Davis Stepping Stones is the beginning steps to the Davis Autism Approach  Program.  It has been developed to assist you in helping your child/student to develop the foundational life lessons needed to complete essential early childhood development stages. 

DAVIS STEPPING STONES

It is a gentle, holistic program, suitable for: 

• Autistic individuals under the age of 8 
• Autistic individuals with very limited – or no – language 
• Autistic individuals who have been using the NOIT and have begun to develop a sense of self 

Davis Stepping Stones is a four-step program ​

Step 1: Tools for the Helper 
You (the support person) are given a set of tools, or mental strategies to allow you to be calm and relaxed while working with your child/student.   These tools are called Release and Dial. 
 
Release allows you to ease any stress, tension or anxiety you may be feeling.  When working with those with autism, if we are feeling anxious, we can inadvertently add to their feeling of anxiety, as they are often highly sensitive to their environment and all that it contains.  By putting ourselves in a calm state, this will allow for a calm environment for the child. 
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Dial helps you to determine and control your personal energy levels for self-regulation and positive interactions with others, particularly the child you will be working with. ​

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Step 2:  Awareness of Self 
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The participant (your child) is assisted in becoming more present in the world, developing accurate perceptions and gaining an awareness of self.  This process includes: 

• Auditory Orientation:  a sound, specifically engineered by Ron Davis to facilitate the individual towards developing accurate, stable perception and help create an awareness of self. 
• Clay modelling of ‘self’, ‘another’ and ‘others’ 
• Exploration of ‘self’, ‘another’ and ‘others’ in the real world

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Step 3: Davis Stepping Stones Life Concepts 
The participant is facilitated towards gaining an understanding of the life concepts of change and consequence, and how they relate to self and others, through explicit teaching using clay models. 
The following concepts are covered in the program: 

• Change  
• Consequence  
• Cause/effect 
• Before/after 

 Each concept is covered in the following way: 

• It is introduced through demonstration and experienced together with the child in a fun way that appeals to their interest. 
• The child is guided to create a clay model of the concept, and master it. 

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​Step 4: Integration of Life Concepts 
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The participant has LOTS of experiences with the concept in the real world with their support person – this is what integrates the concept into self. 

​Physically interacting with these concepts in the environment, facilitates an understanding of these life’s lessons and their transference into daily life. 

What are the options?

Davis Stepping Stones is a flexible program.  There are various options depending on the needs of your child: ​

Fully Facilitated

A Davis Autism Approach Facilitator/Coach can take your child through the full program, while you reinforce the learning at home/school.
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Facilitated & Coached 

A Davis Autism Approach Facilitator/Coach can take your child through part of the program and coach you through part of it, with support.
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Mentoring

You can take your child through the program yourself, with mentor support from a Davis Autism Approach Facilitator/Coach.
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Workshop

You can attend a 2-day Davis Stepping Stones workshop to be able to take your child through the program.  Click here to find a workshop running near you.

Find a Workshop

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To see the concept mastery process in action, you can view these videos of how to cover ‘change’ and ‘consequence’ ​

The Concept of Change

The Concept of Consequence

“My student’s attention has improved dramatically and his speech production is the best we have ever heard from him. 
​I really was not expecting change that quickly.”  
Speech-language therapist