School Program vs. In-Home Program

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone. We run an in-home Verbal Behavior program for my son

who will be 2 1/2 years old in a couple of months. I'm trying to

get prepared for the transition from Early Intervention to school

district. Anyway, we live in New Jersey and there are several

schools for children with autism here. I was just wondering if any

of you had the chance to send your child to one of the most

reputable schools for children with autism in the state or continue

your home program, which would you do?

This will probably not happen anyway as all of the more reputable or

better known schools have such long waiting lists, but I'm just

curious. I went to tour one of these schools recently and they

don't really use verbal behavior all that much. The same is true of

the other " top " schools I've seen. One school said they do verbal

behavior about 1/2 an hour a day and I took this to mean that they

use verbal behavior to do 1/2 an hour of intensive teaching

or " discrete trials " . But we use verbal behavior all day long with

my son and I would be worried that there wouldn't be as much

emphasis on language devopment or making him a conversational

speaker.

Has anyone else opted to keep his or her child at home, with a

verbal behavior program, and chosen not to send him or her to

the " best " school?

Thanks,

Theresa