About Us
Nicole is a sibling of a 34 year old sister with autism. However, back when she was young she was told by her parents that her younger, twin sister was "neurologically impaired" and never truly understood what that term meant. What she did know was that she had to switch from a wonderful private school experience to public school because they realized that her sister had a disability and the school did not have the resources to help her. Therefore, her mother pulled her and both siblings out and off to public school they went for what was to be a better education for her sister. Unfortunately it wasn't. She was shipped out of district, had no friends, yelled and screamed, horded clothes under her bed and covered her ears in fright every time we went through the car wash or to the Fourth of July fireworks display. They did not have the services back then that are beginning to become available now. Law school was Nicole's ultimate goal, however, she changed course and entered the field of special education and behavior analysis in the hopes that she could make a difference in the lives of others and provide children with opportunities that her sister was not afforded. She is a Child Development Specialist in the early intervention sector. At the start of her career she specialized in working with children 18 months to 6 years old providing behavioral therapy, community, family and recreational training. Her experience was broadened when she began working with individuals spanning to age 26. See Spectrum of Services (S.O.S.) for full description of her services. She provides behavioral consultation to private and public schools as well as business management services for individuals with autism and other specialized needs. In addition, she also offers workshops on various topics individually and with other specialists in the field of disabilities, including individuals, parents, siblings, etc. Learning By Design's inagural workshop was held in collaboration with the Caldwell College Psychology Department and Creating Choices for Children, a local parent organization partnered with the Caldwell/West Caldwell Public Schools. The creators of a documentary entitled Normal People Scare Me came out to share their experiences of life with autism providing individual, parental and sibling perspectives. Nicole's greatest loves of all aside from her work are her 4 1/2 year old daughter Lilly and husband Christopher.
Christopher is a workers' compensation defense attorney for a global insurance company. This is a job that he enjoys and is extremely good at, however, his true gift is writing. He can write a frist draft that is of publishable quality right out of the box. This is something Nicole admires about him and is his gift that he must pursue full-time at some point in his life. While being an attorney does afford him to utilize his writing skills, he had a huge adjustment when he needed to switch from creative writing to legal writing in law school. His law school papers would be returned so red it was as if the professor accidentally cut him or herself while reading his work. So begrudgingly he had to change his writing style in order to make it through. It was a wonderful learning experience for him as he now has the ability to write both technically and creatively and at times creatively technical.
Their four year old Lilly is their greatest creation ever and the light of their lives. They have learned so much over the past four years and know there is so much to learn coming down the pike. That is why they would like to connect with other families to share happiness, laughter, bewilderment, woes, fun places to go and anything else affecting parents and their children these days. Of paramount importance to Nicole and Christopher is exposing Lilly to all types of people, including those with disabilities, so when she sees someone who is different from her she will embrace it instead of ridiculing them or being shocked by it. Their hope is that she won't flinch or think twice about befriending that individual. There are many childrens' activities that Lilly has participated in where she was exposed to all types of children including her first schooling experience at the Montclair State University Childrens' Center which is an inclusion model. Lilly has participated in research conducted by the University on inclusion and they continue to delve into determining the best practices of inclusion. Nicole and Christopher have witnessed firsthand the benefits of their inclusion model and are hopeful that when Lilly graduates from MSU and goes to public school when she is 5 she continues to have such experiences.