the more the better. we are too old for EI services and the school system
is not going to provide what we need so we went totally private. between
his in clinic ABA hours, speech, and home ABA hours we are up to 30
hours/week. in fact this fall when schools are back in session i am going
to look for a couple of students to fill in 6-10 more hours so we get as
close to 40 as possible. these kids constantly need to be engaged so i
think you should go for it.I too would ask for more hours than you actually think you need. It is all
about the programs in ABA. The amount of programs that you want to run
for your child will determine the amount of hours you need. In order to
master programs, specific programs need to be run at expample 2x 10trials
per session. Have his need drive the hours. What areas does he need to
work in? Make a list then ask your ABA therapist about the specific
programs that need to be run in those areas. I do not know if this will make
a better case for increased hours, but it makes sense to me.
My son is 5 and will be 6 in the fall. We have about 24 programs at any given
time and several on maintenance. He has been at it since 2ys 5mo.. I think
he will probably need this intensity for 1-2 more years.
My daughter will be 2 end of the month (July 31st!) and I recently had her hours increased.....she is NOT adjjusting!! It has been 3 weeks already... but I am going to hold out for another couple of weeks... Get the hrs and u can scale down if nneed be.
My son is a little bit older than Nathan (Ds is 10/23/04), but I don't think that is too much at all. My son has the same DX, but tests a little older in some areas, like Gross Motor, a little more advanced in feeding, etc, but right now we are getting 12.5 hours of floortime/ABA mix, 1 hour of OT, 1 hour ST, and 2 hours social group, and I have every intention of uping his floortime/ABA every month until we reach 30, or I see he has had enough for a while. I figure I need to take advantage of free EI as much as I can.
Nathan's annual IFSP is on Tuesday. He will be two at the end of July. His current diagnosis is pdd and sid. Here are his age levels at his assessment done last month.
Cognitive 12-14 months
Communication 6-9 months
social emotional 16 months
gross motor 12 months
fine motor 12 months
self help 9 months
sensory-extreme meltdowns that last over an hour daily
He receives now through Early Intervention 75 minutes of ABA five times a week, speech twice a week for 60 minutes, ot twice a week for 60 minutes, and is on a waiting list for physical therapy. Our cost share is 0.00
I have started taking him to a private outpatient facility for speech, ot, pt, and feeding. He has had the evaluation for speech and feeding but is on a waiting list for the others. They have recommended he come in twice a week for speech and once a week for feeding (he does not bite any foods).
After speaking with our ABA therapist and speech therapist they think we should increase his ABA/DI to twice a day for an hour to work on all of his goals.
So that would mean he would be getting 16 1/4 a week of ei services and then 3 hours of private. Is that overkill for him? The ABA therapist thinks he can handle it . I think he would benefit from having pt and ot outside of our home because of the equipment but who knows how long he will be on the waiting list. I love our ABA therapist but she is going on maternity leave in a few months and i would love to have a back up for when she is out. I dont like the ot early intervention has assigned to him. I do love his speech therapist as well. so it has nothing to do with his therapist because they all do a great job. it is going above and beyond what EI thinks he needs in hope that this extra can give him the boost he needs.
We are also doing the therapy in four days and leaving our fridays (and weekends) therapy free
What do you think? Thanks for any advice
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