Re: Don't want to quit ABA

[Guest guest]

Cathy,

The home trainor at your son's school is not anywhere near the same

thing as a consultant. The roles are completely different. We have a

home component in the afternoons and we are paying for the consultant

ourselves. It is very difficult, especially since she has been coming

more often now as I have all new people to be trained. WE are fighting

the school on these same issues. They had been paying our therapist to

come out, but she just moved and now they have not picked up the pay for

the 2 new people yet. We have been going through lawyers, etc waiting

for them to get paid as per his IEP. They have pulled every stop in the

book and now are playing baby games with us like saying they never got

the time cards, when I personally deliver them into their little lying

hands. Keep trying to get funding and see if you can get it by comparing

the hours in the week from a regular school to the hours that your son

has at his present school. We went from a home based 30 hour program to

school which was less hours per week and that was how we ended up keeping

part of the home piece. Maybe you could get them to cost share with DMR.

I am looking into that route now as well.

Good luck,

Phyllis

[Guest guest]

Cathy,

We run what iI consider a successful ABA program for our son. We do not

have nor never have had a consultant. Our therapists are very good at what

they do so I don't feel the need for one. We work together setting his

goals. No offense to consultants, but they are very highly paid and don't

usually do alot of hands on except initially. Maybe use therapists who are

experienced enough to almost qualify as a consultant-but doesn't charge

consultant rates. Best wishes. Wendi

Don't want to quit ABA

> We started a home aba program with my son 7 years, very low functioning

> autism and other issues. He goes to school full day and gets 2 hours per

day

> seven days a week of aba It has been going pretty well, only been

threeweeks.

> The consultant comes once a week for 2 hours. We have been paying for it

> ourselves in the hopes that the town would pick up the tab now and we are

> only asking for the consultants services not the three wokers. The town

has

> said no that they are no responsible for after school program and the

school

> he goes to provides a home trainer 2 hours every other week.

> So my question is that since we can't afford to pay this consultant

anymore,

> and I don't want to stop this aba. Is there any support services out

there

> that help parents implement their own aba. I think I could do it myself

but

> there are a lot of gray areas that only a trained person would know how to

> deal with. I do have the big manual but again doing it on my own I feel I

> would hit too many road blocks. thanks for listening, Cathy

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Cathy,

Here are a few things that helped us with our ABA start-up and funding.

1) Go to www.feat.org (Families for Early Autism Treatment) and look up

your local group. Go to the meetings if possible or connect with them via

email and you will, hopefully, meet/find some other families that can help

with info/advice regarding what is working for them in your area (school

experience..maybe). I attended several presentations our local (it's

actually about an hour away) FEAT group had and that is where we found our

consultant.

2) Can you contact a local MHMR office and see if you can get any kind of

funding for respite or ABA training/consultants? I went to the local MHMR

office and we are receiving respite money (which I use to pay for the two

college students that help us with our ABA program), and they are partially

funding our fees for our consultant. I know every state is different, but

maybe this is an option for you. I did have to submit a proposal to them on

why the ABA approach was what would work best for my son....seems they would

pay (partially) for a program called NACD (National Academy for Child

Development). So I presented our case as, " if you will pay for NACD would

you instead for the ABA program that we want to use? " . Which they agreed

to. There are restrictions and guidelines we have met and follow, but so

far so good.

3) Is there a college near you? I called the head of the Psyche Dept. at a

local university and she posted our name and needs to her students and we

ended up with two great college students that have worked out very well. We

do pay them (respite funding), but sometimes they can work out something

with the Professor for credit without you having to pay them.

Best of luck to you and I hope some of this is helpful.

Elsie (in TX)

Don't want to quit ABA

> We started a home aba program with my son 7 years, very low functioning

> autism and other issues. He goes to school full day and gets 2 hours per

day

> seven days a week of aba It has been going pretty well, only been

threeweeks.

> The consultant comes once a week for 2 hours. We have been paying for it

> ourselves in the hopes that the town would pick up the tab now and we are

> only asking for the consultants services not the three wokers. The town

has

> said no that they are no responsible for after school program and the

school

> he goes to provides a home trainer 2 hours every other week.

> So my question is that since we can't afford to pay this consultant

anymore,

> and I don't want to stop this aba. Is there any support services out

there

> that help parents implement their own aba. I think I could do it myself

but

> there are a lot of gray areas that only a trained person would know how to

> deal with. I do have the big manual but again doing it on my own I feel I

> would hit too many road blocks. thanks for listening, Cathy