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Davis Autism Approach®

Delivery of Program

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The Davis Autism Approach® is designed to 'develop life concepts to aid in achieving a pathway to full participation in life". From our perspective this means being able to independently do tasks, have a greater cognitive understanding of those around us, and to have authentic communication with those in our lives. 

The Davis® methods use a developmental approach offering tools that help those with autism to self-regulate and develop a sense of Self. Through this process those with autism explore concepts of daily life, such as change, consequence, cause and effect, time, sequence, and disorder versus order. These concepts are integral to daily functioning. This methodology aims to provide each person, regardless of needs, with tools to understand the concepts needed to more fully participate in their lives.


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The Davis Autism Approach® provides a road map to understanding this world

 

That is not to say that the inner world of autism must be left forever. In their own time when they are alone and wish to enter the world of their imagination, they are free to go there just like any of us choose to enjoy. By many accounts it can be a beautiful, colourful, and pleasing place to be. But those who have done the Davis Autism Approach® have said that now that they understand the idiosyncrasies of this world, they enjoy being a part of it and communicating with their loved ones. Returning less and less to their solo world.


 

How is the Davis Autism Approach® delivered?

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  • Facilitated 1 to 1

  • 9am – 4 pm each day for a week

  • There are no flashcards or rote repetition exercises

  • Program will take between 3 – 5 weeks to complete

  • The program has 3 main modules: Individuation, Identity Development, Social and Relationship Integration

  • The Program is usually run one week per month over several months

  • The set program is worked through at the individual clients pace

  • The program is drug free, interactive, gentle, non invasive, and always respectful


 

Three Part Steps to Participating Fully in Life

 

1. Individuation and Self Regulation – get a sense of self; unique from any other individual

During this step the individual is gently guided through exercises that teach self regulation, and orientation that leads to an accurate perceptions of the world around them.

 

2. Identity Development

We as humans realize we are individuals in this world and hence we must then experience and better understand the world we live in and create our own identity. This need is also required of a person living with autism. We explore this through our participation and experiences. Learning how the world operates and how we fit into this world.

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Ron Davis, who developed this program, also lives with autism. Once emerging out of autism, his engineering training afforded him the ability to analyze and breakdown the concepts into manageable pieces and create this program. He was able to ascertain the missing developmental concepts that he felt he missed in his development; hence providing a roadmap for others like him.

 

The roadmap is introduced as a series of concepts. Then the participant is guided to make a model of the concept out of clay, hence understanding the concept better through experiential learning. Finally the concept is experienced in the real world either through a walk in nature, making a recipe or some other real life experience. Thereby solidifying the concept that they have learned into its practicality in the world.

 

Concepts explored explain how the physical world operates.
Including the ideas of change, consequence, cause, effect, before, after, time, sequence, order vs disorder.

 

Often several weeks are given for the individual to absorb and experience these concepts in their daily lives.

 

When they are ready to take in more information, they return to the program again. 

We then move on to the thought concepts that show how to make changes within the individual’s world. We explore the concepts of, continue, survive, perception, thought, understanding, knowledge, wisdom, and experience. Often another few weeks are taken for the client to absorb and experience these new concepts into their daily lives.

 

When the client is ready again to experience more concepts. The emotional concepts of energy, force, emotion, want, need, and intention are explored.

 

Once these are completed the common concepts of motivation, ability, control and the advanced concept of responsibility are discovered. 

The client will often take another break from the program to integrate these new concepts into their daily life.

 

3. The Final Phase: Social and Relationship Integration

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Now that the individual has individuated and created their own sense of identity it is time to guide them through the social and relationship concepts.


Rather than teaching the individual a ‘script’ of how to speak and interact with others, instead we feel it is better to show the individual the factors that create and determine positive and negative relationships. Thereby enabling them to take their individual life experiences, thoughts and ideas into creating healthy relationships. The knowledge of these relationship models are discovered through the concepts of others, emotion, relationship, trust, rules, to name a few. Allowing the client to make their own informed decisions across different experiences and relationships.


The complete person is no longer locked inside.

They are now free to make self-regulated, informed, and independent decisions on their own behalf!
Their voice is now open to contribute their talents and abilities to improve society.

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Each of these concepts is introduced at the pace required by the client. Depending on the individual the program will generally take between 3 to 5 weeks to complete ($6000/week), often spread over a six month time period.

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For more information on the approach visit: http://www.davisautism.com 

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How We
See It

Program Background

Benefits and Results

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