Telluride local heads Autism and Behavioral Consultation Team

Telluride local/Occupational Therapist/Yoga instructor Annie Clark has been a member of the Board of Uncompaghre Coop Services (UNBOCS), Autism and Behavioral Consultation Team (ABCT) since it was founded in 2007. By 2010, the ABC Team expanded to its current configuration: two occupational therapists, a speech therapist, two school psychologists, and an early childhood specialist. The Team covers the Telluride region, working in five districts: Telluride, Ouray, Ridgway, Norwood, and the West End.

From the get-go, the ABC Team wanted to become a Model Team for the state of Colorado. Knowing her team was already functioning on solid ground, but wanting valuable support and coaching from the state, Clark applied to the Colorado Model Autism Team Project (CO-MASP) in Fall 2010, when she became team leader. The Model Team designation would support the building of an even buffer curriculum for affected children and their families, including state-of-the-art intervention and teaching techniques, especially important for children who received their diagnosis after age 7, when challenges related to ASD escalate.

Clark and the ABCT got the nod from the state just before Christmas following a meeting with the Colorado Department of Education senior autism consultant Brooke Young, a site visit of the district schools, meetings with principals and with the UnBOCS  executive director.

Prior to the UnBOCS commitment to establishing the ABC Team, families  and teachers with concerns about a child would have to travel to the Denver area for an Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale, (ADOS), evaluation. And there were only limited services when they returned.

To learn more about the goals of Clark’s ABC Team and why its services are so vital to its district, click the “play” button and listen to Clark’s podcast.