Newbie intro

[Guest guest]

Hi all. I have a boy with autism who will be four next month.

After a Vince Carbone workshop here in Phoenix, I got all fired up

about AVB and hired a BCBA, on of Sedona, AZ, to help

get a home program going.

We've got three fantastic ABA habilitators who my son was beginning

to dislike because they took him upstairs, away from his two

favorite things (TV and computer) to sit at a table and do Lovaas-

style ABA. We'd been doing traditional ABA since ny's diagnosis

in May 2004 and it had helped, but he was starting to really resist

and have meltdowns of protest when his habilitators arrived.

We've only had two six-hour consultations with our BCBA so far and

things have really changed. She identified three top motivators to

become his first mands: " movie " (his Baby Einstein DVDs), " computer "

(playhousedisney.com), and " milk " (his bottle of hazelnut milk).

She taught him two of these signs in one day and three days later,

we had him signing correctly for all three! On her second visit,

four weeks later, we added " bubbles, " " open, " and " chip " and he got

those almost immediately.

He'd had experience with PECS in his autism-only preschool, but had

no experience with signing. Now, he's fiddling with his hands all

the time, trying to make them ask for things. It's great.

calls that " practicing. " He's drunk with power, being able to ask

for things and get them whenever he wants. And he loves to see his

therapists arrive every day now. He's been liberated from his

therapy room and everything about our household has been changed.

It's been the hardest on me, because he used to be tucked up in his

therapy room for the majority of the day with a habilitator. Now,

he's all over the place and his little sister (typical 2.8 year old)

and I have no peace anymore. I can't get anything done and really

don't like it much at all, but the results speak for themselves.

In Arizona, habilitation, OT, SpT, music are all paid for by the

state for kids with autism. It's great, and we had been spending

all of our money in the biomedical arena, content that our

behavioral program was as good as it could be. Then, a couple of

Phoenix families told us about AVB and after I went to hear Vince

Carbone I realized that it would be worth it to channel some money

into hiring a BCBA. This is my first non-biomedical group and

I'm looking forward to learning more about AVB. Obviously, we're

really new to it and would love to hear about others' experiences

who are farther along with their kids' programs.

Where do most of you live? We are very short on BCBAs and BCaBAs

here in Phoenix. Is it like that everywhere? They aren't paid for

yet by the state, but AZ has some pilot programs and is going to

start paying for behavioral consulting services for the age 0-

3, " early intervention " kids. Too late for ny.

- Kim Bowman (from L.A.), 39; husband Jon (from Nashville), 43

ny ASD, 3.9; NT, 2.8