Building Blocs - Blog | Building BLOCS

Learning in Play with the Early Start Denver Model

At Building BLOCS our goal is to create a fun and engaging environment where your child wants to play and learn, while also supporting high levels of skill acquisition and addressing any behaviors of concern. We use the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) as the model for our ABA therapy services. This model is a naturalistic play-based model of therapy that we believe supports a partnership in therapy between the child client and the adult provider.

Nov 4Nov 4

What Happens in an ABA Therapy Session?

If you are exploring ABA therapy as a potential service for your child, you may be wondering; what typically happens in an ABA therapy session?

Oct 29Nov 4

What Is ABA Therapy?

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy is a group of teaching or instructional techniques based on the science and principles of behavior. These techniques are used to teach socially significant skills to a person in an effort to establish meaningful outcomes for the individual.

Oct 15Oct 28

Special Education and the IEP Process

We are starting a new virtual learning series at Building BLOCS–Lunch and Learn. Join us on Thursdays as we explore topics that our families consistently ask about–potty training, sleep routines, challenging behaviors, and more. This week we’re starting with an introduction to Special Education and the IEP process.

Sep 15Oct 28

Autism Friendly Activities in Austin

Building BLOCS knows how important it is to keep our kids active in the community, but finding sensory friendly activities that work for your child is rare. Here is our list of local or virtual sensory friendly events for your family to explore in the Austin area.

Jun 15Jun 15

Now Providing ABA therapy to Families in South Austin

Building BLOCS is now in South Austin! We provide early intervention to children 18 months – 5 years of age and their families. South Austin families can register now for home-based ABA therapy.

Call today for more information. 512.827.7011

Dec 21Oct 29

Christmas Song Choices

At Building BLOCS we use a lot of Super Simple Songs with our kids. They have created a library of fun, easy songs for children to sing and dance to. Here is a link to all of their Christmas songs.

During the holiday break, keep your kid engaged and happy by singing these songs. We use visuals like the one below to help them make song choices.

Apr 18Oct 29

Meet our Team: Jennifer Swinbank M.Ed., BCBA, CTRS

Give a little background information about yourself:

I grew up in Buda and never left the Austin area! Why would you leave this amazing city?!
I went to Texas State University for my undergraduate studies, graduating with a degree in Recreational Administration with an emphasis in therapeutic recreation in 2005. After graduating, I provided recreational therapy services for the CLASS program for about 7 years, assisting individuals with disabilities with accessing their community to participate in recreation and leisure activities. In 2011 I went back to Texas State University to obtain my masters in Special Education with a specialization in applied behavior analysis and autism.
I currently live in Austin with my husband and 3 year old daughter.

What brought you in to this field?

While working as a recreational therapist, I attended a workshop on applied behavior analysis. I found the concepts of ABA to be applicable to my job as a recreational therapist. I started to apply some of the concepts to challenging behaviors I would sometimes encounter. It was amazing to see an almost immediate response from some of my clients, so I decided to further pursue ABA.

What are some favorite parts about your job?

Each month Building BLOCS presents a theme around which stories, art, and games are focused. My favorite theme recently was our “pretend” theme. Our group spent the entire month learning about and working on pretending! We had so much fun and the kids were so creative! Watching the kids learn and apply their knowledge to the world around them, you feel a lot of pride when this happens.
I also enjoy that in this job, you never stop learning. I learn all the time from the kids, from the families, and from my co-workers.

What are a couple interesting facts about yourself?

I am a registered massage therapist, though I currently only provide services for individuals on the CLASS program. I have been providing massage therapy services to individuals on the CLASS program for about 15 years.

I love llamas and hope to someday own several llamas with which I can provide “animal-assisted” therapy services to nursing homes, schools, children’s shelters, etc.

Mar 30Oct 29

March Featured Research

If you have been following us on social media you know that our BCBAs and a few of our ABA therapists attended the TxABA conference and are so excited to share some of the new and exciting research presentations that we were able to sit in on while there. A team favorite was Francesca degli Espinosa’s presentation on verbal behavior: Teaching verbal conditional discrimination: a framework for organizing language curricula to establish generalized question-answering in children with autism. Francesca degli Espinosa also presented her research on verbal behavior at the National Autism Conference in 2015 and more recently across the globe before making it to TxABA. If you are at all interested in expanding verbal repertoire or even learning more about verbal behavior in general, take a look at Espinosa’s presentation linked below.

verbal discrimination presentation francesca degli espinosa