Kansas researcher knows what works for autistic children
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What is the OASIS program and why was it created?
When a child receives an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, training for parents can be limited. But a program at the University of Kansas's Lifespan Institute acts as a bridge, offering evidence-based strategies and teaching parents, schools, organizations, and service providers best practices to foster best possible outcomes. The program is called Online and Applied Systems of Intervention. Skills or Oasis. Linda Heitzmann Powell, a professor in pediatrics at KU Medical Center and lead researcher for OASIS, joins us today to talk more about the program. her research and recent funding that could expand the program's efforts. You're listening to the Kansas Reflector Podcast. I'm Anna Kaminsky. Linda, thank you so much for being here today.
Thanks for having me.
Can you start off and give listeners a brief overview on the origins of Oasis and how you came to be involved?
Absolutely. I'm not sure um how brief it will be, but um I will So this takes us back twenty years, twenty-five years. to when we uh when I was working over here in pediatrics d in the assessment and diagnostic clinic. And we were providing parents with a packet of information at the end of their diagnostic. Um Evaluation. And It always felt like That we were setting them adrift at sea. with no sail and no oars. Right. It's like here we just gave you this diagnosis of this condition that is considered at the time. Um to be um one that was uh rare. Right? A rare condition with Only A program that had been developed. over time based on the principles of applied behavior analysis. But was unfunded through insurance companies.
At the time. And I can't say this enough. Parents. could be receiving speech services through their insurance companies. And as soon as they got that diagnosis of autism, then speech was no longer covered because insurance companies considered it. uh a characteristic of autism and they had actually written into their policies and exclusion for autism treatment.
Wow.
It was awful. And so as a parent, that was untenable to me. And so I remember saying to Dr. Matt Reese at the time who ran the C C H D over here. Matt, we need to figure out something to do for these parents. And Matt said, Well, write a grant. And I said, Okay, well, right around that same time. I was working in the field doing home and community based services for families. that were funded under the
How did Linda Heitzmann‑Powell’s early work lead to OASIS?
Um, what is now known as the IDD waiver, intellectual and developmental disability waiver. Um, because there were no services available or treatment Options available for autism. I was working with those service providers that were coming in the home to try to provide supports to those families. And billing is um under a psychologist for that because that is covered that Um interactive family therapy. The problem is is that I was working with aggressive adolescents. And those respite providers that were coming into the homes with no training were dropping like flies. I'd be lucky if I could keep 'em two weeks because nobody wants to go into someone's home and get beat up, right? And so I found myself Spending a lot of my time traveling from family to family, constantly trying to train those new service providers.
And it was because of that that I got together with a couple of my other colleagues. Doctor Jabazart. who is now the assistant director, I believe he is, over the Juniper Gardens Children's Project in Kansas City, Kansas. Oh excuse me. And Doctor Monika Suhawierska. and Dr. Kanda Morrison and got together and said Okay, what are the fundamental skills? these people need in order to be able to effectively implement the programs that I'm developing to be able to offset the core characteristics of autism and make that family unit more stable. So it was from there that we came up with the original version of OASIS, which was a provider training, which is still being implemented today, right? Well, along the way what was happening was the parent because there was nothing for parents.
Parents wanted to be able to learn how to better parent. their child with autism.
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