COMMUNITY
Helping Special Needs Kids Break Through Barriers
A
s Halloween approaches, thoughts turn to costumes, trick-or-treating and festivals. For Nicky Altikulac, BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst), Halloween is a teaching opportunity.
The Peachtree Corners resident is the founder and executive director of All Kids First (AKF), a service offering Applied Behavior Analysis, speech therapy and occupational therapy at clinics in Berkeley Lake, Snellville, Roswell and Alpharetta and in clients’ homes. Founded in 2005, AKF serves children with developmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome, cerebral
By Donna Williams Lewis
Photos by Tracey Rice
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Peachtree Corners Magazine ■ October/November 2021 ■ LivingInPeachtreeCorners.com
palsy and intellectual disabilities. Today, the staff, which has 40 therapists, includes Altikulac’s two sons, Cem and Alp. “They’ve been working with me since day one because they were my typical peers to work on social and play skills with my clients. So even when they were in elementary school, always I used to take them with me after school to work on social skills,” she said. For some AKF clients, Halloween prep can mean two months of work helping a child develop a
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tolerance for wearing a costume and learning to make the trick-ortreat transaction. “We practice at home first because we can manipulate the environment to build the prerequisite skills. We teach him to take just one candy if candy is handed to him. Or, if he is verbal, we teach him what to say when waiting his turn to get candy,” Altikulac said. AKF also offers trick-or-treating at its clinics, where kids can enjoy the experience of wearing costumes and receiving treats.
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