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| My ds was not diagnosed until he was seven. He is getting some stuff
through special ed but I can not seem to find 'that right kind of therapy that will make all the difference'. What I find is just outragously expensive. I am educating myself about the things I can teach him myself. But other than that I feel reality setting in in what is actually out there. Is there anyone else out there with a schoolage kid whose kid is only getting services through school and nothing else. You feel like that could be enough? Hi Micki! Andrew is 5 and has been getting public school special ed services since he was 2 1/2. As of Dec 2006, he has been in the regional public school autism program. We cannot afford ABA. I supplement his education whenever I can. I paid our EI therapist on the side as needed for 2 years for extra therapy. Andrew goes to autism day camp a few weeks per year. We are participating in SurfersHealing day for the second summer in a row here in VA Beach... www.surfershealing.com I am applying for the "Equikids" Program here which involves horseback riding for special needs children. There's a two year wait list now. We have taken therapeutic swimming at the local rec center. Any school IEP program for autism should include parent education programs. I attend when I can. I've been learning about/working on basic PECS. The school is working with me on a potty training plan...It's been almost a year now. Do whatever you can do, the best you can...That's all any of us can do. There is no "magic bullet"...Talk to other parents, go to support group meetings, and keep on keeping on! Blessings! My son only gets school services by teachers with zero experience with autism, and outside therapy here in Norway is pretty much unheard of. He's making good progress, but I feel that I have to make an extra effort to ensure that he gets the right stuff at school and at home.
Tuhina got speech and OT (only for fine motor) for a year at age 2 ... then the SD would NOT give us itinerant therapy at her preschool, so she had a SpEd teacher one hour per week until Kindergarten. She also had six additional month of speech for which I paid out of pocket. She had an IEP for ARTIC, only, through Kingergarten. She was diagnosed in March of her Kg year as having educational autism. So ... she now will have some therapy at the school, but it is all education oriented. OT for keyboarding and other fine motor, social skills, and special ed. Oh ... and I learned Wilbarger brushing this June. She is doing great, her language and functioning have improved without specific therapy. I am still observing and digesting on her symptomology.
Mason is now 6 and has only gotten school therapies...we had a few months of extra speech, OT, and PT...but our insurance would only cover such a minor amount we only did it for a short time. I am one of those parents that hasn't been completely satisfied with what the school is providing...every year we have to have a neuropsych evaluation and we don't get nearly what the dr. suggests for Mason. Every year she suggests PT and the school won't provide it...they say his problems aren't hindering is education so they can't provide it. We are now on a waiting list for ABA...I don't know if this is going to be the thing that Mason has been missing his whole life, but from what I have read on here, it has made a big difference in many childrens' lives. I see my son making great gains in some areas and other areas just seem to be getting worse and worse...and of course new things develop everyday. I know this is typical and I can't put all my eggs in one basket, so to speak, and expect that ABA is going to fix everything. I just feel in my heart, that he needs more and what I and the school are doing just isn't enough. Good luck with everything. Take care. Jason is technically school-age under IDEA, but he's only three. However, all he's getting so far is through the SD, but I'm looking at outside therapies through insurance and out of pocket wherever I can. Oh...he's getting 10 hours total of services (6 hours speech, 4 hours with pre-k teacher doing I don't know what, yet) per month. There is some talk of OT, but I haven't seen the draft IEP yet, and if that will add to the hours he's receiving, or if it'll be folded in with what he's currently going to get. My DD is high functioning and only receives services during the school day and we are fine with that. We do alot with her at home. We work on OT things, like tying shoes, buttons, zippers, using tools, etc. That has been very helpful. We do activities during the week that get her out of the house (scouts, library storytime, etc) and socializing, which has been VERY helpful. She is really getting better in social settings and learning what to do, etc. 5 nights a week we do homework, reading, and speech homework. Her speech therapist sends home bi-weekly homework for us to work on. Her Speech therapist sends home work sheets that explain everything to the parents, so we understand everything to do that week. When I have questions, I call her. Its been working out well. In home services are now avialable in our area. They were not available when we needed them. So DH and I did our own version and it worked out well, but we probably just got lucky. I never received anything, i went to a few evaluations for school, once in KG and again when i moved going into 3rd gradeI was in special ed from 1-4th grade, 5th was a transition year and 6th i was in a normal class with occasional outside help I had to do everything on my own as far as socialization and whatnot, never once had theripy. I read or heard Temple Grandin say that she got no outside therapy whatsoever, but her mom did hire a babysitter whose job it was to come over and play games with Temple and sibling now and then. If you are willing to forego perfectly folded laundry, a well kept house, a perfect and fit figure, then you have the wherewithall to do "therapy" yourself. You are the single most important person in your child's life right now, and I can't think of anyone more capable of making an impact. You can learn. You can get training. But most of what you need, you already have - love and motivation. Cole got speech, OT, PT, and special ed once per week each until he was 3. And seriously, that did NOTHING for him except train me in how to do speech, OT, PT, etc. He has done marvelously well because I stayed home and made his "recovery" my new career. Its not that I'm so wonderful - I'm just a parent who is motivated far more than any Mrs. Doubtfire could ever be! He now gets 3 hours speech outside of school services, but of course, on our dime. I thought things were going ok, but her therapy has gone down the drain.EL dropped her 2 hours of individual work she was having, to give it to a newly enrolled child. I had to stop taking her to the autism play group because they weren't using visuals and schedules and it is in the same room where her other group is where they do use these things. So she was just melting down from the changes in routine. So now her therapy consists of a 1.5 hour group session per week, and a 45 minute group session at a hospital per week for the next ten weeks. Not nothing, but very far from enough. Oh, and I attempted to get 5 subsidized speech sessions by filling out paperwork and going to doc's, but after all that they were only going to cover $45 per hour and I would still be $100 out of pocket... I still couldn't afford it!Donny wasn't diagnosed until age 5 (diagnosis at that time was severe classic autism). He never received any therapies really. He received the local version of EI services from shortly before age 4, which just means he attended a developmental preschool. Because he had no diagnosis, he didn't get any therapy at the preschool, and all the notes reflect that they were baffled by his tantrums and bizarre behaviour. Once he entered school he had a one-to-one aide because of his behaviour and lack of speech. A little less than a year after diagnosis (so just before he turned six), his name came to the top of the waitlist for services. He received a handful of speech and OT sessions, and his foster mom was encouraged to use visuals, develop routines, etc. At 6 1/2, he was placed with us. Because of the way social services works, what little services he was getting were disrupted, and he went back to the bottom of waitlists. So, he received an aide in school, and an annual SLP assessment with recommendations, but no actual therapy. We had PT, OT, and SLP assessments done on our own, and followed their recommendations. Donny received one hour per month of combined PT/ OT for two years, and that's all. We've never been able to afford ABA, and all the consultants we've enquired with have basically said he's too old for an intensive early intervention program. Despite a lack of formal therapy, with a safe, loving, and structured environment and a therapy-based approach in his daily life, Don's made tremendous progress. If it weren't for his severe language delay, he'd present like a child with PDD NOS, as his autism symptoms, aside from language, are very mild. That said, I truly believe that, if Donny had received diagnosis right away (he was flagged by his daycare by age 3 and recommended for assessments, and his older brother is on the spectrum although less severely affected), and received early intervention, I believe he'd be MUCH less affected. I don't think it's always necessary to bring in formal therapies. I DO think it's necessary to know the therapies, understand the approaches, and practice them day in and day out, especially when a child is young. JMO.I made it through grade school, high school, and college with NO therapy for my ASD and am still here. I have a job and a somewhat normal life, but don't recommend it. Some sort of therapy, be it biomedical or behavioral, is better than none at all. The younger you give it, the better...but it's never too late. Not everyone has the money or resources to get the latest treatments, but there's always something you can do, even if it's just documenting your child's symptoms and researching solutions online. Hey, joining this forum is a start! :) |
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