I also fall under Ticare for insurance. I am in the process of signing up for services, what goes in your case rings true to what I have been briefed by the case manager I am assined to. THE BCBA will train the parent so you can conduct the training yourself.
jen,
I don't want to be rude, but I am going to tell you what I wish someone told me when my son was 3.
This is your one shot! Your son needs you right now, and you need to be in charge of his therapies and be on top of things!! Don't worry about confrontation. Practice what you want to say in a mirror if you have to, but you better not let something slide! I was a total people pleaser, and when you have a child on the spectrum, that doesn't always work. I encourage you to find your inner voice and let it out!
My point is, if your not happy with a service or a therapist, now is the time to change it. I wish you lots of luck.
WOW! That is so opposite of our history of ABA therapy..they did it all and rarely taught me anything except how to handle compliance and behavioral issues..all teaching was done by them. I watched but like you I felt I wasnt cut out to do myself...If I had too though I would because it changed my daughter from a very affected child with autism to one that is thriving and doing amazing. I know many parents have to do it themselves because of the extreme cost of it...Either find someone that can be trained in it and pay them to do therapy for you or do the best you can. Our state doesnt pay for BCBA, therapists ...supplies..nada:P so at least you are getting some help in that area..our BCBA cost /hr approx. 4 hours a month and therapists ranged from -30/hr...we spent a fortune for our daughter to get therapy. It was worth it and I was lucky we had very sincere and dedicated therapists that stayed with us for 3 years full time. I dont know why they are making you the therapists other than they just dont want to pay for it..I would find a way to get a one in place that can be trained by "this" one before she is gone. GOOD LUCK!In my understanding,the main job of an ABA therapist is "therapy", not training the parents, unless they have asked him/her for it.
In our case, during the therapy, which is partly done in a room and partly at a more ntural setting in the family room, we leave our son alone with the therapist.
Daddy
I do think she is good. I would just like for her to work with my son more instead of just telling me how to do it and thats it..
hmm not in our case at all - our ABA therapist works with R alone - infact DH who is a SAHD usually leaves the room as R is distracted by him I also leave the room. The only thing I participate in are the team meetings. Does she feel the 2 of you are working as a team? Maybe she's just making sure you understand what to do so you're both on the same page.Thanks concernedpaIt seems that your BCBA sees herself in the position of program consultant and the one who trains others to implement the program. There seems to be a communication gap. You need to nicely tell her you want her to be the one to implement the program with your son. If she cannot directly implement the program and sees herself only as a program developer and trainer then you need to find her someone to train to work with your son. In this area the same person does not fill both positions. You need both a consultant and usually 2 "therapists" for a full time home program. Goodluck.
Concernedpa.
Thanks everyone.. What is a nice way to tell her that I want her to just focus on my son? I am not a very direct, outspoken person so Im not sure how to say this...I am thinking that she plans on working with my son, because she did say at first that she would stay for 2 to 3 hours, depending on how zach does, and she was saying how she would work with him and then give him breaks from time to time.. I dont know if shes just trying to teach me everything first or what.. Also, today she brought me some toys for matching, and some other activities to use with my son.. And she gave me different notebooks that were lableled with different areas, like gross motor imitation, receptive language, and quite a few others. She also showed me how to fill out the sheets when I do the discrete trials with him. She said to go through all of those every day with him..but he wont even really pay attention to me.. So, this kind of leads me to think that maybe she just wants me to work with him on my own? I really dont think my son will benefit as much if she is not working with him at all. Another thing is that she was late to the appt today (last appt ran over), not sure if this is a normal thing for her or not.. And she said 2 to 3 hours like I said above, but last time she stayed about an hour and a half and then today she only stayed about 1 hour and 45 minutes and then she had to get to her next appt...So, I am not sure what is going on.. From another person I have talked to whose kids she sees, she highly recommended her, and I can tell that she knows what she is doing, but I really dont know if shes going to do much with my son directly. It is kind of disappointing really. Anyway, thanks everyone for advice... I appreciate it..
Hi all. Well I am just kind of frustrated right now. I just started having an ABA therapist come out for my son,which I was really excited about, but now I am just confused. I know that part of the ABA therapy is teaching the parents how to do it on their own, but is that the main thing the therapist does? The therapist has been out a few times now and she has just been teaching me how to do the ABA therapy, but she has not really been working with my son...The problem is just that I dont think I am cut out to do the ABA therapy.. I know it sounds bad, but I really dont think I have the patience and I dont think my son will benefit from me trying to do the therapy with him. I know that alot of people will hire a team to do the ABA therapy and then just have it overseen by the BCBA, but we cant afford that. The only way we are able to get the ABA therapist at all is because Tricare pays for it.. But they wont pay for anyone besides the BCBA so I cant just go find someone else to help me do the therapy.. Anyway, I am just frustrated. I feel like trying to do this on my own is pointless.. Not to mention I work from home as an MT, and I just dont really have the time. Anyway, I just am not sure if I should even have the therapist keep coming.. I just dont see how I can get anywhere with my son on my own.. Anyway, just wanted to vent a little. Thanks all for listening.
I have Echo too . My BCBA is great and she worked directly with dd for 3 months and then said..can your other therapist now come and implement my prgram (which she can; however the BCBA explained to me that she works at developping the program and only works directly with parent if the spouse is deployed and things are too hectic at the home but even then she is overstretched for time). Where I live there are 4 or 5 BCBA's working with ECHO and only 1 or 2 provide consistent direct therapy. In the past I had to hire my own BCBA and I couldn't afford the 0/hour for 25 hours a week, so I had to hire a therapist (at /hr) and supplement myself. The ABA preschool sounds great and if you can find a therapist to hire for afterschool to implement the BCBA that would be even better.
I agree with you shenom..My son responds a lot better to teachers and therapists and works with them really well. As for me, he doesnt really pay as much attention. But I guess that is how it usually goes. Anyway, I emailed the therapist and she said she would be working with my son and running the sessions,but right now she is only coming once per week for 2 to 3 hours at a time,which isnt very much, but she is really busy.. Next month she may be able to come more..I am hoping that if I can watch her working with my son that it will make it easier for me to see how I should be doing the therapy..
Anyway, next month my son should be in an autism preschool classroom where they will be teaching ABA therapy. I am so glad for this.. It is a new program that is being started. I think it will really benefit him. I am hoping that between MB12 shots, which he has just started, and the ABA therapy, that he will really make some progress in the next year.
Thanks everyone for your support!
I'm setting up the Tricare ECHO now and do have a number of a BCBA once it goes through. I actually went to a recent meeting at the family support center that this guy ran to inform people of ABA. I didn't get the impression from him that he trained the parent or other therapists. He did the therapy himself and worked with the parents too, mainly on behaviors. But he only had one more slot, so we'll see if I am too late. I have heard though that this is a common problem since tricare will only pay for the BCBA and not any other therapists. an hour sounds really reasonable to me too!One of the huge problems in the field is that there are not enough BCBAs to go around and most of them assume the position of consultants and forget about the applied aspect of ABA.
A good way to find less expensive ABA and usually egar therapist is to contact a certification program either online os at a university and ask about students needed to earn hours for certification. My daughter goes to a teaching clinic where the only one is a BCBA is the supervisior, she gets excellent theraphy at an hour and has made remarkable progress at 9 hours a week. nonverbal to many spontanous two word mands in one year.
Thanks for the info nene.. Just wondering, where were you able to find a therapist for an hour, that sounds reasonable to me! lol
Thanks Mimom and bonus. I appreciate the advice. I actually did just email the therapist and asked her if she was mainly going to be teaching me to do the sessions or if shed be working with my son..Also, I told her that I feel like maybe I could do better with the aba if I watched her doing it with my son.. So well see what she says...Thanks againmimom3 is right. although i am not a people pleaser, i hate confrontationI agree with concernedpa in that it appears your BCBA sees herself in the role of Program Administrator as opposed to therapist. In my area, this is not unusual. When I had an ABA program in place, my BCBA/Program Manager developed all the programs, and oversaw my son's progress, but I actually hired two therapists to do the bulk of the work. My BCBA did conduct one 2-hour session with my son per week just to stay on top of his progress, but this was not her primary role.
My sense is that your BCBA does not see herself as your son's primary therapist. And it's unfortunate your insurance won't pay for therapists since they are much less expensive than the hourly fee charged by a BCBA. Quite frankly, I would look into this a bit further with your insurance company.
At a minimum, you really need to sit down with her, indicate you believe there's been a bit of a misunderstanding on how his program was going to be run, then brainstorm on your next steps. It could very well be she simply doesn't have the time to be his full-time BCBA and therapists. Many BCBA's have very full case loads. While parents do need to be an integral part of an ABA program, I found that in my case my son responded 10 times better to the therapists than he would to me. To him, I'm "Mom", and there are a lot of dynamics that come into play with our relationship. He saw the therapists as his teacher, clearly understood their role, and was much more compliant and willing to work for them.