Country Director of the Global Autism Project did indeed! She was greeted at the airport by our amazing team of volunteers and we're hoping that her four months in Ghana five years ago will make up for the fact that she's joining us all a week later. So far, it seems that it has. We're delighted to have her here and can't wait to introduce her to all of the staff and children of the centre on Monday!

Signing off,

Molly Ola

Day 4: Friday, July 10th

Friday July 10, 2009
Happy Friday from Africa!

This is Lori again. We had an amazing day at the Centre. Alicia returned to the hardware store (she just cannot get enough of that place!). Her construction continues to amaze the rest of us. She is a talented engineer and carpenter.

Molly and I brainstormed with the wonderful administrators at the Centre to create a new daily schedule that would maximize learning time. A new afternoon schedule was developed where, rather than free play, different structured activities (3 to be exact) would be available to students to participate in. By adding structure and choices, this will increase student’s engagement in appropriate activities (and also create more communication opportunities). Staff members would be assigned to a specific activity for the day. These activities would change daily.

Brad and I worked with the staff on creating language opportunities during motivating activities (such as snack). Some of the students are using the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) to communicate, while others are using verbalizations to communicate. For students using vocals we are teaching the staff to use Pivotal Response Treatments (PRT) to work on social communication. The staff’s previous training in PECS was apparent by their strong teaching skills.

Brad and I also outlined our staff trainings for the visit. We will provide teaching sessions that will include demonstrations of skills with students and practice by staff members. These trainings will focus on PECS, PRT, functional behavior assessments (FBA), functional communication training (FCT), and addressing problem behavior.

Molly worked closely with Baaba, the phenomenal Administrator of AACT to begin to create a volunteer training orientation program. AACT is very fortunate to receive volunteers interested in joining them from all over the world through various organizations. Baaba said she was looking forward to implementing a strong and organized volunteer orientation program, complete with social outings for volunteers and AACT staff to get to know each other!

After our visit at AACT, we took an adventure to Kokrobite Beach (about 30 minutes west of Accra). There we made a vegan dinner from local vegetables with the assistance of friends from the area. In the evening, we were the guests of honor at a bonfire on the beach with African drumming and dancing. Molly, Brad and I participated in the festivities while Alicia was our photographer of the amazingly beautiful event. It was a truly remarkable experience!
Thanks for reading!
Lori

Day three: Thursday, July 9th

Hello from Accra!

This is Lori. I am a Board Certified Behavior Analyst from Phoenix, AZ who is working with Brad to provide training on Applied Behavior Analysis at AACT. Today, we learned all the names of the students and staff. During this time we learned that in Ghana, your name is based on what day of the week you were born. If you are born on Friday and you are male your name is Kofi. Saturday is Kwame, Sunday is Kwesi, and so on. The staff is extremely friendly and was very helpful providing prompts and praise as needed as we acquired this new skill of local naming procedures.

From our observations, the staff is doing an amazing job using the data sheets and skills taught during previous trainings. The staff at the AACT is very talented and dedicated to their work.

We are very fortunate to have this opportunity to work with such wonderful people.
Our specific focus at AACT for the next few weeks is to teach the staff how to increase the spontaneous use of functional communication of the children. Today we began taking baseline data (looking at the student’s current levels of performance) on spontaneous functional communication. Throughout our training, we will continue to measure this behavior to determine how successful our training was at teaching the staff how to increase this behavior for their students.

Today the children made beautiful splatter paints (inspired by Jackson Pollack). This activity was led by a local artist who volunteers his time at the Centre. He has great talent and a wonderful passion for working with children with autism.

Alicia has begun design and construction to modify the existing furniture which will allow the staff to teach the children more efficiently while recording data. Looking for the tools proved to be quite an adventure!

In the evening, Brad, Molly, Alicia, other volunteers for AACT and I went on an adventure in search of an infamous Ethiopian restaurant. Unfortunately the restaurant was not found, however, we were able to meet some of Obama’s Secret Service Agents a local Italian restaurant.

Thanks for reading!
Lori

Day Two: Wednesday, July 8

Alicia here. I am a Structural Engineer here from Brooklyn, NY to assist the centre in modifying their existing desks to match the functions of EOTO- the teaching platform designed by Jennifer Iino and the Global Autism Project to support the teaching of children with autism. We have brougt the original prototype all the way from NYC and I am excited to see how I can use it to inform the design of the modifications here.

After much suspense and anticipation, we were finally able to pickup Lori at the airport in Accra. Kofi, our driver was even excited to see Lori, as he greeted her with a big hug! We all piled into his tiny taxi cab, and noticed that although the car was on, there was no key in the ignition. It turns out that keys are not a necessity for starting most cars here, with hot wiring the preferred way to go.

After picking up Lori and getting all settled in, we made it to the Centre for a late morning start. Lori and Brad observed the children while Molly and I headed out to the local hardware store. We were fortunate to find a few hardware stores along a stretch of New Town Road where we purchased assorted hardware for the desks (nails, screws, hinges, etc.).

After asking around, we were able to track down a local wood store. Molly put her bargaining skills to work and we purchased 1x1 and 1x3 timber from Mohammed for 6 Cedis (about $4.00). He then took us to the nearby woodshop, where they planed and cut down the wood into smaller pieces. The shop was pretty impressive to say the least, complete with industrial sized band saws, table saws, planes, etc. Luckily one of the staff members at the Centre offered to lend us their tools, so we can actually begin construction tomorrow.

After leaving the Centre we all piled into a Tro-Tro headed to the Circle where we then played a game of frogger trying to cross the road in between tro-tro’s. We all made it safely across with the exception of Lori, who was lightly hit by one backing up. Into the massive puddle she went! Dinner was spent at Frankie’s, with plenty of hummus and baba ghanouche to go around. For dessert we headed to the new gelato place in Osu.

Stay Classy!
Alicia

Ghana Day One: July 7, 2009...

Greetings all, Brad here.

I am an ABA therapist from Phoenix, AZ and I have come to Ghana to lend my support to the Global Autism Project and the Autism, Awareness, Care, Training Centre(AACT).



Akwaaba, or greetings in Twi, is what we (Molly, Alicia, not Lori as she was trapped in NY) heard as we pulled into AACT. The staff and students were very gracious in welcoming us to the center. After a tour of the center and introductions to the staff we headed across the street to pick up some rice and satchets of water from the local vendors. We spent the remainder of our time at the center chatting with the staff and getting to know the students.



We headed out from the center, via tro tro (picture a volkswagen van with a few more seats) and made our way to Osu, a part of Accra where many Obruni's (white people) hang out, eat, and shop. Here we picked up some great souvenir's like jewelry and shirts. This inlcuded a shirt with the message "Obama in Ghana" "Africa Unite". I think I know this Obama guy..? According to the signs and billboards posted everywhere he is coming to visit Ghana; this could be exciting.



After shopping we stopped by Mama Mia's Pizzeria and I had some excellent vegetarian cheeseless pizza. We made our home to the Rising Phoenix, our new home for the next three weeks. This place has a fantastic view of the ocean and some really cute kittens that we named using various forms of Obama.

Tomorrow promises to be another exciting day of getting to know the staff and kids, as well as more bartering with cabbies and shop keepers...

Respect,

brad herron