Following the Child’s Lead: Sharon Lowery’s Educational Revolution

Intro  

Welcome to another edition of inspired stories where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes, how they’ve overcome adversity, and explore current challenges they’re facing.

Anthony Codispoti:

Welcome to another edition of the inspired stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Cotus-Bode and today’s guest is Sharon Lowry, owner and director of Smart Start Developmental Learning Center, which was founded in 1992 in a converted garage in Culver City, California. They are a special kind of preschool and elementary school. They offer speech services, occupational therapy,

developmental behavior therapy, and so much more. They believe that all children have the right to develop and to be fully known hearts and minds. They have a passion for the most current and progressive foundational education and services. Smart Start is unique in their approach and they are committed to a comprehensive developmental education and therapy model for all of their children. Sharon herself has a long list of degrees, certifications, and specialties.

including a bachelor’s and master’s in psychology. She has a postgraduate certification in expert trainer in DIR floor time. She has studied under Dr. Danley Greenspan, she’s an expert in the fields of special education, inclusive special education, relationship-based and sensory-based education. And she was a senior level ABA therapist and was trained by Dr. Ivar Lovas, who is the founder of the Style Therapy. But…

Anthony Codispoti (10:14.55)
She now has different ideas on ABA and we’ll hear more about that. Before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Adback Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in extra cashflow by implementing one of our proprietary programs. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible.

To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefitsagency.com. Now, back to our guest today, the owner and director of Smart Start Developmental Learning Center, Sharon Lowery. I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Sharon (10:55.672)
Thank you. I’m going to enjoy being here and talking with you.

Anthony Codispoti (10:59.65)
So tell me who Dr. Dan Lee Greenspan is and why he was so instrumental in your approach to early childhood education.

Sharon (11:08.152)
It’s Stanley Greenspan, so that might clarify things a little bit. So Stanley Danly. It’s okay, it would be a unique name. So Stanley Greenspan is no longer with us, but Stanley Greenspan was a psychiatrist and he was in the Washington DC area and specifically in Bethesda, Maryland.

Anthony Codispoti (11:13.92)
What did I say?

Thanks for the correction.

Sharon (11:37.772)
He was seeing children who had neurobiological challenges. And so he began to look at how do we tease apart healthy development and how are the neurobiological challenges that he was seeing in his clients, how are those impacting their developmental milestones and how they were achieving them. And so he came to his methodology, something called the DIR Floor Time Model.

by studying healthy development and then integrating the understanding of how the neurobiological challenges were impacting their development, having a deep understanding of the sensory system of children and how the disintegration of their sensory system was impacting their development, and then creating a methodology that goes back in and

hits all the developmental stages from zero, all the way up through their current stage of development and looking to see where their gaps were and going back in and filling those. The difference with his methodology is it was done and is done through play-based interaction. And foundationally, it’s looking, he had a catchphrase that has become very misunderstood, but it was follow.

the lead of the child. And what he meant by that was you are looking at the individual interests that that child has and that is going to be your window in to your therapeutic intervention. And sometimes children who have developmental challenges may have very curious interests. So,

maybe they have a strong love of cars and trucks. And you think, boys and girls, or particularly boys usually have strong interests in cars and trucks, but really what they’re doing is they’re feeding their visual system through watching the wheels of those trucks go. Okay, yeah, so that gives us a little bit of information about that child. But then I’m gonna take cars and trucks, and that’s gonna be my window into building that relationship with the child. Because as human beings,

Sharon (13:53.622)
We all know that we have strong relationships with people that share the same things we love. And so the D in DIR is development. So studying development, is individual difference. So looking at all the individual differences in the children and R is foundation, which is the relationship. And that was very different than the interventions that we were seeing for kids who had what we would say now neurodiversity.

Anthony Codispoti (14:25.58)
So tell me what you mean by disintegration of sensory system.

Sharon (14:31.306)
Okay, so children are born, people are born with a sensory system. And when children are having some struggles with the way that system is starting to integrate, start, have from zero to three months of age, we are as infants learning how to regulate to our environment.

So we can take in all the different stimulation and with support or with soothing, we can come to a calm regulated state. That calm regulated state allows us to then be able to interpret the world and to make our developmental gains. If you have disintegration, you’re not able to access the ability to soothe because your central nervous system came out raw and the neural pathways are not strong.

and are not firing efficiently to send the information that back and forth signaling system that with pressure or with a hug from mommy or daddy or whoever the caregiver is, then that baby can come into a soothed There are different sensory systems that we all, the sensory systems that we all know, of course, sight, sound, taste, touch, but there is also the

proprioceptive system and the vestibular system. The vestibular system tells us where our body is in space through the information through our middle ear. The proprioceptive system is the system of our body that tells us where we are in space through the information to our joints and muscles. So very often children who have neurobiological challenges have an under responsive proprioceptive system. So the information that they’re getting is not

hitting their neural pathways. And so all the ways that we know to soothe and connect, they’re not able to soothe and connect that child. So when you have that dysregulation, you need to go in and see what systems are under responsive, what’s over responsive, and how can we address that. And this is absolutely under the…

Sharon (16:47.89)
The domain of an occupational therapist, Gene Ayers was the creator of sensory integration therapy and that is a pivotal therapy for children to make the progress that they need to make in order to be able to access all the learning environments.

Anthony Codispoti (17:04.802)
So when you talk about underdeveloped pathways, is this like a physical underdevelopment? that, yeah, say more about.

Sharon (17:14.358)
Okay, so we’re gonna step way out of my depth of knowledge, but I’m gonna share with you from a very more of a helicopter view. So the neural pathways and the signaling system, the hard wiring of those neural pathways that signals the brain to the parts of the body and back and forth, those neural pathways are not solid or strong. And so what you get is that dysregulation because what would be

Anthony Codispoti (17:19.426)
Okay.

Sharon (17:44.344)
a solid foundational neural pathway that the child would be responsive in a way that would be predictable within the quote unquote normal bell curve of development. So that when you are doing the type of therapy where you’re integrating

and working through the sensory system, you are strengthening those neural pathways. And so let’s say, for example, that child who loves to roll cars back and forth in front of their eyes because they’re feeding a visual system and they lay down on the ground because they need more input into their body. If you’re taking and you’re doing activities that are strengthening their ability to integrate the information, you are doing activities where

They get to see things flying. Let’s say you’re doing bubbles or water balloons or things that you’re doing an activity where you have balloons that are on a string and they’re doing some hand-eye coordination. All those things are strengthening those neural pathways. So then they don’t have to be down on the ground rolling cards back in front of their eyes because they don’t have a sensory need for that anymore.

Anthony Codispoti (18:55.968)
Hmm. So let me, let me workshop something with you. So say you’ve got a child with a particular phobia. And so that I’m assuming indicates that these pathways are not well-developed. And tell me if I’m wrong on this. And then by following some of the things in this line of thought, you can strengthen those pathways and maybe that phobia becomes less reduced.

Sharon (19:24.514)
Okay, so let me ask you when you say phobia, because that isn’t a word we use in child development, tell me what you mean by that, because I want to be able to kind of bring the two together.

Anthony Codispoti (19:27.746)
Thank

Anthony Codispoti (19:36.044)
So like a child who might be definitely afraid of bugs.

Sharon (19:43.16)
Okay, so if it’s a child who’s afraid of bugs and they’re just a little one, so they don’t know, know, the spider might bite me and then I get itchy and I don’t, that was a really horrible experience for me and so there’s trauma associated. We’re not talking about trauma association to phobias. I would say that that child cannot predict the movement of that bug and so it,

gives them a flight response or a fight response. So they can’t integrate the information because the predictability of that bug creates anxiety in them. So if you are then working through multiple activities that are helping them be able to tolerate movement or

less predictable movement, but in a safe environment where they are with trusted adults who they love, then they are going to be able to then begin to tolerate things that are less predictable or movement that’s less predictable. They may always be a child that doesn’t love bugs or let’s say they don’t maybe don’t love birds because birds for sure when they fly around are never going to be predictable and that can be a bit of a trigger for them.

but then they can come up with adaptive strategies to help them understand, that’s a bird. Yeah, that made me feel uncomfortable, but I’m gonna be okay.

Anthony Codispoti (21:18.946)
So to help develop these neural pathways and to help them feel safe and protected, loved, the primary avenue is sort of safe human touch. Is that a summary?

Sharon (21:35.8)
Yeah, think mostly it is being in an environment, you know, the school environment in particular or the home therapeutic environment is set up. the person who they’re with, whether it’s parent, whether it’s caregiver, whether it’s a therapist, whether it’s the teacher at the schools, it’s going to be the educators. They are known by their educator.

So the educator knows the things that are hard for them. They know the things that they love. One of the things that’s in our enrollment packet is it’s a page that says, I love. And the family fills in all the things that child loves, books, characters, songs, toys, activities, movies. And we make sure we have those things available on that child’s first day, because not only is that very comforting for them,

but it begins to build that relationship and it says to that child, they like the same things I like. So when you are building that trusted relationship and you know this, if you’re a parent or if you are a grandparent or you know have nieces and nephews, you know when you have that bond with the children, they are willing to do a lot more things than they would with somebody that they don’t know is a safe person that’s gonna hold them and be able to

to take them through the things that are hard.

Anthony Codispoti (23:00.278)
You said something else that I’m curious to know more about. Follow the lead of the child. And this idea has kind of been misunderstood. In what way?

Sharon (23:08.906)
Yeah. So this goes to the DIR floor time model is a very complex model of intervention for, it works for the lifespan of any individual. works with neurotypical, neurodiverse. It works with an aging population. It’s used in a geriatric setting as well. But

When Dr. Greenspan created, I had the privilege of working directly with him and he was really, he loved people and he loved kids. And I know that may sound like, well, of course, but as we all know, that’s not always true when people are leaders in their field, but he truly found, he loved children. And so what he would say, when he said follow the lead, what people heard is that

when you’re doing the DIR floor time therapy is you follow the child around and you don’t set up intentional specific activities for the child that you know ahead of time is going to address the developmental needs of that child. And so a lot of people who have not had the proper DIR floor time training end up doing their quote unquote therapy by following the child around. Children who have more

who have neurodiversity and have these challenges, have some oftentimes challenges in organization of behavior. So their ability to be more intentional about their choices is something that they’re definitely going to be working on. And so if you’re just following a child around, you are not creating a therapeutic intervention. You are

exacerbating a child that needs the support to begin to develop organization of behavior. So a different way of looking at what he was saying is look at the lead of interest of that child. Identify what that child’s interests are that’s going to lead you to your tickets and your windows into your intervention with that child and how to form that relationship and that bond with that child.

Sharon (25:29.952)
It’s also going to inform the sensory challenges because you’re watching, like my example with a child who lays down to roll cars in front of their eyes, you’re going to get two tickets on that one. You’re going to get the ticket that they love cars and trucks, but you’re also going to get the ticket that they need a lot of visual sensory input and they lay down on the ground because they don’t feel entirely safe and they get a lot of input into their body when they’re laying flat on the ground in a setting that may be overwhelming for them.

Anthony Codispoti (25:59.816)
Interesting. So you find that the child is really into cars and trucks. You start playing cars and trucks with them as a way to sort of initiate the conversation about the thing that they need assistance with.

Sharon (26:13.728)
Yeah, and I wouldn’t say initiate a conversation because a lot of times these are not kids who are conversational yet. So it’s your window into the therapeutic intervention that you’re going to establish and your goals that you’re going to set for them. And you wouldn’t just be playing cars and trucks. Let’s say, for example, that child has a strong sensitivity to textures and maybe what you’re going to do then. so

textures are aversive for them and so it means they really shy away from anything that’s wet or sticky or anything like that or they just taught sand is not something that they can tolerate. What you’re gonna do is, sorry.

Anthony Codispoti (26:50.562)
Sharon, want to please continue.

Sharon (26:54.572)
So what you’re going to do is you’re going to pick, you’re going to choose activities that involve cars. So if they don’t like wet or sticky substances, you might take shaving cream and put it out on a table and draw roads. And then the child is driving through the shaving cream with their truck. They are getting that.

that texture that normally would be really noxious for them, but they’re able because they have that love for the trucks, they’re able to begin to tolerate that texture, which then builds and strengthens those neuro pathways.

Anthony Codispoti (27:26.708)
Interesting. So let’s shift into talking about ABA therapy. Can you first explain what it is and then why you no longer align with it?

Sharon (27:39.01)
Sure. So ABA therapy, ABA is down to Applied Behavioral Analysis. back when I was trained at UCLA, the creator of the methodology and its application to, at that time, individuals who had an autism diagnosis is Ivar Lobos. And Ivar Lobos, he came out of the University of Washington.

and he came to UCLA and he was coming in at a time in the 70s when autism was a pretty, mean, Kanner identified the syndrome or the diagnosis in the 40s. So really, truly, it had only been an identified diagnosis for 30 years at that point.

So he came in and he took the work of BF Skinner and there were other colleagues at the University of Washington that were doing some of the same work, but he took the work of BF Skinner, which is operant conditioning, the stimulus response, the traditional, the pigeon pecked a place on the cage, they got a pellet, it reinforced the behavior. So the foundation of ABA is there’s an antecedent, there’s a behavior and there’s a consequence.

A positive consequence, the behavior increases. If it’s a negative consequence, the behavior is supposed to decrease. So when Dr. Lovaas came in, there had not been any early intervention that was not part of the mandates to the states yet. And so these were individuals who were very impacted on the, I mean, it wasn’t even called autism spectrum at that point, with autism.

Anthony Codispoti (29:27.764)
want.

Sharon (29:28.088)
A lot of them were in state hospitals. There was a lot of self-injurious behavior. So he came up with this methodology of using the operant conditioning of we want to increase adaptive behaviors and decrease maladaptive behaviors. And you do that through giving them either positive, you know, a positive verbal response or a treat. was, I mean,

Countless &Ms and goldfish were applied at that time, goldfish crackers, or they got a very firm no. All ABA has turned away from this now, but there were thigh slaps, hand slaps. was famously people used cattle prods. I mean, it has a very, very dark past. Nobody does that anymore. That’s not part of the methodology.

Anthony Codispoti (30:19.094)
Wow.

Sharon (30:25.88)
Dr. Lovaas, I read back from Psychology Today in the 80s that he once quoted and this one really just is a kick in the stomach. He believed at the time that children with autism don’t have a soul.

Anthony Codispoti (30:42.763)
my goodness.

Sharon (30:45.346)
We’re just gonna sit with that for a moment. Now, I knew him, I worked with him. He was a mentor. And I really don’t know if that’s truly, I mean, I don’t know if he truly believed that, but he saw children as the sum total of their behaviors.

And when he was designing his methodology, if anybody knows university professors keep their jobs by doing research, right? That’s how they maintain their positions, especially some, you know, at the high level universities. So when he was creating, it was called behavior modification at that point, it wasn’t called ABA, but when he was creating his model, he couldn’t figure out how to take data on the emotional system. So he just left that.

out of the intervention model of serving kids. So it is purely a methodology and it has a very specific curriculum for all children, regardless of how they come to their autism spectrum diagnosis or their developmental delay diagnosis. There’s a specific methodology that is based not on

how children develop, has no integration of understanding their neurodiversity and their sensory system, and it takes in no account to the development of their emotional system. So if you believe, Dr. Greenspan, switching over to him for a moment, believed that your EQ drives your IQ, your emotional intelligence drives your intellectual intelligence. So you’re starting with a methodology that is based on found out, foundationally on that

that children are a product of their behaviors. It doesn’t take into account that they came wired in some pretty interesting ways. And it also doesn’t integrate any part of their emotional development, if I already said that. So it is something that is easy to learn, it’s easy to train, it’s easy to teach. So it’s the predominant way of

Sharon (33:00.728)
of intervention. It is a well researched methodology because it’s frequent, it’s come out of a lot of universities. So there is that idea that it is science based and it has, it’s a research based methodology. But it does not integrate the whole child and it’s not based on foundational development and how children are human beings first. And we are emotional beings and

We all from our own experiences really know that when you have somebody who loves you and is there for you and works with you, or you have a professor or a teacher in school that’s really passionate about their subject, or you’re personally passionate about your subject, you integrate and you learn very differently than when you have to do something that…

has no meaning for you, you’re gonna do what you have to do and then you’re gonna move on and you’re gonna forget it all.

Anthony Codispoti (34:00.426)
And so at what point did you realize that this was not the methodology that you believed in?

Sharon (34:00.706)
So, good.

Sharon (34:08.792)
Two things. One, I started to have exposure because my sole foundation was, you know, I was a hardwired, died in the wall, ABA therapist, because that was my foundation at UCLA. And so they had a program at UCLA where you actually got to go and work in home with children with autism. And I absolutely loved the work. And so I really believed in it. The difference was when

Smart Start first started after a couple of years. We had a teacher come to us who was from Australia and she was a developmentalist. And she really taught me a lot and a lot about development. And I started to think, hmm, there’s so much I really don’t know. And that, but the real change was when my daughter was born. So I started this school when my daughter was 18 months old. and we started as an ABA therapist, but

When I started to then think about the things that I did with children and I started to watch the way that I interacted with my daughter, they were very different and I could not do that. I couldn’t work that way with kids anymore.

Anthony Codispoti (35:22.055)
How were you working with your daughter that was different?

Sharon (35:26.222)
my goodness. She was a kid first, and know, and she, and we had a loving bond and a relationship and ABA is very, I mean, this was, my daughter was born in 1990 and the school started in 92. So this was, ABA was very intense at that time. It was, there, component of it that some, companies still use. It’s called discrete trial training.

And it’s mass repetitions of presentations of materials to learn. So it’s like if you put a red block, a green block, and a yellow block in front of a child, then you say, touch red, and they touch the blue. No, do it again. Press, touch red. No, it’s really this, it’s very intense. good job. It’s r-

Anthony Codispoti (36:17.698)
It sounds cold and transactional.

Sharon (36:21.866)
It is a hundred. That’s a perfect description of it. And so then I have this adorable, beautiful little baby crawling around and she and I are learning about the colors of things because we’re playing with them and we’re talking about them. it was an organic, of course, very beautiful way to teach, but it was so different than what I was doing with kids.

Anthony Codispoti (36:47.81)
Was that destabilizing to you in some way? Because like you said, you were a dyed in the wool, ABA, you know, this was your foundation. And now it’s like, hang on, everything that I sort of based my, I don’t know, my work, my career on seems to be built on a, I don’t know, a very unstable foundation.

Sharon (37:09.812)
Yeah. Yeah. And it was not, it wasn’t a super rapid transformation because we didn’t transform the school to a developmental school until 1998. So we’re talking, you know, it was a transformation. It was a transformation of integrating and bringing more people in who really looked at kids differently and thought differently. But you know,

Anthony Codispoti (37:24.34)
Okay.

Sharon (37:37.784)
My background is my mom was a special education teacher and of course I swore I was never going to do that, right? Of course. but I have a deep, I was raised and I have a deep respect for special educators. I saw how hard my mom worked, how passionately she worked with kids. And this was way before ABA was ever integrated. And I,

And I saw how dismissive ABA was of the special education field, like step aside people, we know what we’re doing and y’all, my goodness, to this day. Anyway, and it’s unfortunately integrated special education. So it’s the predominant methodology in schools now too, working with kids, which yeah, you can imagine how I feel about that. But also my father, my father was a writer and he,

Anthony Codispoti (38:10.746)
is that right?

Sharon (38:31.912)
He wrote a book, my goodness, I can’t even tell you, maybe in the 80s, 70s. It was called The Kid Business. it was about, he was a nonfiction writer and he was a reporter for the LA Times. But he wrote a lot of nonfiction books, but he wrote a nonfiction book and this one was called The Kid Business. And it was about the industry of children. So I sort of come at this with,

this background of a strong heart for kids. And so for me, it was, I’ve always wanted to do best by children. And I don’t have, I’m very passionate and outspoken, but I, I never want to think that I know or have all the answers. I want to always grow and develop the programs that I have.

the privilege of directing and guiding to integrate whatever is going to work best for children and families. And so I wasn’t going to hold on. My ego was not going to determine the future of the school.

Anthony Codispoti (39:42.284)
good for you. I mean, that’s a difficult thing to kind of admit to yourself, as well as to those around you that I had a very strong belief system over here. And I get that it didn’t happen overnight, which makes sense. Like these things, there’s an evolution to the process, right? You had to be exposed to different ways of thinking and be able to sort of test them out in your own life with your own kid and then, you know, in your own school to kind of, you know, come to the realization that there’s a better in a different way. But I mean,

Sharon (39:53.591)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (40:11.137)
You got to pat yourself on the back for making that transition because for a lot of folks, the ego would be too strong to be able to let go of this former identity.

Sharon (40:20.394)
Yeah, and you know, to this day, I would say that I am still a recovering ABA therapist because…

Anthony Codispoti (40:28.864)
Are you in a 12 step program? go to meetings?

Sharon (40:31.32)
Well, I do regularly attend them. Now, it’s just like anything, what your initial training is can get little too hardwired. But what I’ve really been able to do is present new employees who come from an ABA background of a path out of it.

and then also much more importantly, I’ve been able to give parents who are trying to decide what is the best intervention for their child. I’ve been able to say I’ve walked that road and let me share with you why that’s not the road I travel anymore and why we’re a different type of a program. And so for me, I’m extremely grateful for that background because it gives me the perspective of knowing.

and then being able to share why I chose differently.

Anthony Codispoti (41:25.77)
And why is it specifically that ABA is so dismissive of special ed? They think they’re too touchy feely or what’s?

Sharon (41:37.406)
this is my hundred percent an editorial comment. And so I’m just going to go there with you. Dr. Lovaas was a force. was the, he was, I think he was Norwegian. He was from Scandinavia. Let’s, let’s say, but he was like, he was a very strong personality and he was, he, he believed that what he was doing was all powerful and all important.

Anthony Codispoti (41:43.81)
Please do.

Sharon (42:07.54)
And he was a force within the psychology department at UCLA. And he had a group of graduate students that were the first wave of PhD students that came out. And they all started ABA agencies or behavior modification agencies. And these are all, and I worked for one of them after I graduated. And these are all men who believed in.

Ultimately, there was one woman who really, really took off. Her name is Dore is she’s very much alive Doreen Graham’s Pichet and she started an organization that became the largest ABA organization internationally and a card which is the Center for Autism and Related Disorders. Maybe I don’t know what card stands for. Can you ask me your question again?

Anthony Codispoti (43:00.842)
What? No problem. You get passionate. You kind of go off on these tangents and it brings up other feelings.

Sharon (43:04.216)
I know and then I’m like please I gotta bring it back and I can’t remember the question.

Anthony Codispoti (43:09.41)
So why is ABA so dismissive of special ed? What’s the beef there?

Sharon (43:12.628)
Okay, sorry. So these men and women believed that what they were doing, they knew best. Like, one of, and I will not name his name, one of the people I worked for, when a child was going to go to occupational therapy to get sensory integration, he’s like, well, that’s, that’s this junk science, but you know, it can’t hurt for half an hour, an hour a day that they get that. Well, that’s a foundational therapy for these kids. So when you went into a

special education classroom the belief is we know so much more than you do and we know better than you do and you know kind of a pat on the head let us show you how to a better way to work with kids and So when I would go in and work in schools with kids and with teachers Because I was the daughter of a special educator. my goodness That was never gonna be the way I was gonna interact with the teachers

But I had, would watch some of my coworkers and the way that we were coached and supervised, it was to go in and show the better way. And unfortunately then it became part, ABA became so prevalent, it became part of the curriculum in the special education credential programs. And because it is,

quote unquote, efficacy based and has this research behind it. It’s believed to be the most effective methodology. But in reality, developmental science has been around a lot longer than ABA and there’s a lot more research to that. there’s great lobbies and people have made a lot of money doing ABA.

Anthony Codispoti (45:12.743)
So I didn’t initially intend to spend so much time on these different methodologies, but I found it fascinating. And so I’m glad that we did. And I’m sure that our listeners will appreciate that as well. But now I want to focus on Smart Start and what, first of all, what was the inspiration for starting it? had a daughter was 18 months old at the time. Was she part of the reasoning behind starting the school? Tell us how it came into formation.

Sharon (45:35.389)
Yeah, so before I had my first child, I was an ABA therapist and I traveled all over Los Angeles providing in-home behavior therapy. And I went down as far as Orange County all the way up to the San Fernando Valley. And if anybody is a Southern California person listening, they know that a long way. I put 60,000 miles on my car in one year.

And then I had my daughter and I did not want to be away from her for that length of time. And I had a coworker at the time who had her son a few months after I had my daughter and they were both about, I don’t know, not yet a year. And she said, what do you think about starting a preschool for kids with autism?

And she had a detached garage. She lived in Culver City and she said, we can convert my garage. And I thought, okay, I love that idea. I had never imagined that I was going to be an entrepreneur. It was never part of any thoughts that I had. I never actually intended to go on into this field. I was going to be a psychologist and I was in a credential.

master’s program for counseling, I was going to get my PhD, I had all different plans, but you know, clearly that was not my path. So we, it came at the same time that early intervention was beginning to get funded through IDEA in California. So it was the beginning of the early start programs in California. And so because I am a daughter of

to people who championed the causes of people who were less fortunate. I went to find out how we could access public funding for our program. And so we started the program by getting Vendored to be a program in Southern California, serving kids between 18 months and three years old through the regional center system in California, which

Sharon (47:55.768)
is a program for all people regardless of their ability to pay where they the state of California pays for services for children with identified needs.

So that was, started, we marketed way before marketing was a word. we had one, we started with one student and then quickly built up our program to serve children through that age group. And we were in the garage for three years.

Anthony Codispoti (48:33.26)
So what did marketing look like in the early days?

Sharon (48:36.108)
going to people’s home and sharing with them what our plan was and what we were gonna do and sitting in living rooms and talking about our background and how we could make a difference in their child’s life. That was how we got our first child and that, no, no, no, it was like because somebody might say, hey, I know this family is looking for program and because we were already connected within the community of…

Anthony Codispoti (48:51.202)
You just walking up and down the street knocking on random people’s doors.

Sharon (49:04.588)
behavior therapy. And then once the program got started, the regional center, the West Side Regional Center, which is the part of Southern California that we’re in the schools in Santa Monica, had a group of caseworkers who really supported our program and began to send lots of kids to us that they that came into their system and they came out to visit the program. So

we built a reputation pretty quickly. And because of my background and my partner at that time, her background, we were already established and known within the community as therapists.

Anthony Codispoti (49:48.554)
And so at what point did things progress to the point where you needed to move out of the garage?

Sharon (49:54.456)
We were bursting at the seams and my business partner’s family was really ready for people not to be in their garage anymore. So we moved to a second location in Santa Monica. We chose Santa Monica because it’s a city that has

within their city codes, you don’t have to get a conditional use permit to lease a building. And they had a lot of support for childcare within the city, but it’s extremely liberal city. So we found a small, it was, it had been a pediatric office, but it was a converted two-story house. And so we were there for five years. then

After we outgrew that site, we moved to our current location, which is also in Santa Monica, but it’s a 6,000 square foot building with lots and lots of outdoor space for our kids.

Anthony Codispoti (50:57.898)
And so what do the services look like today?

Sharon (51:01.938)
So we have a number of ages and stages and groups of kids that we’re working with. So we are what’s called the full inclusion school. Full inclusion means that all kids are welcome regardless of their learning challenges. So we serve kids from all the way from highly gifted to the kids who are very significantly impacted either with autism or genetic syndromes.

There is a phrase that’s not used anymore very much, but it’s called reverse mainstreaming because we have been foundationally a therapeutic program our whole existence. But when we moved to our current location in 2000, we opened it to all children so we could be full inclusion so that all kids can come and the benefits to the kids who have special needs to have neurotypical peers is

obvious and we can talk about that if there’s time, but for the kids who don’t have special needs, there are some very significant advantages for those kids to be in the environment and we serve kids all the way up through highly gifted. We also, our kids can start as young, I say as long as they’re stable walkers, they can start in the program. So that’s usually, you know, 12 to 18 months.

And that we have a program for kids up in that classroom is for through age three. We have a three year old preschool classroom. We have a four year old place preschool classroom. That’s now a transitional kindergarten. We have two different kindergarten options. And then we have an elementary program that goes through fifth grade. We also provide speech and language therapy for the kids who

have the speech and language needs, and then we also have occupational therapy. And then the last component of the program is we provide in-home DIR floor time therapy, and that is provided afternoons, evenings, and weekends for children. Those are all children with identified needs.

Anthony Codispoti (53:15.404)
So where does the funding come from? Is this all private pay? Is there any insurance or public funds that comes into play?

Sharon (53:22.156)
All of the above. So predominantly this is funded for our kids under three who have special needs. They are funded through the regional center system in California for the school program for speech and occupational therapy. The DIR behavior therapy is funded through the regional center system as well.

If once the kids turn three in California, state of the state, the school districts are responsible for funding their education. If they are placed with us, there are three different ways to come. One is for families to pay privately. The second is for them to be reimbursed through the school district, which is a legal process the families have to go to. but we’re also what’s called a non-public school.

which is through the California Department of Education, you can become certified to be in non-public school and school districts can place children in our program. those are the three different ways, but it’s much more common for children to come with funding from some source rather than families paying privately.

Anthony Codispoti (54:38.092)
And you mentioned that there are benefits for neurodivergent kids to have neuro-typical kids in the same classroom. that just because, look, Johnny’s my size, he’s doing that thing, that means I should be able to do that thing. Is that sort of what it is, like inspired by your peers?

Sharon (54:58.07)
Yeah, mean, there’s some, that’s one component of it. There’s a few different ways that it supports the child who has learning differences. One is that if the child does not have any identified special needs, then they can support and kind of hang with that child for a little longer. If the teacher says, hey, can you,

play such and such with your friend. And remember, they communicate by using their hands, remember, they’re not gonna be able to share with you using their words, but they definitely wanna play with you. And so that’s one advantage. Another is the component of a little bit of like what you were saying, but kids who are the same size provide a visual motor map.

So if they are doing the same thing, then you would have the child, like if you’re doing, like let’s say an obstacle course, you’re gonna have the child who does not have the same challenges go first. So the peers who have the challenges can watch and do a visual mapping of how that child navigated that obstacle course. So you’re getting a motor map, a model of the motor map. And for our kids who do not have special needs,

Anthony Codispoti (55:57.76)
Hmm.

Sharon (56:26.868)
It is a much more individualized program. So you’ve got educators with their eyes on all kids because we all come with areas that are easier for us and areas of learning that are more challenged. And so you get a much more focused educator watching and supporting your child. Of course, the huge component from the social emotional component is

that they learned that all peers come differently created. that there, you know, a lot of the kids have been with us since they’re two years old and they’ve been in an inclusive setting and they actually don’t really have any conscious processes about, I’m a good friend to so-and-so because they have special needs. It’s just part of their existence. And that is a really beautiful thing because if you didn’t have that experience and you see somebody who really

has a different presentation, you don’t really know how to integrate or how to approach that person. So it builds that really, they really know how to be kind friends and they…

Anthony Codispoti (57:29.879)
Mmm.

Anthony Codispoti (57:38.178)
It’s almost like you’re hardwiring them to be more accepting and open to people who present differently.

Sharon (57:44.674)
Yeah, it doesn’t even, it doesn’t really even, they don’t have a thought about it. It’s like, well, this friend doesn’t communicate with their mouth. They have a device and they can type and they can communicate for older kids. use iPad sometimes to communicate. So that friend, they communicate this way, even though I know that’s true. He’s also a phenomenal reader and he reads better than I do. Or, you know, it’s like,

Anthony Codispoti (57:48.706)
Yeah.

Sharon (58:09.406)
If the younger kids are early, they’re learning to read and sometimes children on the autism spectrum have hyperlexia, which means they can become early readers. So when the teacher calls somebody up to read who’s not yet reading, then she might say, hey, let’s ask so and so up and you guys can read together because he’s reading already and he can help you with that. So really helping show each of the kids.

what their strengths are and what are the areas of extra support they may need. For the kids who are in the gifted profile, very often they can come into us with maybe some speech delay. It’s not uncommon for them to have delays in development. But then as they get closer to three, it’s obvious that actually those things are coming in and they’re probably more in the gifted profile. But what happens a lot of times for kids who are in the gifted range

is their emotional systems are not quite as strong as their intellectual systems. And so you get some struggles with taking the perspective of others. And so there’s some EQ work that really needs to be done with the gifted kids, because they’re going to have their own challenges because they’re going to be really far ahead in the academic realm and teaching them how to really be a kind friend and an accommodating friend and developing their social skills as well.

It’s really important for that group.

Anthony Codispoti (59:39.938)
What does the term garden variety mean?

Sharon (59:42.232)
Yeah, so that is a euphemism for an inclusive setting where all kids are welcome and they can come to us from all different backgrounds. They may have high levels of need within, you know, from a developmental perspective. We’ve had kids with genetic issues, with genetic conditions.

terminal illness, kids who again go on to have a gifted profile, and kids who are just you know, gonna travel a smoother educational journey. So it kind of just means everybody’s welcome.

Anthony Codispoti (01:00:28.38)
Sharon, before your daughter was born, you did a lot of in-home services and you started this school. Are in-home services still part of what you do?

Sharon (01:00:37.366)
Yeah, yeah, we still do the in-home behavior therapy, but it’s done with the DIR floor time model. So we have a whole group of families that we serve. Some of them go to the school and we serve them in-home. Some of them come to us wanting, because there aren’t a lot of agencies that do the DIR floor time model. And then some of them used to go to the school, but now are up in the middle and

middle school range or high school range because that service goes up to age 18.

Anthony Codispoti (01:01:12.652)
Where does Smart Start go from here? Are there plans for growth, new services, new buildings, more classrooms, or you feel like, we’ve got a good thing going, we’re just, we’re not gonna monkey with it.

Sharon (01:01:27.32)
I’m 61. I don’t really have a desire to grow outside of the building that we’re in, but we are in a recovery still from COVID. So we have begun to increase our class sizes again.

you know, during COVID, not only, of course, we had to close, we closed for a short period of time because we’re a private school. As soon as California allowed us to do what we wanted to do, we did it. But we had to reduce our class sizes. There was a season where parents were still very anxious about sending kids back to school. So our class sizes reduced either because

parents weren’t ready to send their kids back or we kept a smaller class size because we needed to keep spacing. So we’re in a very focused rebuilding period and wanting to grow the program so that we’re increasing our preschool program to add more kids. We do have availability in that. the elementary program, we’re continuing to

right now I’m already starting to tour for, next school year. So it is in a growth, a growth cycle in that way. our home services, that’s not something that, has the limitations of space because we can add, we can add more kids because we’re serving them in home. doesn’t, it’s not limited by our square footage.

Anthony Codispoti (01:03:13.14)
And how about staff? it difficult to find and retain good staff?

Sharon (01:03:14.328)
you

Sharon (01:03:20.588)
Well, I believe that’s not just in our industry, but absolutely the job market and the ability to the staff that we have is a really spectacular group of people who are committed.

Anthony Codispoti (01:03:23.948)
Mm-mm. Yeah.

Sharon (01:03:40.268)
The hiring process has definitely, the face of that has changed pretty dramatically. It is harder to add new staff. Some of the limitations of growth have been based on making sure that we are getting people that are of the caliber and the background that we need to be able to do the type of work we do. So.

It has most definitely been a challenge and I’ve had to do a lot of learning and growing on how to pivot for this new season within the job candidates and the job market.

Anthony Codispoti (01:04:22.028)
What things have you tried and had success with so far? In terms of how do I find somebody good? How do I hold on to somebody good?

Sharon (01:04:37.876)
It’s been a challenge for me because I can’t and won’t compromise on the caliber of people that we’re bringing in. it is, you know, for me, when I’m looking for a new staff, of course they have to have a background in working with children. But what I’m always looking for is somebody who’s very passionate about what they do.

really loves to play with kids. And that may sound strange. Well, of course, they’re in education, they love to play with kids. But the ability to play with kids is, is not a lot of people have it. So we’re really I haven’t compromised in in that area, but it does make it a challenge. So

I no longer get offended, though I scratch my head when you have 10 interviews set up and three people show up for those interviews, even though they’ve all confirmed that they’re coming. But I have a friend who’s a senior partner in the law firm and he’s like, well, we haven’t been able to positions within our law firm, so don’t take it personally. I’m like, okay.

Anthony Codispoti (01:05:39.329)
Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (01:05:54.789)
I get to talk to folks in all kinds of industries because of this show and my work. yeah, it’s a pretty universal thing still today. So yeah, don’t feel bad.

Sharon (01:06:02.41)
Yeah, I think it’s a recovery. It’s a COVID recovery process. And I also think that, you know, it’s it’s a generational component to have a different in pivoting and in my expectations of who’s coming through but never deviating from making sure that the people that we choose to come aboard are going to be able to

share our passion and our vision and our mission.

Anthony Codispoti (01:06:35.426)
Sharon, what’s maybe a particular challenge personally or professionally that you’ve gone through, lessons learned, how you got through that coming out the other side?

Sharon (01:06:47.488)
Again, at age 61, I am having been in the field for 40 years now. I really did not, and this is where, this is probably my personality at this point. I didn’t believe that I would still be having to fight every day for kids and for families and for funding and for organizations to do right by children and families.

Anthony Codispoti (01:07:06.378)
Yeah.

Sharon (01:07:17.24)
And I think that’s just naive. You know, I am very passionate about what I do and I take things very intensely, making sure that we’re doing the best we can for kids. But I would have loved for it to not be such a challenge, but I think that

That’s just the reality. I am somebody who will go to the mat for kids and families. It’s just my personality and the way I was created. But I don’t always enjoy that part of things. I would really love for things to be smooth sailing. I just don’t think that’s life. And the lessons learned is if I had known that at 61 I would still be battling and fighting, I may not have done it. So I’m really thankful that I didn’t know that.

Anthony Codispoti (01:08:13.075)
Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Sharon (01:08:14.584)
Absolutely. I have, I have, I still would choose it, I’m sure of it, because there’s nothing better. I had a call a couple months ago from a grandma who had a grandchild that she was needing, who was showing some signs and

developmental delay. And she said to me, you know, my son was in your program. And I just want you to know that he just graduated from USC business school. This is, you know, and I was like, and that was, that was a beautiful moment. And I thought, okay, still worth it. The fight is worth it.

Anthony Codispoti (01:09:07.328)
The fight is worth it.

Sharon (01:09:10.74)
And when we get graduation cards and pictures of college acceptance from kids that were in the program years and years ago, it’s all worth it. It’s all worth it. To see the progress that kids made, I have another quick story. I had two girls over the summer who both, they had both been in the program since they were two.

I think one started when she was three, still in diaper stages. And I saw the two girls chatting and they’re both 12 years old. And I said, girls, what’s going on? One said, she just started her cycle. And I said, right now? She said, yeah. I said, okay.

Well, do you have anything in your backpack? Did mommy send you with any kind of some supplies for that? And she said, no. And her friend said, now, mind you, these are both girls who came to us very significantly on the autism spectrum who have emerged to really be at grade level and doing really fabulously well. And so her friend said to her, I have a pad in my cubby. Let me go get it for you.

So she went and got her her pad and so I took the other gal in the bathroom and showed her what to do and I said, you doing okay? yeah, I’m fine. Okay. So, and I checked on her the rest of the day and her friend checked on her because her friend had started her cycle a few months before. And it was, and so I called the little gal’s mom and I said, okay, so your daughter has started her period and she, mama freaked out.

my goodness, my goodness. Does she need to get picked up? she okay? said, no, she’s great. And her friend helped her. And it was truly such a beautiful moment. Not only had these girls come from diapers to getting their first period, but also to watch the camaraderie and the friendship and how they stayed calm and regulated. And it was just like, it’s no big deal. It was a beautiful, beautiful moment. And I was…

Anthony Codispoti (01:11:26.57)
And I have to imagine that it really helped that it was her friend that was helping her with part of this, right? So it’s, you know, it’s, not this big, scary thing. It’s like, yeah, this happens.

Sharon (01:11:31.778)
yeah, yeah, yeah. And her friend was like, it’s no big deal. It’s no big deal. Yeah, let me go get the pad out of my cubby. It was truly a beautiful, beautiful moment. So those things all make it worth it and all the battling and yeah. So I’m grateful. I’m super grateful to be where I’m at at this point.

Anthony Codispoti (01:11:41.376)
Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (01:11:53.792)
Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (01:11:58.464)
Sharon, I’ve just got one more question for you, but before I ask it, I want to let people know the best way to get in touch with you. What would that be?

Sharon (01:12:05.304)
My email is always the best way to reach me. You can also access the website and there’s contact forms all over it. those all come directly to my email. So my email is gonna be, I’m sure in your show notes, but do you want me to share that now? Okay. So it’s Sharon, S-H-A-R-O-N at smartstartschool.com. And I am…

Anthony Codispoti (01:12:22.539)
Yes, please.

Sharon (01:12:33.898)
a very reliable returner of email. And also if somebody wants to call me, they can send an email and I’m always happy to talk to people whether or not they ever have any interest in the school or send their kids to the school. I’m always happy to chat with people.

Anthony Codispoti (01:12:51.432)
that’s tremendous. That’s very generous of you. So last question for you, Sharon. What do you see are the big changes that are kind of coming in your field in the next couple of years?

Sharon (01:13:03.416)
boy. That’s a big one because that means I have to get my head up out of my current challenges.

Anthony Codispoti (01:13:06.72)
That’s a big one, huh?

Sharon (01:13:16.082)
Hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (01:13:21.782)
Maybe just one thing. What’s something that you think is coming that outsiders like myself wouldn’t know about?

Sharon (01:13:30.614)
my goodness, I was so don’t know that answer that question. I would say I have my hopes and dreams. My hopes and dreams are that that children who

Anthony Codispoti (01:13:34.153)
Alright.

Anthony Codispoti (01:13:38.924)
Let’s go there.

Sharon (01:13:46.198)
have identified needs, have opportunities for different ways of being worked with, and really seen as unique and have opportunities to learn and grow and not be seen as a problem, but be seen as an opportunity for them to grow. And this is a story that I think

I would love to be able to have people kind of ponder. Many years ago, it was at a very large conference and there were about a thousand people in the audience, maybe more, maybe 2000. And there was this gentleman along the side who was probably in his early twenties and he clearly was by my estimation on the autism spectrum. And he’s running up and down on the side aisle in these

hopping along and he’s clapping and he’s bobbing and he’s making a lot of vocalizations and I had a lot of thoughts, he has autism, he’s very significantly impacted with autism and I made all sorts of assumptions about him and they introduced who the next speaker was going to be at the conference and guess who the speaker was at the conference? It was that man.

He went up on the stage and he proceeded to type out his, he had a device where he was able to type in and then it was a voice projection. And that man was not a verbal communicator, but he was an incredible, accomplished, deep thinking man who did not have the ability to speak using his voice.

Anthony Codispoti (01:15:19.159)
Yeah.

Sharon (01:15:36.504)
And he shared his story and it was a testimony of being underestimated and people making assumptions about who he was based on the output of his sensory the sensory system in his body It was a transformational moment for me because I really truly want to be able to say never underestimate who kids are based on What you see?

And to really dig deep to discover who they are because my goodness You’re gonna be surprised and you are also gonna be humbled in that process and so I just want to encourage people out there to really Spend the time to get to know kids and To keep a really High level of expectation and never underestimate them

Anthony Codispoti (01:16:34.764)
Sharon, that’s a beautiful and perfect way to end today’s interview. Thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Sharon (01:16:42.528)
It’s always my pleasure.

Anthony Codispoti (01:16:44.556)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories Podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.