Els for Autism: Creating Lifelong Resources for the Neurodivergent w/ Dr Erin Brooker Lozott | EDB 287
Els for Autism’s Dr. Erin Brooker Lozott shares their work supporting all ages of autistic individuals, and previews their upcoming conference.
Dr. Erin Brooker Lozott, BCBA-D, CCC-SLP is the Els for Autism Foundation Program Director. She has been working with individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related disabilities across ages and settings for over 25 years. Erin is a doctoral-level board-certified behavior analyst and a licensed and certified Speech-Language Pathologist. Before joining the Els for Autism Foundation staff, Erin worked for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta-Marcus Autism Center as the Community Interventionist Manager, participating in research and educational outreach community-based projects. Erin has co-authored several publications on autism spectrum disorder topics, and she has presented and consulted extensively on a national and international level. She is an appointed member of both a scientific advisory committee and a clinical excellence committee for international autism organizations.
Els for Autism Foundation was established in 2009 by Liezl Els, Ernie Els, and Marvin R. Shanken. The Els’ son, Ben, is impacted by autism spectrum disorder, which affects 1 in 44 children in the U.S. The Foundation offers innovative, evidence-based programs for families and individuals across the life-span in six focus areas: Education, Research, Global Support, Recreation Services, Adult Services and Therapy Services. The Els for Autism Foundation serves families around the world, and also offers in-person programs and services at The Els Center of Excellence® in Jupiter, Florida. Els for Autism® envisions a world of limitless possibilities for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families.
For more about Els for Autism: www.elsforautism.org
RE-CREATING RECREATION CONFERENCE – MARCH 23 & 24, 2023
This conference will focus on demonstrating how RECREATION can be used as a platform for other therapeutic interventions. Speakers will include leaders in recreation programs and services, dedicated to improving the lives of autistic individuals. This includes some familiar names to the Different Brains audience like Dr. Stephen Shore and Dani Bowman! Event followed by optional Roots & Ruts Off-Road 5K Run/Walk on March 25th
Venue: The Els Center of Excellence (R) Campus, 18370 Limestone Creek Road, Jupiter, Florida 33458
For more info about the upcoming Els for Autism conference, go to: https://bit.ly/Rec-Conference-2023
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FULL TRANSCRIPTION
DR HACKIE REITMAN (HR):
Welcome to another episode of Exploring Different Brains. I’m Dr. Hackie Reitman and today I’m excited to be speaking with Erin Brooker Lozott, who is the program director for the Els for Autism, which we’re going to learn all about from Erin. Erin, welcome to the show.
DR ERIN BROOKER LOZOTT (EBL):
Thank you Hackie. Nice to be here.
HR:
Introduce yourself properly, much better than I did.
EBL:
My name is Dr. Erin Brooker Lozott. And as you said, I’m the program director here at Els for Autism Foundation in Jupiter, Florida. We are a global nonprofit organization. So we have foundations in South Africa, the UK, Canada, and here in the US, I consider our 26 acre campus here somewhat of the mothership of all services and supports. But all of our Els for Autism Foundation sites across the world are very significant and do wonderful things to support the lives of people with autism and the families and those that work with them.
HR:
How did you come to specialize in working with the Autistic community?
EBL:
So that’s a really great question. My first, I guess, degree was in communicative sciences and disorder. So I became a speech language pathologist. And I went from my undergrad into an elementary school that had inclusive programs for children with autism all the way through, you know, autistic, I guess, transition aged individuals. And there was a little boy in kindergarten that no one really knew what to do. He was having some unique behaviors in the sense that he was communicating through behaviors. And so they the school and the team, they were talking about possibly expelling this little five year old, this little boy went on to have a diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome. At the time, I had no knowledge of this, I was a bachelor level speech language pathologist working and grandfathered into an elementary school. And I said, That is ridiculous that a five year old would ever be looked at for expulsion, we have to find out what is he trying to communicate, and how can we help him. And so I worked with a psychologist we learned about Asperger’s and autism, it seemed to be a match. We looked at the evidence based practices, did some parent training, teacher training, and this little guy just soared, it was amazing. And so from that point on, I had this, I guess burning interest in to learn more about how a person with autism autistic individual, I’m happy to go identity first person first, because it’s not my choice to make that decision here today. How to be the best provider I could be to someone with autism, I didn’t want to do anything that wasn’t going to be in that person’s best interest. So if I could help guide this process, I wanted to be an agent of change for autism. So through my graduate work, Hackie, and then my practicum experience and my early career to date, it’s been almost 27 years, I have tried to continue on this path of learning about the needs of people on the spectrum and how I can be the best professional provider for them for the people around them. And this little boy never got expelled and actually did quite well in life and had advocates all around him to support him getting what he needed, in the way he needed it.
HR:
That’s great. Well, one life at a time you’re doing it.
EBL:
All I can do — one moment at a time, one life at a time.
HR:
Now tell us for those who don’t know about it all about the Els for Autism, where you now are the program director.
EBL:
Yeah, so Els for Autism, like I said is a nonprofit organization. It was started in 2009 by Mr. Ernie Els and his wife, Liezl Els and a co founder Marvin Shanken. And they Ernie and Liezl have a son named Ben who has a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and they were in the UK at the time, Ernie is an international Hall of Fame golfer. And so they were looking for the best school the best place to be able to provide their son with services. And the story goes that Ernie was here golfing and got to go see a small charter school in a very tiny building that was kind of busting at the seams and needing support. And he felt that it would be a really good fit for his son. And so he called his wife Liezel my boss and said, We need to move to United States to Palm Beach to Florida for this school. This school is the place for Ben and the school was already looking to expand at the time. And so Ernie and Liezl decided they wanted to help the school so they started Els for Autism Foundation. And they had golf events because they know golf well to raise money to be able to purchase land and build buildings with the thought that the the charter school and the Lower School which is three to 14, it’s called the Learning Center now. And then another Charter School, which is the high school, the Learning Academy 14 to 21 are obviously 22 your last year of school that the campus they wanted to build would be able to house both Palm Beach County public charter schools that are parent choice and dedicated to individuals on the autism spectrum. And then they would have a lifespan of services for Els for Autism Foundation, from really as young as probably 12 months of age, diagnostics, early intervention, all the way up through adult services. So what they did is just that they work to raise money through golf events to purchase land to build buildings to be able to then hire staff and develop programs. And so at Els for Autism Foundation, we actually don’t have schools. The two schools on our campus are a Palm Beach County, public charter school is dedicated to autistic individuals. It’s free, no tuition right through your Individual Education Plan process. But it’s not a placement from the school system. They run in, we share space. So they are each their own nonprofit 501(C)(3) charters, but on our campus, so the best roommates ever basically right. And then Els for Autism has just like Ernie and Liezl wanted a lifespan of services. So we have a diagnostic clinic we have early intensive, you know, intervention services from really nice developmental applied behavior analysis that’s integrated with speech and language, OT, music therapy, we have our team that has special education backgrounds, we also have mental health counseling, and support for the families. And then our therapeutic services. As the children grow and go to school, we support training of professionals of students, again, have families, then we have an entire suite of recreation services that I’ll talk about in a minute. And then we have our adult services that include domains of independent living, pre vocational and vocational employment, and then again, social and leisure and recreation services. So we have these three very focused areas of impact, and one being early education intervention, that includes Parent Training and therapeutic services, etc. And then we have our recreation kind of area of impact or focus. And then we have our adult services. And what we do is we have family support, care coordination, mental health, that threads through all of these areas of focus. We have global outreach, that threads through all of these areas. And we have research that thread through all of the areas of focus, because we want to make sure that we’re researching what we’re doing to ensure it’s truly evidence base. And Els for Autism envisions a world of limitless possibilities Hackie for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and their families. And our global mission, because we are a global organization is to transform the lives of people with autism and those who care for them through a lifetime of service and collaborative partnerships. Because we, we can’t be everything to everyone. But we can make a connection or collaborate and do something for everyone. And so that that’s really what we do on a daily basis, we have a transdisciplinary team approach. So we work really together, blending the lines of our disciplines for families and families get to have one contact versus going like this and trying to put things together themselves. And I think we do a really good job of these things.
HR:
Well, you certainly certainly are knocking them out. You’re doing great and great stuff. And thank goodness for all you do. And I love that you’re talking about lives, lifespan services, because so much in our well intentioned society, it’s all about the cute little kids. And then little kids grow up.
EBL:
They sure do and I think being person centered and family centered and making sure that we’re not doing things on an island or an isolation. One of the things I love about Els for Autism Foundation is that we have an autism advisory board. And so we have — you have to be voted in, you have a board of autistic adults who are monitoring our practices guiding us giving us their input and I love going to the advisory board the autism advisory board meetings and hearing the perspectives of our autistic board members. They are enlightening. It’s incredible. I don’t think we would be where we were where we are today without their guidance. They really make everything we do better. So everything we do has the insight, the guidance, the voice of someone on the autism spectrum, we employ individuals with autism spectrum, because we provide we have a whole suite of services for employment, from unpaid internships, to paid on the job training to employment opportunities with either an employment partner that we’re supporting, or here on campus.
HR:
Tell us about the importance of family involvement.
EBL:
It’s crucial, I mean, family involvement is actually part of the evidence based practices, right. So it’s not really an optional piece to what we do. And for us, we require family involvement at a pretty high level, we try to make it equitable and accessible to our families understanding that families work. And, but whether it’s through telehealth, whether it’s through volunteer opportunities, actively being part of an intervention, or you know, therapeutic plan, our families, let’s say, in our adult day training program, whether the adult is their own guardian or not, we asked for consent to have a family member participate and really guiding their desires their, I guess, dreams for their adult child, as well as in our diagnostic program. We never take a child to do a diagnosis without the family present. We integrate the families observing or participating every step of the way. They are the, I guess, pivotal piece to what’s going to happen next. And so we get their input from an interview standpoint, from how they their comfort level in what we’re talking about what we’re doing. From the program and planning, we include the person with autism, if they’re in the ability hit, they have the ability to answer for themselves, if they don’t have the ability to be a speaker will provide adaptive materials with augmentative and alternative communication opportunities. But the parents and the in the person with autism, as well as any team or community members that need to be part of this person centered planning process, from our little children that we work with all the way through our adults, our family members are key to our success that we can only do as much as they are feeling empowered to do once they leave our campus or our telehealth visit or our guidance.
HR:
You guys have a big conference coming up which Different Brains is going to be a proud sponsor of, a supportive sponsor. Tell our audience about this big upcoming conference.
EBL:
Oh my gosh, Hackie, thank you for asking. I’m very, very excited about it. We have — when I told you about one of our main three areas of focus is recreation. I want to just define what that means. And then definitely share about this conference because it’s focused on recreating recreation as a supplemental intervention for autism. And so, recreation to us is split somewhat into, I guess three different areas, we have our traditional what you think about sports and fitness, right. So obviously, we have golf and manualized programs for golf, we have a whole sport series that’s called the Ernie Els hashtag game on autism Sport Series. And then we’ve actually studied how to integrate evidence based practices for autism into the teaching and learning of golf of fitness of tennis. So we have Ernie Els hashtag game on autism, golf, fitness and tennis as you can become a official program provider anywhere in the world. And be able to take this program and our guidance and implement it where you’re at for other individuals that you really want to have to learn how to engage in play the sport as anybody else would, so that they can have community connections and do things with their families, like any other person should have the right to do, right. And so sports and fitness is one area of focus, and that will be one main area of focus of the conference. Then we have all your arts, your creative art, so music and dance and actually art, even gardening, anything that provides a recreation component for in a productive way. So there’s learning opportunities, there’s true engagement, versus I’m sitting in a garden but I don’t actually know how to garden properly to plant flowers to have them grow to plant vegetables, something that I could then learn to cook with. Right. And then we also have as part of recreation, we have mental health and well being from making sure that we understand when you have exercise when you have healthy eating when you have healthy thoughts and positive emotional experiences and you Have these kind of quality of life indicators fulfilled with, I’m going to be fit, I’m going to have exercise and exercise and movement is actually an unknown evidence based practice for autism. That’s going to help with my mental health and well being. And with the rates of depression and suicidal ideation or even suicide in autism spectrum disorder, we feel it’s essential when we’re talking about anything that we include the mental health and wellbeing component into the day. So for our recreation conference coming up, every two years Els for Autism Foundation puts on an autism innovations and Global Impact Conference. And every two years the theme, or the focus of that conference is slightly different. This year, it is on “recreating recreation as a supplemental intervention”. For individuals with autism spectrum disorder, we feel that this is very important that people around the world learn how to manage to understand the importance of recreation, meaning, the creative arts, mental health and well being as well as sports and fitness in a person with autism is life, and how to integrate the evidence based practices that we know exists that make a difference in this person’s life and learning the skill. So that when someone goes out to play tennis, or to do a fitness class, or yoga, dance music, that they can engage and learn in the best way possible. And this can be a productive experience, as well as a leisure opportunity for them.
HR:
And you guys are hitting the nail on the head with all the new evidence based papers coming out that these things are fresh air, the socialization, the exercise, the walking the soil, getting together doing the recreation, it’s not just psychological. It’s measurable by living things like 20 years longer with a better quality of life. Yep, yeah, you’re on the money with that.
EBL:
We feel it’s really important to use this these recreation, I guess services as a platform for therapeutic interventions. When I see somebody sitting at a table learning and never learning how to then use that same skill, take it with them and do something that any other person their same age would be having the opportunity to do. That is not okay to us. Why not have a speech language pathologist, go out and train the golf coach on how to support communication while we’re playing golf. If the person’s father, let’s say the child’s father plays golf, why can’t he go and that child have the opportunity to go on the golf cart, and play golf with his dad by we want to make sure that these opportunities exist and the way that they’re done, or done with what the person’s interests are. So now if you are autistic, and you hate golf, I’m not gonna ask you to play golf. But maybe you love kickball, maybe you love yoga, or dance. And I need to make sure that that yoga instructor, or that dance instructor understands how you communicate how you learn, and how to include you. So you can enjoy dance and learn to be the best dancer you can be or you know, a yogi, if you will, if that’s what you want to do, and use that as the platform for teaching versus something that would be not meaningful or productive in your life, because it’s the only way that I know how to do it.
HR:
How can people learn more about your upcoming event?
EBL:
For sure. So we actually have on our website, we have at elsforautism.org. There is get involved and when you go to and there’s a little tab actually says autism resources. And then there is a drop down for conferences. We have QR readers right on the front of the web page. We have banners that run through, but you just go to our website, go to autism resources and conferences, and click and you can register and we’re offering many continuing education units across different disciplines for those professionals that want to go and get credit for coming. We have we are encouraging families to attend autistic individuals to attend to learn. This conference is going to be so different hacky and so cool. That’s my big clinical word for today, because you’re going to have in the morning on it’s a two day conference on Thursday, March 23. And then 24th Thursday morning is going to be mental health and well being nutrition arts and leisure. And we love that we’re having autistic adults participate as keynote speakers to give their perspective on all of these topics. And then on March 24 to Friday when we have the focus of all sports and fitness instead of your traditional breakout sessions. You’re going to have live demonstrations of the sports and fitness, integrating the evidence based practices. So if you want to participate in having learned how to play golf or fitness or miracle League, let’s say with baseball or therapeutic horseback riding, you’re gonna actually see it in action. So you’re learning the content, and then you’re going out and you’re practicing, and you’re seeing and watching it in real life. And that’s really the best way to learn, right, this multi sensory experience to learning. And we’re excited that in each component of our conference, we’re going to have autistic adults who are helping present who are helping demonstrate who have learned through these modes of recreation and become successful.
HR:
Well, Erin, is there anything that we have not covered about Els for Autism, that you would like to cover?
EBL:
Oh, my gosh, okay, well, we can be here all day. We wanted to talk about that. I think that I think what we Els for Autism, I guess what we want people to know is that first of all, Els for Autism is here. We are accessable globally. One of our goals is to become a world leader in transdisciplinary, customized programs for individuals with autism spectrum disorder, that another goal of ours is to develop employment training models for individuals across all ability levels. And what we do really well. And what we gain a lot of support from employers with is being able to say that everybody has the right to work, everybody can work, everybody should work. And even if you need more support, or you communicate differently, that that shouldn’t provide you with limitations if we know how to teach somebody how to support you. And so we were doing a lot of research of and replication of our programs to be able to make sure we’re doing it right and getting the guidance of autistic adults and the employers that are hiring our adults. I also want people to know that, like I had mentioned before, one of our goals is to implement research and disseminate evidence based interventions worldwide, we feel that it’s really important for people to know what the science says and how to do it in the most meaningful way, for a person with autism with their preference, obviously, on the forefront of what we’re doing. And that we’re always looking to recruit and retain highly qualified staff. Because if we can create a network of really well trained professionals that believe that family is critical and understand the evidence based practices and understand that we need to think outside the box and do things a bit differently that had been done in the past. But we need to research what we’re doing to show that not only can we do it, but we can validate that what we’re doing is really transforming the life of a person with autism from their perspective, then, then we’re doing what we, what Mr. Mrs. Els really set out to do and they wanted a better world for their son. Right. One of the other things I don’t know that many people know, but we have from a mental health and family support standpoint, we have mental health counseling, and many of our services are virtual. And so we and we have a huge sibling support program that’s called Sam’s Sibs Stick Together because Mr. Mrs. Els daughter is Samantha and she is the ambassador of this program, from Sibling support virtual rooms, to actually collaboration with autism science foundation out of New York, and a whole webinar series about sensational sibs and the work they’re doing in the field of siblings, and a whole website. That’s a repository for best practices and resources for siblings, because sometimes we feel that siblings are not put at the forefront, right. And they, they may need just as much if not more support in certain ways. So we’re here. We’re excited. And we have student practicum, opportunities, professional observership opportunities, we want people to come and visit we want people to access us. And I’m really hoping that people come to our conference. If I could just mention, if you don’t mind the the different disciplines of continuing ed that we are going to be offering for, you know, continuing to units, I think it may be important is that okay?
HR:
Sure. And give us the dates again of the conference. I’m assuming the conference is both in person and virtual?
EBL:
It actually is not this year. What we are going to do this are the dates again, to answer your first question are March 23, and 24th of 2023. So it’s a two day conference and then this Saturday, the 25th if people do travel, we’re having our annual Roots and Ruts 5K Race with an autism sensory friendly obstacle course and vendors and it’s through. It’s one of the only sensory friendly autism friendly trails that was created in the back of our campus. And so, we are kinda continuing on and attached our conference on the 20 took third 24th of March to our roots and run annual fundraising events and race that you can walk or run or just watch. But it’s we decided hockey this year, we wanted to see if people could be present to be present, but we will be recording all of the presentations and videoing the demonstrations and they will be available to purchase if you can’t make it to watch the recording. And so it won’t be a live participation but it will be accessible through a recording following the the two day conference.
HR:
Understood.
EBL:
So from the standpoint of professionals that were looking to possibly know about the conference and come to learn, we have everything from the AFAA, which is athletics and fitness Association of America, Behavior Analysis Certification Board, so a BCBA to come and learn about how to integrate applied behavior analytic strategies into recreation, golf, sports, fitness, we really want this to be done correctly. Right. Florida Physical Therapy Association, we have hours for Florida Council of dieticians, and nutrition. We have Florida Occupational Therapy Association credits, the National Academy of Sports Medicine and NASM. And actually, in Palm Beach County, the school district, they have said that educators can come and get up to 12, Florida educator in service points, 12 hours, so most of our hours range from three to 60, even 12 hours of credits to come to this two day conference, which is pretty significant for our professional. And we’re looking for anybody an art teacher, a dance therapist recreation, we actually do we have for we applied for credits, excuse me, we applied for credits for recreation therapist as well. And music therapists, mental health counselors, a personal trainer, right? It is for everybody. And I just find it so wonderful when you can go out on the tennis court, or you could go out on the golf course. And you don’t know that a person that possibly in a classroom may struggle in learning, all of a sudden this person is shining, their light is shining bright, and they are learning and they’re happy, and their family is happy. And then the mental health and well being of the whole family just it stabilizes the stress levels go down. This is what we want. We want people to feel good about their experiences. And we want more and more people that are autistic to be integrated and included in the community and embraced. And hopefully this conference will give shed a different light on ways in which you can do that.
HR:
Els for Autism, you guys are amazing doing great things up there in Jupiter, Florida, in this conference is going to break all the records.
EBL:
I hope so Hackie.
HR:
Erin, what is one final piece of advice you would give to someone on the spectrum that wants to be more active in terms of recreation, but doesn’t know where to start?
EBL:
I would first ask the person, what do they like? Right? Because recreation comes in many different forms. And not everybody is a runner, and not everybody is a walker. Some people love to swim, you know, and swimming is very significant. Aqua aerobics if you love to be in the water could be something that you learn to do. But I think it has to start with some level of motivation or interest for that person. And then we can take it step by step, I’ll give you a really great example of something that became a fitness routine that then helped build competence and confidence and endurance to actually support employment. We have an incredible employee that is like the essence of Els for Autism Foundation. He’s a young man with autism. And we moved in to he’s been with the foundation probably just as long if not longer than me. So this is my eighth year here, right? And we’ve only had buildings since 2015. So if you’ve been around since then then you’ve kind of been here for a while. And we in our temporary offices, didn’t have stairs. That was one story. And then we moved into this massive campus which is really lovely. But there are a lot of stairs and never knew the never topic never came up that this adult was afraid of stairs and had never climbed up downstairs without being fearful. And so We worked through because his office was upstairs. And the elevator if it didn’t work, or there’s an emergency, the stairs were a necessity. And so we worked with him on learning how to climb up and down the stairs. And he didn’t have the endurance for it. Right at first, and besides being fearful, and he really had a goal of losing weight and being healthier because he wasn’t feeling good about himself. Well, we had our recreation services coordinator work with him, as well as our team of clinicians. And with him, we created a plan to desensitize his fear to the stairs. And he ended up then walking the stairs, on his brakes, and he ends up losing a whole bunch of weight and feeling so good about himself. So the stair walking became his fitness routine. And it helped him do his job better, work more hours end up getting promotions getting paid, because he could do more because he could navigate the building. And so it could be as little as stepping up one step. And then the next step, and that would be my advice, Heike is one step at a time finding something that you have a motivator, even if it doesn’t connect in that moment, like if you want to be an astronaut, right. And that’s your goal in life to be an astronaut. What is the first step than astronaut? Well, if you haven’t had to walk outside, and the astronaut needs to be able to walk outside for so many minutes, we’ll maybe you start with one minute of walking outside and have your end game be becoming an astronaut. But take that next step of an astronaut needs to know how to swim, start to step your foot into the water. Maybe that’s all you do step in step out. I think anything that you do in moderation and segments and clear scope and sequence, the easier it gets, the easier something gets, the more enjoyable it is, if you if you’re supported, and you can take one step at a time. And I guess the end part of this would be so to me, support generates ability. And sometimes I don’t know that people want to show that they need support because they don’t want it to be seen as a weakness. And I speak from my personal life with my own child, as well as professionally. And so if you can find it in yourself to advocate for support the correct type of support with a person who has your best interests at heart, then in setting up a plan for little baby steps to build into something bigger than I think any person who has autism any autistic individual can do anything they want to do. And I really feel that the fitness piece of this makes a huge difference in becoming a wonderful employee having the the endurance to work, having relationships that they want, because their mental health and well being is going to be supported by being fit. So I think it all connects. And it’s just a matter of taking that first step.
HR:
Well, Dr. Erin Brooker Lozott, the director of programming and all the great stuff they’re doing at the Els for Autism Foundation in Jupiter, Florida. You’ve been a wonderful guest, you’re doing great things for those of us whose brains are a little bit different, and for the autism community. Thank you for all you do and we look forward to having you back in the near future. Keep up your great work.
EBL:
Thank you. I can’t wait to be back. This has been awesome. I’m very, very grateful for the opportunity.
