Re: ABA Therapy

[Guest guest]

,

That one month depending on how much your son has made progress within

a certain goal is still very important.

What area are you focusing on?

Depends on his data, this is the baseline that should answer this.

Like is it on manding (request), his receptive, labeling, self-help

skills, or academic skills.

You would like to make sure on any positive progress reaching a

certain goal, it probably has given him a positive impact for his

self-esteem. Have you noticed this yet?

You know your son the best, you know his potential.

You can never ask for too much.

See if they could provide some home training during this time.

Has any of this been mentioned?

Generalization and Maintenance, What is it?

* Maintenance-keeping skills over time.

* Generalization- using skills in different situations.

Unable to answer your question if the school is obligated to apply ABA

service, as every district varies. I would see it something like the

ESY program on whatever IEP goal being worked on to carry over.

Hopefully someone here could answer this for you.

Wishing you luck here that something will be worked out.

Irma,19,DS/ASD

>

> Hi Everyone,

>

> 's reclassification meeting will be held on 6/10 (he turns 5

yrs. on 8/25) and I wanted to get your advice in terms of how to

prepare for it. Any suggestions?

>

> One of the issues that I would like to discuss is ABA therapy.

will be participating in his school's summer program (M-TH, 5 hours a

day from June 30th - August 7th). He will continue to receive all of

his therapies as usual. My question is what about the month he is off

before the regular school year begins? will receive 1 hour per

week of OT through a private agency during the summer. PT will consist

of going to our town pool as often as possible. My concern is ABA. A

month without discrete trials seems too long. Does the district have

an obligation to to provide ABA during this time? Or do most

families just take a break?

>

> Thanks for your input as always.

>

> Best,

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Can you believe I am still learning right along?

Very glad that you have noticed this on on the improvement with

his confidence, this is wonderful!

I could just visualize how good this feels when accomplishing

something. Awesome!

Hope all goes well.

My Best,

Irma,19,DS/ASD

>

> Hi Irma,

>

> Thank you very much for your input- you are right, you can never ask

for too much. I'm still learning more about ABA. is

participating in discrete trials and we do see an improvement in his

confidence. He just loves the verbal praise when he does something

well and is more focused/engaged as a result. He is working on

receptive, labeling and self-help programs. Data collection has been

helpful and I also get copies of maintenance programs.

>

> I'm still learning all the nuances with our school district and of

course don't want to miss the boat of opportunity if it's there. You

know the old saying, " if you don't ask, you don't get " .

>

> Best,

>

[Guest guest]

Thank you all so much for your great response and for giving me more

pros/cons to consider!

There are only five ABA providers for me to choose from for the

state-waiver program. The one that doesn't seem to have any issues with

's

age doesn't have any openings for an initial consult/eval until December,

which means I can't get a clinical confirmation from them to get back

on the wait list (and the county will not hold her spot which opened August

2 and goes for 90 days to get a program in place). I spoke to another

provider whose mission statement is " we take children ages 2 to 8 " and kept

defaulting to that statement throughout our conversation - my child being

7-1/2 and probably not doing full-time ABA (35 hours/week - the state requires

a minimum of 20) because I don't want to completely take her out of school

is not a priority for them and most likely wouldn't take her (i.e. they'd

take a child who is 5 and wants 35 hours over my child even if my child has

been waiting for services with them) - I don't like the thought my child is

not a " priority. " Another place I called said they expect at least 27

hours a week (they called it home schooling - 3 full days at school and 2 full

days of ABA at home and I'm assuming a Saturday because 2 days wouldn't be

enough hours - no way would she do two 14 hour days! - 's special

ed teacher is not keen on the 2 full days off of school - she'd prefer 1/2

days of ABA and school, but would miss out on a lot of things at

school doing that either way). I'm waiting for a call back from another

place. And the fifth place I never heard of so not sure about calling them and

they are located pretty far west of hear so don't know how that would work

for their staff.

The bottom line is the county says you can do a minimum of 20 hours (which

is what I wanted to start with originally) and they do not advocate that

you take your child out of school too much. The providers have their own set

of rules and push for the 35 hours because they insist/claim that is how

the child will get the benefit of the program. I hear many of you saying

you are doing a few hours here and there. I see nothing wrong with that!

Makes me think to just forget this whole thing and work with the school in

incorporating ABA through the special education teacher.

Unless I get hit hard over the head and lose all reality, I can't see doing

full-time ABA and trying to keep in school (I have a hard enough

time thinking this family can handle 20 hours of ABA and keeping in

school). I recall the first email response I got from this group on the

subject was from Sara and her words ring loud and clear... " Was it disruptive

to the rest of the family - OH HOWDY _ YEAS> and this was the final

decider. "

I'm still weeding through all the emails. Thank you all so much for all

your responses and taking the time to really give me some details. I may be

asking some more questions based on your responses.

Heidi

(Mom to 7-1/2 w/ DS, ASD, epilepsy, and Clara 2-1/2)

No two flowers bloom in exactly the same way (but all are beautiful).