I have heard 2 different moms-Linda Hamilton(wrote a book and on focus on the family interview) and Karen Siff Exxkorn, author of Autism Source Book, claim that their kids are "recovered" due to intense 40 hours a week of therapy.Mainly, ABA. I can not afford 40 hrs a week of therapy, nor do I have any volunteers like mrs. Hamilton,.It kills me to think that this theory could be true, though,that my ds could be "cured","recovered"....by something I cant afford to do!! What do you all think???This is such a great question! I am *exactly* here with such
frustration with my 4 yar old daughter's progress. My instincts tell me
that she can do better! I will probably have to pay for ABA therapy,
but if it is worth it, it is something that I think we should try. I
would appreciate other parents' thoughts.
Yvonne
It does not have to be any specific kind of therapy. The theory is 40 hours a week of one on one engagement with your child of any kind...by anybody. Whether it's ABA done by a therapist, floortime done by you (what I did for a long time), 5 hours of speech, two of OT, one of PT, 12 of ABA and ten of intense in your face engage with me play with me therapy done by a parent. The possibilities are endless but the point is to have your child engaging and interacting with other people as much as possible. Obviously there are some children who would benefit greatly from ABA for various reasons, and there are some who can get by without. But the key is to keep your child engaged!!
At a year old my Adam was suffering from moderate to severe autistic traits. I could not take him out in public... we had become hermits. I started skipping playdates, Kindermusik and storytime at the library. I couldn't go to Walmart or the grocery store. He had no receptive language skills at all, no expressive....NOTHING. After he was identified (and we were truly blessed that we found out so young) I started 40 hours a week of floortime on my own in addition to three hours speech a week. I couldn't afford to do anything else and at that point didn't really know what else to do anyway. The floortime method was recommended to me by his speech therapist. I remember that time as a nightmare. I used to spend twenty minutes at a time just trying to engage him in the beginning, or get him to look at me. Then I would go in the kitchen and wash a few dishes while I sobbed my heart out. His receptive language skills improved almost immediately, but it seemed nothing else was getting better. And then after six months it's like a lightbulb went off and he just leapt forward. No speech yet, but he finally got the concept of signing and really started communicating with us. At two we started him in a therapeutic preschool with his speech therapist 15 hours a week in the mornings (a ratio of six-seven students to two speech therapists, one early educator and one aide) and I continued a couple hours of floortime in the afternoon and started learning some RDI and how to incorporate it into our everyday life. He also started OT once a week for an hour. Within two weeks of starting OT he starting talking and we haven't looked back since.
Now at three he is in the same therapeutic preschool in the morning, and a summer day camp in the afternoon for kids on the spectrum for a total of thirty hours a week. He gets his speech and OT on top of that. He is transitioning into the school systems Pre-K this fall. We just received his evaluation results in the mail a couple days ago and I was absolutely tickled pink (except for his articulation....he is apraxic and possibly has phonological problems also). He tested at age level in fine motor, gross motor, self help, daily living, and SOCIAL.
His only delays on the testing really were a slight cognitive delay and then of course language and articulation. We know he's not delayed cognitively.... he just refused to cooperate with the lady who was testing for the developmental delay. When the test was over, he went back and showed her everything she wanted to see
So, the point of my story is that forty hours of intensive one on one of ANY kind of therapy will save the quality of your child's lifeI know of two boys who graduated from their therapies. One did have
After reading "Let me hear your voice" the mom recovered her two kids using ABA but she only did like 15 hours a week and added speech therapy with it. We did 30 hours of ABA because our dev. ped recommended engaging her at all times and like Julie stated it was very hard..I couldnt get her to look at me or stay with me for more than a few minutes without her bolting..the ABA therapist spent much of the first months just following her around and getting in her personal space:) It was exhausting to watch how much effort it took to get her to finally sit and do tasks...I was very fortunate my husband was on same page as me and it used half his salary to pay for this therapy..insurance and schools dont offer nothing. We had old cars paid for..old house and was able to sacrifice everything to get her this for her for 3 years. It has been over a year since she has mastered ABA and it will many more years for us to recover financially. But to see her be totally mainstreamed and talking and able to overcome all her issues is priceless.:) Some parents take out second morgages..loans or borrow from family to be able to get ABA~it may not be for every child but mine absolutely needed it. I feel for families that no only have no funds for this..they dont even have the available therapists in their area...The book "Behavioral Interventions for young children with autism" was a great book on how to do ABA and programs starting from very beginning to very advance..you will need to tweak it to fit your child:) I have many completed ABA data sheets on Sarah her last years before starting kindergarten if anyone is interested..I have emailed at least a dozen parents on board these sheets. It gives parents an idea of what programs ABA teaches and how many skills are taught every single day till mastered..and even mastered programs get revisited in order to keep the skills fresh. Some ABA programs are pages long..we kept ours at a attainable level on one page so that Sarah could master them without jumping all over the place teaching her bits and pieces of everything but not mastering anything.. Just pm me if you are interested:) dbcmom If your read "Let me hear your voice" it will not only will inspired you greatly but lets you know exactly what programs were taught first in the beginning and gives a good idea of what it is like...also at the end of her book it shows all the programs listed that her kids mastered. She also co-authored the book I mentioned in above post. We spent the first months just getting in her space & finding things that motivated her...then slowly taught her flashcards, objects, photos of everything in her world..us, food, toys, video ect... lots of praise and rewards for all attempts made by her so that she would be motivated to learn. We closed off all rooms to keep her with us and swinging her, tickling, rolling her..playing & singing songs and dancing with her...whatever it took to engage her! We did this 6 hours from 9-3 everyday..and 2 hours a week of speech. When she wasnt in therapy I took her to park, pet store, library, mall, grocery store or toy store to generalize the skills being taught all week. Label and model everything in sight whether they respond or not..they dont have to be looking at you to take it in:) We made poster of her day in schedule form with pics of her dressing, eating, playing , working ...velcroed the back so we could take them off each time she did them...this taught her morning, noon, evening and night and let her know what to expect during her day..she learned the concept of time too this way:) Made tantrums less when she had some structure..we no longer need to do this now but it was very important in the beginning..especially for going potty:) Dont get overwhelmed..one step at a time and dont worry if it is too much for them..Sarah wasnt 3 yet and she thrived on the routine of 6 hours therapy a day..weekends were hard for her when she didnt get it:) I am going to get the books Shelly suggested ASAP..anyone have any ideas on how to best start my own ABA program? I cant do private pat right now, and insurance isnt going to do it. He has a very small amount of ABA thry part C, so I know a LITTLE. Any suggestions that worked for you all??? Thanks!I am feeling like I am not doing enough. We had a grand thru a foundation for speech and Ot but we just found out they are out of money. He would have got 120 sessions, now he will get 12!you will be surprised about people willing to volunteer or work for very
Another option for doing therapy at home is the Star Program. www.starautismprogram.com dbc - the number of hours would be determined by the age and how affected your child is. ABA is a method of teaching and a structured way of influencing behavior. If it is difficult to teach your child due to behaviors that interfere with learning or because he lacks fundamental skills that inhibit learning (ie receptive language problems, etc), then ABA might be useful, but it's a gross overstatment for anyone to imply that 40 hours of ABA will 'cure/recover' an autistic child. It can happen, of course, but some children recieve a full dose of ABA and remain very impaired while other children seemingly 'grow out' of most of their impairments with little more than life experience, education, and common sense parenting. Don't beat yourself up over what you cannot afford. Consult a good autism expert and determine if intensive ABA is indicated for your child and what a reasonable number of hours might be. For example, 10 hours of 1:1 ABA might be plenty for a verbal kid with few behavioral problems. It depends on how much the child needs to learn, so, basically, the number of hours indicated will go up in proportion to the child's impairment and/or in reverse proportion to their age.
40hrs a week of ABA the other had 35hrs. The reason that they needed
those hours is that they needed to master a certain amount of ABA
programs to help in a variety of areas. In order to master them you need a
fair no. of hours because some programs need to be hit once, twice a
day and they had a certain amount of learning units. You had to have a
certain percentage right over time to show mastery. I am going to
compare it to going to college. You need to to take a specific no. of
classes right? some do it in 3 1/2 ys others at 4 and some 5+. If you
only take one class at a time, it is going to take longer for you to
graduate.
Every child is different remember. There are other things that get in the
way of mastery of programs. Attention and anti-learning behaviors are
two that my son exhibits from time to time.
I have 35hrs a week now and I am pushing for 40 hrs if I can. I had to
fight long and hard to get those hours.
That being said it all goes down to what states will pay, what you can
afford and what insurance will cover if any. ONe other thing that I know. It
does make a differnce if you engage your child and learn the lingo and
some programs for your child. I can not say enough about modeling
language over and over.
Remember there are over '1000 CURES' for AUtism - and while most of them will nto work, it is true that the MORE therapy the better - however it is RARE to be able to find this amount of help, and most districts will not give it for the ages of 3-5 when it is vital - so - NO GUILTING YOURSELF! Just work with your angel the best you can, and love your child - LOVE is the best!I would agree with Julie, it does not have to be any specific therapy done by someone who is trained at...what I think is that engagment with your child as much as possible is a key. Of course you have to be informed how and educate yourself about, there are a lot of books about it and plus, mums and dads have more motivation, love and sensitivity for their kid than anyone else...you are the best therapist for your child...
is different. If your child is not engaged at all, I would heed shelley's
advice and give a maximum amount of time on therapies designed to
encourage engagement and mastering of basic skills.
Some kids only need a few hours a week, on the other hand.
Don't despair, your child will improve. If you want to implement an ABA
program, a good therapist can train you (or a local college student) to do
supplementary hours of therapy. The therapist will act as the supervisor
and heads the program, while you save money by doing the work yourself
or paying a college student a MUCH more affordable hourly rate.
Good Luck!
little amount of money (8-15/hour) just to get the experience to do ABA.
you need someone to superivse the program and write programs or you
can try to do that yourself. post a flyer in the local colleges and
universities and you will get phone calls! school is starting soon so you
will get people who are fresh off of summer break wanting to learn.
a good book to start doing programs yourself...
Behavioral Intervention for Young Children With Autism: A Manual for
Parents and Professionals by Catherine Maurice, Gina Green, and Stephen
C. Luce
good luck
L
I'm using it with my son. Actually, just getting started, but it's really good.
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