Need help with moving to MI area

[Guest guest]

Hi my name is McKnight and I have a 3 year old with ASD. I

currently live in St. Louis Missouri and am dreading our move back to

Michigan only because I have no idea what we are going back to

services wise. My son is doing great and we are in the process of

bumping his ABA hours to 25 hours a week,(program is at home)

currently functioning at 17 1/2 hours only because we have had such a

hard time getting tutors. He is also in summer school right now at a

great early childhood center and we love his teacher. He also

receives OT, Speech, will be getting a music therapy assessment done

in September, and will also be starting social groups and RDI therapy

soon too. So needless to say we have it all out here and am so

thankful we have what we have, and I do not want to leave! However

my husband's job term ends in January of next year and I have already

told him he has to come back to Michigan without us, at least until

our son is done his school year, which buys me at least 10 more

months. However the clock is ticking and I need to start setting

things up in Michigan now so the transition is as gentle as we can

possibly make it, and we don't have a lot of down time, but I have no

idea where to begin and have so many questions. I have contacted the

Autism center out at the U of M central campus via e-mail and have

received no response. Also checked for a FEAT org. out there and

didn't see any on the main website. So feeling a little scared and

would appreciate anyone who could help me with getting started

especially with what school district offers early intervention for

autism seeing as this will determine where we live in Michigan.

Thanks so much for creating this Int. post. The a-list out here has

been a wonderful support group and it's so nice to know that the

support still goes out even further and around the world.

Sincerely,

McKnight

P.S. Here's my e-mail address at home: mcknightk2m@... if you

need to reach me. Thanks again!

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I live in Ann Arbor Michigan, what area were you looking at? I hate to

be the bearer of bad news, but the services in Michigan in general for

kids with autism are lousy. If you want ABA, there are only a couple of

places you will be able to get that through the school district. One is

in Western Michigan in the Kalamazoo area, since Western Michigan is

there and they are such a great ABA school, they help to run the Croyden

Avenue school, where the kids get a fair amount of ABA - I think about

30 hours a week.

Here in Ann Arbor, we do have an ABA/Verbal Behavior based classroom for

ages 3-6 where the kids get about 25 hours a week of 1-1. They do tend

to put more severe kids in it (mostly non-verbal) though, so it might

depend on what your child's skills are like. There is another room

where they do group time for about 12 hours a week and 6 hours of 1-1.

They have a couple of elementary self-contained classrooms, but they

have been pretty lousy. Most kids are in inclusion, but again they do

not do a great job of this, the aides don't get any specific training,

and it really varies from school to school as far as any expertise with

autism at all. Many families here do ABA, but they are doing home

programs and paying for most of it themselves. I have negotiated pretty

decent IEPs for my 2 boys (both autism spectrum), where I got about 15

hours a week of ABA paid for thru kindergarten.

In Wayne county, there is one program called Perrinville where I think

the kids get something like 12-15 hours a week of mostly 1-1 with some

small group, but I don't know if it's strictly ABA, they started getting

more eclectic since they didn't have a behavioral consultant on an

ongoing basis. A few families who have sued to get ABA are getting some

individual programs here and there, but they are few and far between

(and usually rich enough to sue the school to get them to do it).

If you are interested in Ann Arbor, we have a parent group that is very

active with the school district, trying to push them to improve the

school programming. That's why we have an ABA room in the first place!

:-) Anyway, please feel free to contact me directly if you want more

information. Oh, there is also a Michigan autism list on groups,

the email is:

Autism-Michigan

Good luck with your decision, but if I had a good program in St. Louis,

I would do everything I could to stay there.

Barb B

Ann Arbor MI

>From: " mcknightk2m " <mcknightk2m@...>

>Subject: Need help with moving to MI area

>

>Hi my name is McKnight and I have a 3 year old with ASD. I

>currently live in St. Louis Missouri and am dreading our move back to

>Michigan only because I have no idea what we are going back to

>services wise. My son is doing great and we are in the process of

>bumping his ABA hours to 25 hours a week,(program is at home)

>currently functioning at 17 1/2 hours only because we have had such a

>hard time getting tutors. He is also in summer school right now at a

>great early childhood center and we love his teacher. He also

>receives OT, Speech, will be getting a music therapy assessment done

>in September, and will also be starting social groups and RDI therapy

>soon too. So needless to say we have it all out here and am so

>thankful we have what we have, and I do not want to leave! However

>my husband's job term ends in January of next year and I have already

>told him he has to come back to Michigan without us, at least until

>our son is done his school year, which buys me at least 10 more

>months. However the clock is ticking and I need to start setting

>things up in Michigan now so the transition is as gentle as we can

>possibly make it, and we don't have a lot of down time, but I have no

>idea where to begin and have so many questions. I have contacted the

>Autism center out at the U of M central campus via e-mail and have

>received no response. Also checked for a FEAT org. out there and

>didn't see any on the main website. So feeling a little scared and

>would appreciate anyone who could help me with getting started

>especially with what school district offers early intervention for

>autism seeing as this will determine where we live in Michigan.

>Thanks so much for creating this Int. post. The a-list out here has

>been a wonderful support group and it's so nice to know that the

>support still goes out even further and around the world.

>

>Sincerely,

>

> McKnight

>

>P.S. Here's my e-mail address at home: mcknightk2m@... if you

>need to reach me. Thanks again!

>

>