pm Optimistic...her son did well with this.
The ABLLS is a skill tracking tool used pretty much standard in VB/ABA programs. It measures skills cooperation, visual perf., receptive language, imitation, vocal imitation, requests, labeling, intraverbals, spont. vocalizations, syntax/grammar, play/leisure, social interaction, group instruction, classroom routines, generalized responding, reading, math, writing, spelling, dressing, eating, grooming, toileting, gross motor and fine motor. It's nice to see the boxes fill in and it guides my son's program.I borrowed the books for a while and it's pretty easy to follow and understand.
I'm glad to hear the floortime program is coming along. Have you watched he CD-Rom yet? It really does become second nature after a while.
Please could you tell me what this entails
I remember this term mentioned on several threads but could not remember what it means
We were considering supplementing some of R's ABA- he barely gets 7 hours per week right now -with VB/ABA and a BA ( from Wi Mom's link of the BCBA website link - thanks a million ) came and saw him yesterday and said our next step should be getting an evaluation done using the ABBL's which we will try and set up soon ( she said September ). This BA who seemed very smart sais starting out right is really important - of course the person who can do the ABBL's is not from our town and so can see him next month !I am keeping my fingers crossed that this BA will help us get supplement the ABA we are currently getting
Other things ( and you dont have to read this as I realize this post is getting so long )
We are still working on getting our Floortime program started- its a bit of an uphill road -
Another thing that was interesting the BA mentioned was that he may turn out to have Aspergers and when I had said dont ASPIES have precocious verbal skills - she said some dont - this was new news to me - anyone heard of ASPIES with late language skills ???
Anyway we are plodding on
My son just completed his first ABLLS a few weeks ago. It took about 7 hours total, split over 2 days. Two therapists administered it and it was a pretty pleasant experience. They brought their owns toys/materials and used my basement. A lot of the ABLLS deals with school type skills so it is a good baseline to track academic progress.Kajoli, you can get information on the ABLLS here. I use the ABLLS to plot the girl's skills and set their goals with our private tutor (who also does about seven hours/week and works with both girls at the same time, so this isn't a conventional program). The assessment is called 'probing', and through structured activities, play, pairing and observation, the consultant will test Rohan on the various skills in the ABLLS and plot the skills that are emerging, are mastered, etc, and when the assessment is complete, you'll have a graphical profile of Rohan's strenghts and weaknesses across many domains of language, social, self help, and recreational skills. From the assessment you will set goals to work on to shore up the areas of weakness.
As far as Aspies and language, the bar for Aspie-hood is very low. The kids cannot have a clinically significant language delay, and the threshold for that is single words by two and communicative phrases by three. Most kids who had only single words at two and communicative phrases at three would be considered language delayed. They also must have a normal IQ. Remember, normal is > 70, which again is a pretty low bar. By the criteria set forth by the DSM-IV, my girls could qualify for a dianosis of Asperger's syndrome. The overlap is striking, really, and kind of arbitrary.
The notion that Aspie's are always academically gifted but socially awkward is kind of an urban legend. There are kids like that, of course, but the whole perception of Asperger's syndrome, in my opinion, has been skewed by the popular passtime of post-mortem diagnosing every prolific genious who ever lived with the syndrome.
I think the large overlap between Asperger's syndrome and autistic disorder is probably a hangover from when Austistic disorder was only diagnosed in the most severe cases, but I could be wrong. I'd bet the next version of the DSM will do something to reduce the overlap between the two disorders.
[QUOTE=fred]Did she say how long the two sessions would be?[/QUOTE]
no she did not
Did she say how long the two sessions would be?Kajoli, I pay our tutor 20/hour and it took her about two weeks (or about 20 hours) of probing and pairing to come up with a baseline ABLLS, so, about 400 dollars. I would expect that a more formal evaluation from a BCBA consultant will run you a lot more - I'd get an estimate. I'd guess a couple grand if the consultant is doing the whole thing, much less if she's going to train you to do the assessments yourself or if she has some therapists working under her to do the actual evaluation. This is just guessing, though - someone else will know better.[QUOTE=fred]get an estimate. I'd guess a couple grand. [/QUOTE]
Hoochie Mama as Kramer would say - I better get an estimate
Thanks y'all that we really helpful
The assessment person did say it was going to take two trips - how much did it cost you - we are paying for it out of pocket - Flip we are just halfway through the CD - the thing is I keep wanting to have the whole family together when we see it and it just does not seem to happen ! I am going to try hard this weekend
ITA with what Fred said about Asperger's and language delay. My DS is 2.5yo and I am beginning to suspect that he may end up with an Asperger's diagnosis rather than PDD-NOS. He didn't have any words until ~16 months, and then it was just "Ma" and "Daddy". Single words came fast at ~22-23 months, and within weeks he was talking in 2-3 word phrases. At 14 months, his speech and communication scores were that of a 6 month old. HTHOur ABBLS was done by lead therapists at @20/hr and she just did a little at a time everyday...it took about 2 weeks like Fred stated. Some I did myself:) The aspergers thing confuses me too..Sarah had words but didnt use them so she was told she had aspergers by one doctor? I have read that as adults if you saw a HFA and a aspergers together it would be hard to tell apart:)
Best of luck surviving this hot yucky summer!!:P
Our BCBA did it as part of the intial assessment package. About 2 hours on two different days. This was part of our package that included assessment and program development and training of all involved. 00. They did a parent interview, parent and therapist training, ABLLS, met with his speech therapist, etc. this included the program book with initial programs. (We are constantly adding programs and pay a monthly fee for our consultant to oversee the program, which is a much lower rate.)
Glad to hear you are watching the CD-ROM. I have copies of the slides and refer to those a lot when trying to get ideas for playing, etc. I would do anything to get my husband to watch the lecture, probably will never happen.
You are doing great--keep up the great work for R. He has a great mommy.