AUBURN HILLS — Easter Seals Michigan has announced that it has hired Dr. Richard Solomon as its vice president of medical affairs. Dr. Solomon also is medical director of The PLAY Project at The Ann Arbor Center for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Board-certified in general pediatrics and developmental and behavioral pediatrics, Dr. Solomon has been diagnosing and treating children with autism for 20 years.
Dr. Solomon, along with parent support, a dedicated staff, and close-working relations with early intervention and educational systems and large mental health agencies played a central role in organizing community-based training programs and services for young children with autism.
Within two years, intensive and comprehensive services were available to many children with autism in the greater Pittsburgh community and Allegheny County.
Over the last few years, it has been Dr. Solomon’s clinical impression, after following hundreds of children in the Home Consulting Program, that intensive services when delivered by parents are an effective way to supplement the school system’s early intervention and pre-school services.
Dr. Solomon has published a research article evaluating the ability of parents to successfully use play-based approaches, and his results indicate that parents can learn the play-based methods and that nearly 50 percent of the children make good to excellent progress, with 25 percent making fair progress, using PLAY Project Home Consultation model. To date, thousands of parents and professionals have attended Dr. Solomon’s community workshops and autism and developmental methods.
