Q: What services does FACES provide?
A: FACES provides a full-time program of early intervention behavior modification therapy using the Lovaas Method for young autistic children. Each child receives 30-35 hours per week of therapy working one-on-one with a tutor in their home. A parent or guardian is required to be present at all times for liability purposes and to meet the child's basic needs that may arise during the therapy session. Each child has a team of tutors consisting of 3-5 individuals, led by a senior tutor, who together provide the full course of therapy during the week. In addition, the team meets weekly with the parents, child, psychologist and/or case supervisor to review the progress of the case, address any new issues or behaviors that have arisen and update the program so the child progresses as quickly as possible.

Q: My child's doctor recommended only 10-20 hours per week of therapy. Can I do this?
A: FACES only offers a full-time program as we believe this is most beneficial to the child.

Q: My child's doctor recommends speech and/or occupational therapy. Do you provide these types of therapy?
A: FACES does not provide any therapy other than behavior modification therapy. However, if a family schedules a child to work with a speech/occupational tutor on a weekly basis we will schedule his/her therapy sessions around these appointments.

Q: My child is in preschool. Can she continue with this while doing FACES program?
A: Each case is reviewed on an individual basis by our clinical team to determine if the preschool experience is providing an appropriate learning environment for the child or if the child would be better served spending those additional hours in therapy. A child may be pulled out of preschool so that she can work with the tutors on skills specific to preschool (i.e., standing in line, washing hands, snack) and the child will be re-introduced to preschool on a limited basis. With others it may be longer before they return to preschool. Yet others may be allowed to continue accompanied by a tutor. However, parents must be aware that it is likely that their child's preschool schedule will be changed in some way.

Q: What ages do you work with?
A: As young as 2 (or the earliest diagnosis possible), up to 5 or 6; however, we generally accept younger children (2-4) as our new cases.

Q: How and when do you add more cases?
A: We are building our program in a very high quality manner, and in order to do this we spend a lot of time recruiting the right people to be tutors and even more time training them to effectively implement the therapy. There is no pool of trained tutors out there that we can recruit from, and it takes a lot of time and money to reach the level where we are comfortable that new staff members have been appropriately trained and supervised. This is a long process but it means that each child we add on is receiving the best program possible.

Q: How long does the program last?
A: Each case is individual and it is not possible to predict how long a child will be in the program. Typically, a child will receive 2-3 years of therapy and may also require support when they reach school age and enter into a mainstream classroom. However, some children may not respond well to the therapy and they will be recommended not to continue in the program as it is not a good approach for them. And some children may respond extremely well and progress more quickly than others. Our policy is to continue to work with a child for as long as they are making acceptable progress.

Q: What happens when my child reaches school age or is too old for your program?
A: It is our goal that all children enter into normal kindergarten and first grade classrooms if at all possible. Many children will require the assistance of an aide or other form of support as they make this transition, and FACES can provide this support for children that have been in our program. FACES does not yet have additional services to offer older children but we are examining it as children in our program are reaching these ages.

Q: What areas do you serve?
A: The Peninsula as far south as San Jose, and as far north as San Francisco. The geographic location of the family does play a role in determining which cases we will add on next (i.e., if all our available tutors live in S.F. we will generally look for a case closer to the city).

Q: How must does the program cost?
A: Cost is negotiated with each family privately. FACES has an aggressive fund raising campaign to help offset many of the costs associated with the program. Funding is available through Regional Center System in California and school districts. FACES works with families to secure appropriate funding.

Q: How do I get on the waiting list?
A: Send FACES a copy of your child's diagnostic report indicating a diagnosis of autism, along with a cover letter indicating the kind of program you are interested in and any additional information about your child that may be helpful. If you child is receiving other services it is helpful to have a progress report indicating the success of the child and how well they have responded to various programs. We will contact you when an opening becomes available that we are considering your child for.

Q: How long is your waiting list/how long until my child can get into the program?
A: It is impossible to predict how long it will take your child to get into the program. We do not simply accept children on a chronological basis according to when they got on the list. Rather, we look at every case on the waiting list to find the ones that will be most appropriate for our next opening (the decision has many factors including the level of functioning of the child, age, geographic location, skills of the tutors who will be working on the next case, etc.) We will ask 2-3 families whose children look appropriate given our current needs to come in for a meeting with our psychologist to discuss their child, the kind of program they are looking for, and to provide additional information about our program. Based on these meetings we select one child that is most appropriate. Some families are on the waiting list for a long time and some for only a short time.

Q: What should we do in the meantime?
A: There are a number of books about behavior modification therapy that are helpful for parents for read:

Let Me Hear Your Voice (Catherine Maurice)
Behavioral Intervention for Young Children with Autism (Maurice)
The ME Book (Ivar Lovaas)
Right from the Start; Behavioral Intervention for Young Children with Autism (Sandra Harris & Mary Jane Weiss)

These provide first hand accounts from parents with autistic children and general information on behavior modification programs and can help you make a decision on what you want to do for your child while you wait for the program of your choice.

Q: Can you give me the names of some tutors so I can get started now?
A: FACES does not have the names of tutors to recommend - there are very few properly trained tutors out there who can execute an effective program, and it is very easy for someone to do more damage than good if they don't have the proper supervision. If you want to do your own behavior modification program, we recommend that you read the ME Book by Ivar Lovaas and/or contact the Lovaas Institute about training workshops they offer.

Q: Can I talk to some parents about your program?
A: Certainly. We can pass your name on to a parent in our organization and have them call you.