To the editor:

The NVRHS board meeting had been opened to the Public for comment.

Several members of the Public had made comments and asked questions while the board members rolled their eyes and squirmed in their seats.

With hands still waving in the air, the school board member from Closter said "I make a motion to close the meeting to the Public."

There was a quick second and an unanimous approval from the rest of the board members.

When asked why this board member he chose to abruptly close the meeting to the Public, the response was that the board had heard it ("Pay or Fail") all before and that they were tired of hearing it.

Obviously, the rest of the board felt the same. There was not one dissenting vote. This same board member ran for a seat on the NVRHS board, again.

It's time for those elected officials to remember who is paying the bills and to show them a little more respect than they have have been shown in the past. If any board member doesn't want to hear what the Public has to say, then don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Steve Isaacson

Closter

Son-Rise article is misleading

To the editor:

In the recent article, "Son-Rise program helps awaken children with autism" by Sophia Gonzalez, misrepresentations about an evidence-based approach to autism treatment, applied behavior analysis (ABA), were perpetuated. Specifically, the article states that ABA is "robotic training" that did not improve the level of autism for the child described in the story.

A large and continually increasing number of published peer-reviewed studies have demonstrated that children who are part of an ABA program are able to make substantial gains across a wide range of skills and abilities. ABA is recommended by the U.S. Surgeon General, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the New York State Department of Health, the Association for Science in Autism Treatment, and many other professional organizations.

In addition, there are no studies that have ever lent any support to the characterization of ABA as "robotic training." One of the hallmarks of any quality ABA program is to ensure that teaching involves learning how to engage in activities that should ultimately be fluid and natural. It is true that certain skills may be somewhat less fluid early in the learning process, just as they would be for any person. Do any of your readers remember the early stages of their learning a new language or learning to play an instrument. Do they remember how "robotic" their behavior appeared at first? Such "robotic" behavior, when observed, seems to be more a function of an early level of skill learning than it does an outcome of an ABA program.

Another problem with the story’s representation of ABA is that it simplifies this complex field. Studies in ABA have concerned complex human issues such as: do peers make better teachers than adults? Is it better to teach expressive language before or after teaching receptive language? Do children learn better when they have more choices for rewards? Do video models work better to teach skills than live models? Can children learn to be more independent using activity schedules? What is the optimal number of steps to teach conversational skills? There are thousands of additional questions. The point is that ABA seeks to uncover principles about how we learn and to then apply those principles to socially significant skills, often very successfully for children with autism.

While I am glad the that child depicted in the story is improving, it is irresponsible to globally promote the Son-Rise approach given that, to date, there are no peer-reviewed scientific studies demonstrating its effectiveness. The end result of this article is that it fails to clarify important concerns surrounding effective treatment for autism.

Kenneth F. Reeve, PhD, BCBA

Associate professor and department chair, psychology

Caldwell College