About Us

Phone: 206-384-3702

Fax: 206-328-2496

E-mail:  info@spectrumcircles.com

 

CIRCLES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Manya Vaupel, MEd, BCBA Program Director-Educational Consultant

 

To contact us:

Founder of SpectrumCIRCLES, October 2006

Manya is a nationally recognized Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Manya has dedicated her career, education and training to be able to best serve children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) ranging in ages 4 months to 21 years old. ASD can be an overwhelming and often times devastating experience for families.  For that reason it has been Manya's everlasting enthusiasm to create programs that meet the individual needs of each family.    Bringing disciplines such as Applied Behavior Analysis, special education, speech pathology and communication disorders, developmental psychology, and literacy together, Manya has created comprehensive educational programs for children with ASD at CIRCLES.

Manya has been working with children with autism and other related disorders since 1994. She has worked in homes, schools, clinical settings, and special camps for children on the spectrum of autism both locally and internationally. 

Manya spent a summer in college as a teacher's aide in an experimental camp for children with ASD. The focus of this camp was to establish communication systems for each nonverbal child by using PECS. The camp was very successful and included mini camps at the end of the summer for those children who were on the waitlist but never made it into the actual summer camp.

The following summer, Manya returned to the same organization, but this time as a therapy assistant in ABA home programs. This particular summer was spent traveling to various families' homes to work 1:1 with children with ASD. Manya returned to school after the summer to a small town about 1.5 hours north of Seattle as one of the only people with ABA training. With the guidance and supervision of consultants who studied at the Lovaas clinic, Manya managed ABA home programs and recruited volunteer therapy assistants for children with autism while finishing her undergraduate degree in Speech Pathology/Communication Disorders, Special Education with an emphasis in Behavioral Psychology.  Following graduation, Manya again returned to the same organization as a Case Manager for ABA home programs back in Seattle. Manya assisted in the opening of Talk, Learn, and Communicate's doors and managed ABA programs under the supervision of a speech pathologist and a behavior analyst.

After several years at Talk, Learn, and Communicate, Manya joined Stacey Shook, PhD BCBA. With Stacey, Manya and a few other program managers, managed ABA programs from their cars and Stacey's apartment while also working on the first Project DATA classroom at the University of Washington's Experimental Education Unit.  Eventually Northwest Behavioral Associates was created and doors opened in 1999. At NBA, Manya was the program manager for families of children with ASD and related disorders, ran social skills groups for preschoolers-upper school aged children, and was a co-presenter for numerous community workshops and trainings.

Manya was then recruited for consultation work at the UW Autism Center. At the UW Autism Center, Manya was the lead consultant for over three years, working in schools, families' homes, in diagnostic evaluations, in social skills groups and dyad therapies. Manya also created the first program database for the early intervention and consultation team. While working full time, Manya obtained her BCBA by taking more graduate level classes in Applied Behavior Analysis at the UW's Special Education department.

Manya was then recruited for a position at TeachTown as the Director of Education/Program Director and Research Scientist. Here she managed clinical support across the country, assisted in the design of the TeachTown: Basics computer based curriculum as well as the off computer generalization curriculum. With TeachTown, Manya conducted research projects, presented at international conferences, and has co-authored and edited online journals, grants, and manuals. Manya continues to work with TeachTown in their development of computer based products for children with ASD as well as further the research and resources available for the children with ASD.

Manya currently enjoys working with families, clinics, schools and other community organizations in her private practice (SpectrumCIRCLES), based in Seattle.

Manya has worked for years in programs that implement intensive behavioral home programs, parent training, school collaboration/consultation, and vocational training and supervision. She had a comprehensive and rounded education in speech pathology, special education, psychology, reading curriculum and instruction, and applied behavior analysis. Manya has had amazing opportunities in specific trainings in PECS, ABA, verbal behavior, and reading. She has designed many programs to meet the needs of the children she works with to establish a truly individualized program for each child.  Please contact Manya directly for answers to your questions or for more information.  manya@spectrumcircles.com

Our doors opened in early October 2006. With a starting caseload of three families who have followed Manya through various locations over the years, CIRCLES now serves over 50 families. CIRCLES continues to grow, serving families in BC, Canada, supervising early intervention staff for ABA home-based programs, mentoring intern students, offering training and support for TriCare military families, and implementing various programs for individuals with ASD ages 2-21 in the Seattle area.

CIRCLES shares space with John Whitehead PsyD, Julie Osterling PhD, Gusty-Lee Boulware PhD BCBA, and Rina Marie Guerrero PhD BCBA in a beautiful clinical setting in the Leschi neighborhood of Seattle. Here we plan to continue to build programs that meet the needs of the community by increasing the number of children served in social skills groups, build consultation and training relationships with schools, expand diagnosis options for families, implement reading programs for children with ASD, and increase the effectiveness of home programs for early intervention and school aged children with ASD.

The Program Director for CIRCLES is the early intervention program supervisor for Pivot Point, a family growth center in BC, Canada. Serving over 35 families in the early intervention program, Manya manages a large staff of professionals to create family centered programs for all families of children with ASD. Not only do the programs reflect what the child needs, but also focuses on providing the necessary support to the individual family members by offering hands on training, community workshops throughout the different regions of BC, and ongoing monitoring and evaluation on a twice-monthly basis.

CIRCLES also collaborates very closely with Special Kids-Special Services, serving families and implementing various programs over on the Kitsap Peninsula, Bainbridge Island, Bremerton, and Kingston areas. We just finished our first summer preschool program that served 12 children ages 3-6 with ASD bridging the gap between the school years.