The MCIULearns Podcast

Transforming Lives Through Essential for Living: A Conversation with Liz and Steve Maher

• Montgomery County Intermediate Unit • Season 6 • Episode 13

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Essential for Living (EFL) provides function-based assessment and curriculum for learners with autism and developmental disabilities, tracking small increments of progress while continuing to develop communication skills. Steve and Liz Maher share their journey from creating the VB-MAP app to developing the EFL app, explaining how their technology makes life easier for educators while positively transforming outcomes for learners.

Visit https://learn.mciu.org/EFL to learn more about Essential for Living, access this podcast episode, and find information about the EFL app and other educational resources.


Liz:

They all decided as a team to just change it up. Let's see, and they introduced EFL and his whole day changed. Our mission is to make life easier, to take away all that time, page flipping, coloring in boxes, all that stuff Because as teachers you don't have time for that.

Cassie Brusch:

Hello Montgomery County and welcome to the MCIU Learns Podcast. I am Cassie Bruch, a project consultant in the Office of Organizational and Professional Learning at the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit in Narsetown, pennsylvania. This is our conversation with leaders, educators and thought leaders around current topics in education. I am joined today with my colleague, carrie Kessler, and I'll let her introduce herself as we welcome our guests for today's episode.

Kari Kessler:

Hello everybody. I am Keri Kessler. I'm a project consultant at the Montgomery County IU with Cassie, and today we're going to be joined by Liz and Steve Maurer, who are going to talk to us about Essential for Living.

Cassie Brusch:

Hi everyone.

Kari Kessler:

Hi, good morning.

Liz:

Thanks for having us.

Steve:

My name is Steve Maurer and for the last few decades I've been in information technology and for the last 15 years or so I've been dedicated to help develop applications to help the autism community and I work with Liz, who is my wife, and Liz is the practitioner in the science, and I am the one that helps with the technology.

Liz:

Yeah, and so we met 30 plus years ago. I was an exchange student out in Mary Washington College for a semester and I met Steve and we started our journey together and we our first child, who is just turned 29,. Sarah was diagnosed with autism and that kind of got us in the field. On the journey, I worked as a consultant, a behavior analyst, consulting in classrooms around the state of PA, and I was lucky enough to meet Mark Sundberg, who had just come out with the VB Map, and as we were into technology and Steve was, he very kindly went with us to create the VB Map app. I think he knew that we were passionate about it and we try and look after it as best we could, so we did the electronic version of that.

Liz:

And then, naturally, bbmap is a developmental assessment. So when Dr Pat McGreevey and Troy Fry came out with Essential for Living, which is more function-based, continues to work on communication, we absolutely jumped at the chance to produce an app for them. And then what we were doing is hopefully helping teachers with an admission is to make teachers' lives easier with an app that was function-based and didn't just cater if that word's correct, I'm not sure to kiddos with autism, but also kiddos, adults with autism and all sorts of developmental disabilities. So that's where we are and how we arrived here.

Kari Kessler:

That's terrific. It is a podcast, so people can't see Steve is rocking his EFL hat, which I think is so cool, so we kind of talked about that. You know how you were sort of inspired to do the app, coming off of your work with Dr Sundberg and the VB Map app, since you have experience around tools like the BBMAP or EFL. In this region of Pennsylvania we're still doing Competent Learner Model or CLM. What do you think sets EFL apart from some of the other? Applied behavioral analysis, verbal behavior, types of resources.

Liz:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's a great question and all those resources are amazing and obviously we're going to look at individual learners and decide which best fits that learner. The one thing that EFL does is it offers more of that function-based assessment and curriculum. So if your learner is on a developmental assessment curriculum, they're kind of getting stuck. They're older, you're starting to think you know what. I don't think they're going to catch up to their peers and that's okay. Let's just stop comparing now and let's give them goals for a lifetime.

Liz:

The one thing, of course, we are very passionate about with EFL is I know sometimes people open it and get a real shock, a little bit stressed about the data collection because it tracks small increments of progress. But what makes it stand out is it does track small increments of progress. So it's great for those learners that you know are progressing, but you're looking at the data and you're not seeing progress. And it also unlike any other kind of checklist, any other function-based assessment, is it continues to work on communication. So if your learner still needs that at kind of 10 plus, then it's something absolutely to consider.

Steve:

Yeah, as a father, the parent, and as a non-practitioner, some of the things about Essential for Living that really really interested me were things that revolve around Sarah, our daughter Sarah, and the ability to participate meaningfully in society, to be more independent, to be safer, to have a greater sense of engagement with the community and just the ability to function on a day-to-day basis without mom or dad or her brother Jacob, to the greatest extent possible. The ability to handle things like food shopping and interacting with other people in the public. These were some really serious concerns of mine, and for Liz as well, I'm sure. From an emotional standpoint, these are the things that were important to me. A sense of dignity and essential for living quite honestly opened up a whole new world to Sarah. The ability to volunteer her time at the SPCA and at the food bank and to give Liz and I a sense that she was safer in this world, operating independently.

Cassie Brusch:

That's great. I love that you can see bits of progress through time because, as an educator, we spend a lot of time in data and you know data tells a story. Can you tell us a little bit more about how the app works and how user-friendly it is?

Liz:

Well, it's about to be even more user-friendly because we are about to come out with a new version, with our new development team, and they are amazing and very aware of what works for customers and have some wonderful ideas. But what the app will do? So if you look at the books and the books are great, if you guys love print version, check it out. I mean, either way, I think if you can explore this assessment and curriculum curricula, it's worth it. But what the app will do is it kind of walks you through.

Liz:

It helps you initially do that quick assessment and instead of in the book, after you do a quick assessment, it will guide you to look at different skills and you'd have to go to the book and go back and forth. Well, the app will identify those skills immediately for you, so then you can click on them, decide if it's a skill you want to assess further. So just, our mission is to make life easier, to take away all that time page flipping, coloring in boxes, all that stuff Because as teachers you don't have time for that. So I think basically that's what it is. Anything where you have to page flip, find information, the app will have that information right there.

Steve:

Right, and also the ability to have multiple persons on the case parents, various teachers, physicians, you name it. The ability for everybody to be on the same page also increases the efficiency of the program, and I think that learners are making even better progress because everybody can just log in see what's going on with the learner and make decisions based on a shared view of the topology of Essential for Living, and it's large. There are thousands of skills in there, and the ability to filter them down specifically to the needs of the learner and do so collaboratively, is just so, so important.

Kari Kessler:

I think the app speaks to the generation we're in, whereas the paper speaks to the old lady that is me. But I do like the app because I do think it simplifies it. I love the books and I look through them and I saw Dr McGreevy speak and then he did come to our IU to support we did via Zoom, but to support us because there's a huge learning curve kind of understanding how to do EFL and I do really appreciate your app. As a non-digital native, I guess I'll put it that way I think the digital natives they'll be like not burn the books, just don't buy them, just get the app.

Kari Kessler:

So you guys talked a little bit, you know, about your daughter and successes there. I love, steve, that you pointed out safety, because as a consultant and talking to districts and teachers, we try to talk about those things. You know, how do we? You can't guarantee, I guess, safety, but how do you think about safety for our youngsters and as they age with disabilities and as they age with disabilities, but are there any other? Just I guess you know positives, another story about how EFL has maybe impacted a child or maybe the system, the school that you guys would like to share.

Liz:

Yeah, I think there are so many. And I think mentioning Pat McGreevy is always great because if you want to listen to him, I think hearing him will just convince you that absolutely, this is an amazing program and makes such a difference in kiddos and adults lives and he has loads of stories that are just fascinating and wonderful to listen to. I think one for me sticks out and I think it just summarizes a lot of teachers' experiences with this learners' experiences when they shift over to a function-based assessment that continues to work on communication. It was actually we went to a place actually with Dr McGreevy and there was a learner. He was seven, eight, so you know, maybe on the possibly people would think the younger end for bringing in essential for living. But you know, please don't think that way. You could always use both like a VB Map and Essential for Living in conjunction for a while. So this learner had been terrible problem behavior. They were trying to run a program based on the VB map with intensive teaching. He absolutely hated being at the table. Lots of SIB, self injurious behavior. Teacher felt very frustrated. Parents were frustrated not making progress and they all decided as a team to just change it up.

Liz:

Let's see, and they introduced EFL and his whole day changed. He started going around the school, assisting with things in the school, assisting with things in the cafeteria, assisting with things around the classroom. He had designated jobs. He prepped his snack for the next day. He still did the academics that he had to do, but they were function-based academics. He did math using like a jig system where you have the boxes and he had to count out a certain number of things. I think he was helping the cafeteria at that point and he still did his requesting and his manding. Obviously working on communication still. And to see the difference in his data, to see the difference actually in him, was just amazing. It gives me chills. He was a happier kid, he just was, and I think that story reflects time and time again how people feel when they shift to that EFL.

Liz:

If that's right for the learner, if at that moment they're stuck, you're looking at it going. Why am I teaching you know, name some clothing. Nobody ever is going to come up to this learner in the middle of the street and say name some clothing. I've never had anybody ask me that. Now, it's an important skill if you're on a developmental assessment. You're teaching concepts you know you're trying is just huge and I think also sometimes combining it with Greg Hanley's work on what he's doing, especially with severe problem behavior. I think EFL and the skills-based treatment model go really nicely together. But that's a whole lot of the discussion.

Steve:

Really quickly.

Steve:

Another example Sarah was working at the food bank and one of the areas that we realized that Sarah had a very tough time with is tolerating certain stimuli that she just couldn't handle and certainly changes that she wasn't expecting disappointments.

Steve:

So when stocking the shelf at the food pantry expecting disappointments, so when stocking the shelf at the food pantry, there was a supervisor, someone that was not known to Sarah but was managing that operation insisted that things be done a little differently than Sarah thought it should be done, and it was difficult and we could see the wheels in motion, but we saw Sarah tolerate that disappointment and continue to do the job, do it the right way per the supervisor and because of Essential for Living and the tolerating skills that she has acquired, she was able to stay with it, to be successful and to make a meaningful contribution to her community. To be successful and to make a meaningful contribution to her community and in my life I measure my self-worth based on what I can do for others and how I make them feel. And Sarah did the same thing in her capacity volunteering at the food pantry, and it was just something I was very proud of. And I can see so many different examples and so many different learners in this world that can benefit the same way.

Cassie Brusch:

That's great. I think those are both great examples of the progress that we can see when using EFL. Now we know there's a lot of programs out there and things that us, as educators, can consider. You talked a little bit about VBMAP and intensive teaching. What there and things that us, as educators can consider? You talked a little bit about VB, map and intensive teaching. What are some things that, whether administrators or educators, should consider if they're thinking about implementing EFL?

Steve:

To understand that there is a fairly sharp learning curve, to be aware that learners that you think you know really, really well this includes our daughter, sarah when you run the initial assessment, the quick assessment, it is often very, very surprising when you're forced to look at the answers and answer them honestly. You're kind of forced to look at reality and for Sarah it was tolerating and problem behavior that we had to accept were far below what we thought they were in terms of competency and in so doing that led us in the right direction. So we're Be aware that there is a learning curve to deal with. The application helps with that tremendously. But be aware that that initial quick assessment is going to be pretty eye-opening and it may lead you in some directions therapeutically that you weren't expecting.

Liz:

But on the other side, the results are so profound I find that shocking as well yeah, and also to remember that, as steve said, it is a, it's a learning curve and also, uh, to use that, that idiom that I always get wrong, I don't throw the baby out with the bath water or whatever. So if, if you're doing, say, vb, maps, clm, but you feel that you know what, that I feel something's missing. They're getting older, you know, maybe bring in a few skills, you know, you don't have to do all or nothing. You know and, like Steve said, maybe just do the quick assessment and see what it says and start having that discussion with the team. I think that was really good advice.

Kari Kessler:

Well, steve and Liz, we so much appreciate your time today giving us another insight into EFL insight into EFL. We do have a podcast that we did several years ago with Dr McGreevy, so people can go on there for maybe some of those stories, liz, but I love the advice you gave today to people who are listening and thinking about EFL. We hope to see more of the two of you in the future and, once again, thanks so much for your time. Thank you.

Cassie Brusch:

Thank you. We invite everyone to visit learnmciuorg slash EFL to learn more about Essential for Living. This podcast episode will be linked there, along with information on how to get in contact with Carrie and myself, as well as information on the EFL app will also be linked on that page. Our learning network as a whole, learnmciuorg, has a great deal of educational resources and other updates from the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, and you can find us all over social media at MCIU Learns. Thanks, liz, liz and Steve for your time today.

Liz:

Thank you.