Renowned Expert Visits CSULB
by Aviata Robertson

    "Leave the door open.  We need the air circulating and I'm full of air," said Dr. Ivar Lovaas, on Thursday, March 29, at the psychology department's Psych Day.  The audience chuckled at the comment he made when a student tried to close the door.  Air definitely needed to circulate through the crowded classroom in LA-5, with approximately 60 people sitting at desks and on the floor.
    Lovaas began with a pretty light attitude before talking about a pretty heavy subject: autism.
    A professor emeritus in UCLA's psychology department, Lovaas pioneered the Lovaas Insitute for Early Intervention, a research-based program that provides intensive and early behavioral treatment for children with autism.
    "We are all different, and when you look at children with autism, they are all different," said Lovaas.
    According to the Autism Society of America, autism is a developmental disability usually occurring within the first three years of life.  Behaviors associated with autism are difficulties in verbal and non-verbal communication, social interactions, and leisure or play activities.  In some cases, aggressiveness or self-injury, repeated body movements such as rocking and waving hands, and heightened sensitivity in the five senses occurs.  Excessive tantrums, self-stimulation, and echolalia (echoing what others say) may also be displayed.
    "We don't think that these autistic kids are sick.  We think that they are different in degree," said Lovaas.
    Early intervention helps autistic children by using reinforcements to teach behaviors.  Lovaas showed a video of the training of a three-year-old autistic girl named Lisa.  He taught her to sit at his command by using food, drink, and praise as positive reinforcements.  Even though she screamed and objected at first, she gradually obeyed without throwing tantrums.
    "I do the one-to-one therapy with autistic children.  It's a lot of work.  It's a lot of patience, but it's really rewarding when you see the child making progress.  You take the hits and the bites and everything, but it's really great," said Louise Brorstrom, a senior majoring in psychology.  Brorstrom has been working at the Lovaas institute for a year-and-a-half.
    Tricia Plank listened carefully to Lovaas' presentation.  Her three-year-old son, Joey, was diagnosed with autism in October 2000.
    "My experience has been intense.  Autism is not fun.  I'm a single mother, and my son has a lot of issues.  We don't sleep at night.  He can't handle loud noises," said Plank.
    She had been passing out flyers on campus with a relative, Amy Motsinger, in search of people to help with her son's training, when they heard that Dr. Lovaas would be speaking.
    "I really don't know how to work with autistic kids and I'm learning about how.  So, I thought that his speech was very informative, and it has gotten me excited about learning more about autism," said Motsinger, an education major at Golden West College who will be transferring to CSULB next spring.
    Some people in the audience were there to meet the man that they had studied so much about.
    "I currently work with autistic children, so this lecture was really helpful because it clued me in to a lot of different aspects that I wasn't familiar with, and it's always nice to have a refresher.  It was so positive to be able to see Dr. Lovaas speak after working with his techniques for so long," said Joelle Frankel, a psychology major.
    The Lovaas Institute continues to grow with new offices in San Diego and Atlanta, as more and more people seek help for their children.
    "It just made me cry after the lecture because there's so much hope for these kids," said little Joey's mother, Tricia Plank.

dated: March 30, 2001