What a rotten experience! Taking advantage of parents who would be willing to sacrafice so much , pay anything and do anything for their ASD kids. It happens to so many of us. We just feel we HAVE TO do it if theres a chance of it helping or kids. We rarely question or thorougly investigate because we think if its advertised its worth doing, also because we're stressed and overwhelmed and LEARNING ourselves!
Im glad you found out now rather than later. I hope your doing it yourself at home is successful. Remember all kids respond differently he may not be excelling with ABA but might do much better with floortime for example so dont be afraid to investigate. Kids respond differently to different therapies, doesn't mean hes unable to learn.... just might mean he needs a different strategie.
SO great to hear hes already made such wonderful OT success,.... keep going with it!
I hope your time on the wait list goes by quicker than you expected
We have been paying for Owens ABA for 7 mnths now. The therapist he had gave her notice, and left the company 2 weeks ago. We have a new girl, that I am not thrilled with. I started to look into other companies to see what was available. We pay /hr now. Every where else is +. I looked into what they offer, because I have never been 100% thrilled with the people we use now. And they seem to offer so much more! kids go through a 10 day eval with abehav/dev shrink, and they have OTs and STs on staff over looking everything. All therapists are certified, and have at least 5 years experience.
the place I use now..told me they had the ABA training..not necessarily ECEs or anything. But when the girl he use to have left (she works now full time with the kids from the Govt waitlist.) she said, she was so excited to get Actual ABA training, and become certified..I was told she was..I paid 0 for a program to be developed for Owen..when I took a look at it closer the other day it has the name Cameron on it scratched out and Owens name above it. We new they weren't great, but figured better then nothing.
Now I think I can do it myself. I am really going to spend 2 hours a day up in his room and follow the program..I can't be anyworse then these people, and We can't afford the other companies..
We have now canceled his therapy having to give 30 days notice. I was feeling really unsure, wondering if we were doing the right thing. In 6 months in this ABA he has only learned to clap and sit on command. THATs it for 000! He has been in OT for 6 weeks now and can do puzzles, run, jum, shape sorters, eat with utenisil, draw, and everything, and that is free. I always thought he wasn't learning much because it was him..now I see he can learn, it is them!
His old therapist came to visit yesterday..She just LOVES owen, and owen loves her. She told me she was glad to hear I am leaving that company..she felt bad for the situation, but told me since her training, she know she shoul dhave been doing things differently with Owen. She has offered to come every other Saturday and help me stay focused, and structured, and make sure I am doing it right. She loves Owen to pieces and is really invested in him..she said she has now seen kids like him really succeed, and he is smart, and should be moving along faster, if she was trained properly
Hopefully in the next year Owen will be picked up by the government list, and I won't have to worry so much anymore!
Danielle how awful this is ,but you have a good point about doing it yourself!! If it were not for our good fortune having a school that does nothing but ABA an hour away from us I would be doing the same thing. There are alot of books that explain how to do ABA and what is involved in it. I am sure you are familiar with how it is done with Owen already being taught using this method. I am actually going to start college in the fall to get an Associates in Early Childhood Ed and I eventually want to become trained to do ABA. I know... like I don't get enough at home!!! I love to visit my sons school and watch how they do things. It is so interesting....and amazing at how much progress they have made with him. Well best of luck to you I hope this all works out for you and Owen. If you don't already know about the site different roads to learning it could be of some help I had them send me a catolog and there are alot of teaching tools that they use for ABA they even have the token economy boards. Take care
We had an identical experience, but we ended it after one month.