August 2014 Monthly Archives

What is the NET? And Why Is It Important?

NET is code name for Natural Environment Teaching.

Research has shown that children with Autism learn better in a natural learning environment because they are not typically motivated to learn new things.

At Trellis the NET is set up in areas mimicking typical playrooms and in thematic centers (e.g., Housekeeping/Dress up, Vehicles and Blocks, Art Room, Sensory Room, Gross Motor Room, Library, Game Room, etc.).  Throughout the NET, toys are strategically placed in bins and/or on shelves, out of the learners’ reach to facilitate opportunities for communication.  When children are motivated to get something, they will attempt to communicate their desire for that item.  At that time, appropriate language is taught so the learners are more readily and easily able to communicate what they want the next time they want that item.

In the Trellis School, young learners at Trellis spend up to 90% of their day in the NET

Trellis Hosts LAMP Training at Trellis Learning Center

Members of the autism community and staff of Trellis participated in LAMP training at the new Trellis Learning Center.

The Language Acquisition through Motor Planning (LAMP) is a therapeutic approach that teaches nonverbal or limited verbal learners a way to communicate – through a very specific methodology using a speech generating device. It is an approach that is well known and loved by Trellis therapists, instructors and families.

LAMP gives individuals who are nonverbal or have limited verbal abilities a method of independently and spontaneously communicate.

Trellis collaborated with The Center for AAC and Autism and the Prentke Romich Company on the program.

Twelve Trellis staff members and more than 50 people from the Baltimore community attended the training at the Trellis Learning Center in Sparks, Maryland.

Learn more about LAMP from the Center for AAC and Autism.

Trellis Moves Into New Learning Center

#Community

Today Trellis Services moved into its new state-of-the-art learning center in Sparks, Maryland in Baltimore County.

Located just a couple miles north of the Hunt Valley Town Center with easy access from Interstate 83, the new facility include over 30,000 square feet of learning space for children with autism.

The new facility will be home to the Trellis School, Trellis’s afterschool program for Baltimore County, and all of Trellis’s clinic-based programs for children with autism including the Love 2 Learn early intervention program. The center includes 6 classrooms, a sensory gym and thousands of square feet of natural learning environment.

The additional space will allow Trellis to serve more families in the region. Many families can now obtain insurance coverage for many of the services that Trells provides. Earlier this year, Maryland became the 37th state to pass autism insurance reform. Many more families in the state now have insurance coverage for habilitative services, including ABA.