When my DS was 1st dx'd I was able to interview several (9) service providors before picking one. We are still under early intervention for another 7 weeks so this is also free for me. We my final two selections were 1 floortime group and 1 ABA group. I ended up going with the floortime and have been increasing hours on a regular basis. Well now that company is saying they can't give me anymore hours (I am at 12). I am super irritated, but that is neither here nor there. I got permission from EI to contact the other group to start adding more hours. I just wondered if anyone had done both and how it all worked out? I am hoping to have 12 hours with each and then his current 6 with EI by the time we finish at his 3rd birthday.
This is what we do and I believe they are very compatible. My son is making tons and tons of progress with his combo. I could go on and on--but he is a different child now. They recently retested with the CARS and his scores dropped to being on the border of no autism. He was scored as being moderate-severe previously. I'm not saying we don't have a long way to go, but I'm thrilled with his progress and he is much more functional with his language and play.
We do a VB program and they incorporate Floortime into the sessions. VB tutoring is very fun for my son and very rarely are they at the table.
We do the PLAY Project and have a floortime consultant as well. My son is making major progress in language and play. I don't see how they could not work well together. They target different areas and some of the skills learned in VB are then generalized into is play or what we do in Floortime. I also don't believe that Floortime is restrained if you do it properly.
In my opinion floortime is something you can do at home with your child everyday. ABA at a school is better. My son has never needed any of these but floortime is something i have been doing since he is 2 and has helped him a lot.
I don't think they're incompatible. Like hockey, you practice shooting the puck and can still play in a hockey game.
To me, ABA is like running practice drills and the coach is trying to get the best performance out of the individual players and gain skill. Floortime/RDI can promote those skills to use them in a team envirnoment and puts them into real life practice.
I think both approaches would strengthen the child's abilities and not be counter to each other but complimentary.
We do VB/ABA, and they do incorporate Floortime into the program. In between the more structured table sessions where specific skills are being taught, they play with my son. The play is directed by him. Sometimes they play inside, and sometimes they go outside to play. They spend as much time playing with him as they do sitting at the table. My son also gets breaks.
BTW - My son thinks table time is fun time. VB/ABA is an errorless method of teaching. Basicly, if your child does not know the answer, it is given to them. If they still don't get it, the therapist moves along. The missed item then noted as not being mastered and returned to at a later date. The table sessions are short - maybe 15 minutes long. My son thinks they are playing a game. He also loves getting stamps or a small treat for his hard work.
We almost went with a Lovaas program, which is a more traditional ABA program. From what I saw and what I've heard from people in this program, there is a lot of time spent playing with the child.
VB/ABA is the best thing we have ever done for our son. We have seen more results from it than we have from any school program or private therapist. There are quite a few parents on this board using the VB/ABA method. I have yet to see someone post that they are disappointed with it.
ABA and floor time i think (my opinion only)are not good to go together
they are one extreme to another
ABA is very intensive in a discapliny way
and floortime is restrained
floortime can be done at home and adapted by yourself it is not hard at all i do some with my autie
http://www.polyxo.com/floortime/
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