A four-month cooperative project between LIH Olivia’s Place Beijing and Beijing Changyu Chuntong Rehabilitation Center (“Chuntong”) came to a successful end on 9 December 2016. This project aimed at providing relevant clinical training to the teaching team at Chuntong and enhancing their capacity. The training focused on the treatments of students from two families. On the basis of students’ assessments, LIH Olivia’s Place Beijing made plans, guided teachers and therapists at Chuntong to implement the treatments, and trained parents.

In biweekly communications, Kristi Troutman, Occupational Therapist and Clinical Manager and Evelyn Cao, Learning & Behavior Support Specialist, were the lead training specialists, while a multidisciplinary team from LIH Olivia’s Place Beijing included language therapists, physical therapists, and psychologists to provide multidimensional technical support.

Ms. Troutman is a US-licensed occupational therapist with more than 20 years of experience. She utilizes neurodevelopmental, sensory integrative, and psychosocial frames of reference in treatment and has experience with a variety of specialized programs. During the Chuntong training project, she made presentations on “how to make evidence-based, reasonable treatment objectives” and “how to play with children.” Kristi also provided suggestions on the design and use of functional areas and teaching equipment at Chuntong,

Evelyn Cao has completed supervised practicum training in the US focused on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). She has experience in conducting assessments for behavioral interventions, as well as designing, implementing, and monitoring skill acquisition and behavior reduction programs. In this project, Evelyn provided training and family behavioral intervention strategies for the parents participating in the project.

During the project, the teachers and the two participating families from Chuntong also visited LIH Olivia’s Place Beijing to have field-based learning. Our multidisciplinary team provided specific rehabilitation suggestions and answered questions put forward by teachers. All the teachers and parents gave positive feedback on this training and expressed that they would apply what they’ve learned. Good communication and cooperation between LIH Olivia’s Place and Beijing Changyu Chuntong Rehabilitation Center was encouraging to both organizations.