& ABA

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

had a very caring and wonderful ABA therapist that I had

known personally for 10 years prior to receiving ABA

therapy. The reason it did not work for Mel was due to her severe

global apraxia. When was told to sit down, write her name,

tie her shoe, count to ten, say her name, or given another

motor planning activity and failed to complete it the therapist

would count it as a behavior issue. Prior to receiving

this therapy she never had any behavior issues reported. Once this

program began , the ABA staff documented that was a huge

behavior challenge. When's

Mel's attorney challenged this document in a due process hearing he

was told by the ABA experts her behavior concerns were from not being

able to complete the motor planning task they wanted her to

complete. They felt she could complete them but chose not to.

During that hearing,

I had one of Mel's private therapist come and explain severe global

apraxia and we won that due process hearing plus every other hearing

we were called to. We also won the federal lawsuit as well for

. It took 4 years to bring our case to federal court due to

all the delays the

school district and IU kept filing. Mel had her day in court and at

the end of the day the Federal Judge actually apologized to Mel for

the horrible treatment she had received and hoped winning the

lawsuit would make her life easier. That day there were 10 attorneys

to our 1 attorney and

Mel's victory was huge! I still remember when the Judge asked our

family to approach him at his bench and he had to ask which one was

from our three daughters. He later apologized to us and said

that he really was expecting to look much differently given

all the

information he had received from the school district and the IU the

last 4 years. When he was apologizing Mel extended her hand out and

shook his hand and gave him a smile. Since Mel was unable to say

thank you verbally, she found a way to still show her expression to

the Judge.

I have a nephew who has autism and is currently in a ABA program.

His challenges are not motor planning so he is breezing thru their

program and making great progress. I believe in ABA but not for

those with severe global apraxia like Mel's. This treatment just

further frustrates individuals who have severe motor challenges. As

Mel has explained recently to one of her doctors thru her typing she

has a brain and a body and both are not connected to each other.

Mel's goal is to have the two become one. She is working hard each

day on her goals

and has decided it is time for her to have a say in her therapy

program due to Mel now being 24. With Mel's help a whole new

approach and therapy program has been developed. Mel has a very open

minded medical/therapy team and support this new therapy program.

The weather here is beautiful and Mel is trying to learn to motor

plan playing tennis. This is a huge undertaking for the whole family

as we all play except for Mel. We would always offer Mel the hand

over hand approach so she could play as well but until recently she

had refused. Now she has

accepted the hand over hand approach and will play with the rest of

us. What stopped Mel in the past was that she did not like to look

different. That is why it has taken so long for Mel to accept a

communication device. We had two prior evals to this last one where

Mel turned on the device typed

" I want to learn how to talk " and turned off the device and handed it

back to the therapist. This last eval Mel was ready to accept the

device and move on. is teaching me on a constant basis what

I want for her is not necessarily what she wants for herself. Mel

still has a long journey ahead

but I sure a lot will be learned!

Well off the the courts!

Robin