Oh I forgot to add that his first preschool was a little free and easy and it
placed moderate demands on him. We swtitched to a more academic
program with much more demands and he did meet that challange. There
were no downside to having a shadow. What it was hard to do is to convince
typical preschool to allow a shadow.
Sarah had our ABA therapist in a private kinderkids program when she was 4 & 5 years old..they took data on her and prompted her when needed for attending and transitioning, noted how much she talked to peers.....
I made it clear if the class was really engaging her and she was happy to let her be and just shadow her as needed.... but if it was mudane boring downtime to use that time to do the ABA on her outside of class. Not sure if you can have a say...I was paying out of pocket for our therapist so I had full control.
She did really well and we faded out the ABA therapist the next year just fine..by time kindergarten came she was very prepared for school and probably overly ready~she could already cut with scissors, glue, read, write..ect..most of the curriculum in kindergarten was no different than the kinderkids class she was in for 2 years. The kinderkids class was part time so on other days we did ABA in home and out in public at parks, mall, petstore ect.. Good luck!
Mason currently has a 1:1 ABA shadow at his typical pre-k school. His
shadow is part of his clinical team but does not do pull outs.
Once we as a team decided that this was the best possible placement for
him, we needed to add the supports for him to be successful. When
needed the shadows are there to redirect him when he is non compliant
or distracted; maintain clear and firm limits and managing behavior;
supporting Mason as he expresses his ideas; guiding him through
transitions; and facilitating social interaction through modeling and
coaching. They mainly step back and track data as we have many social
goals for him at the preschool. They step in very discretely as needed. We
are laying down important groundwork for next year (kindergarden)
Our home program and school program are very intertwined. What we
teach at home he needs to generalize within the school setting. He also
needs to generalize these skills within the community setting.
Can I ask if a typical preschool would ever work for your child?
Kathythanks Kathy. We are pretty torn about this. We had a consultant evaluate Ryans program and he feels that with some modifications, the SD program would be good for him. I do think that exposure to typical kids is critical and I think I will fight for placement in a typical preschool with a shadow next year when Ryan is 4. How old is your son and how old was he when he started with the shadow in typical preschool? Can I ask what the pros and cons are of this arrangement? Thanks so much.My son at 3ys was in a small ABA playgroup within our agency for about a
year. I never much cared for the SD's offer of preschool placement. We had
many of Mason's behaviors under control and we were working on his
language (his weakness). He was almost 4 1/2 when we started and that I
regret. He could have started much earlier. yes he was out of it during
circle time for a couple of months and he got into trouble sometime during
inside free play (too little structure) He had great success in the outside yard
(gross motor is his favorite) It took him a while to make friends. But we
worked on it over and over. We worked on show and tell over and over. And
guess what? He blossomed. I could have kicked myself. If you have the
oppurtunity, good supports, and your team thinks he's ready. I would go
for it.
Hi- we will have my son's IEP meeting next month and we are going to fight to have a 1:1 ABA shadow with him all day to collect data and work with Ryan at school. He is currently enrolled in a preschool disabled class, the school does not offer ABA. We will also continue his after school, home ABA program as well.
My question is how the 1:1 shadow would work logistically within a non-ABA curriculum? Im concerned that if hes pulled out during the day for 1:1 discrete trial and VB work, that he will lose time where he could be socially interacting with his peers as I assume we will not have any say as to WHEN the 1:1 time would take place (ie they could do it during circle time which is a critical component).
Any parents out there with an ABA shadow that could share your experiences on how to make this work or anone else have any ideas? Thanks in advance!