Here's what my son's schedule looked like:
Monday: ECSE 8:30-11:00 (arrive home at 11:20), NT Preschool 12:30-3:00
Tuesday: ECSE 8:30-11:00 (arrive home at 11:20), ST 1:00-2:00
Wednesday: In-home ABA 9:30-11:30, NT Preschool 12:30-3:00
Thursday: ECSE 8:30-11:00 (arrive home at 11:20), ABA (usually a facilitated playdate) 12:30-2:30
Friday ECSE 8:30-11:30 (arrive home at 11:20), NT Preschool 12:30-3:00
We tacked on swim lessons starting in April on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30-4:00.
I was able to have his twin sister participate in the ABA playdates, and she and I spent a lot of 1:1 time in the mornings while he was at his ECSE program.
So yes, a very busy year indeed. In fact, I'm currently having a hard time filling up all the afternoon hours since both kids are now home from Kindergarten at 11:00. I'm so used to not having ANY free time for them. My plan is to start lining up lots of playdates!
Wow, you have 3 children and that schedule! I did it with 2 children and that was tough. What I found difficult about such an intense schedule was not just the impact on DS, but on his little brother who inevitably had to be in waiting rooms some of the time, and also the impact on me. It was just so hard to always feel in a rush between preschools, cramming in lunch, etc. DH would say that if I were a better organized person it would not be so hard, but with a child with ASD you can just get these moments of rigidity right when you're trying to get out the door and it's just hard! That schedule was really hard on me, but I stuck to it for a year because I thought it was best for him. In truth, some of the therapies were more useful than others and I was proud of myself for actually quitting some and going with my gut instinct on the ones that were not making much of a difference. It is so hard to quit therapies when they seem to be the only hope out there--but I don't look at it so black and white now. I know that DS benefits from quality time at home and having a mother who has the time to interact with him. With that schedule, it was tough. Sure other people were interacting with him, but I still think mom counts! Only advice I can give is to trust your gut and if you start to feel like you need to give up something: do it and don't feel guilty. Just my two cents...MJ - do you need both of the preschool placements? Does the public placement not have typical peer models? It does seem like a lot, but then again, many kids Anthoney's age are in full time school, so I don't think the volume of hours are unusual, but the number of transitions and transportation might be a bit much. I think the advise just to stay the course for a bit and see how he adjusts is the best course of action, fwiw.
Thanks shenom. I just read your post over in the education forum and that is similiar to Anthony's schedule.
Fred - the public placement is not that great but the speech services are fabulous. The schedule actually is recommended by the pyschologist overseeing his ABA program and his developmental ped.
Also, his ABA is alot of fun. We do alot of supervised playdates as part of ABA so it's not all table work. Since his ABA is during alot of other kids dinner times, his therapist came up with a great idea of making pizzas during the session. The kids LOVE it and then he gets to work on social skills while eating with his peer.
It's just that I somehow feel like I'm talking myself into it.....
Well, time will tell.
mamajot - Your son's schedule is VERY similar to my sons last year. The only difference is that his 4 hours of ABA were generally on the days he didn't go to both schools. Essentially, he had something going on every day from 8:30 to approximately 3:00. He handled it really well and I truly believe it's the sole reason he is now in mainstream Kindergarten (1/2 day) without an aide this year. I was able to drop almost all his therapies (he will still get 30 minutes of ST 2 times per week from the school) starting this month. Otherwise, now his afternoons are spent having fun. I've signed him up for soccer, and plan to put both kids in either swim lessons or karate soon.
I posted a message about my son's success so far in Kindergarten last night under the Education topic titled, "So far so good". Although, a child's schedule is really dependent on what he/she can handle (and you'll know how much this easy pretty quickly), I do feel that early intervention is key. At least it was for my son.
I am TOTALLY in the same place - we donte even have that many Hours of thereapy - just a total of 13 hours on the work week and even that seems tooooo much for him some days
I really admire those parents who were able to manage 20 -30 hours of therapy without thier kids having a breakdown !
I started second guessing Anthony's very busy schedule. He is now attending two preschools.
He attends a typical pre-school Mon - Wed - Fri mornings.
Tuesday and Thursday is private speech (1/2 hour sessions).
Monday through Thursday is afternoon pre-school at the public school.
So Mondays and Wednesdays he goes to both schools with a break in between to come home and have lunch.
He's also getting 4 hours ABA per week. He normally gets 10 but one of this therapists just had surgery so he's down to 4 for now. I think this is a great thing right now so he has time to adjust. His ABA is normall Monday through Friday for 2 hrs in the afternoon.
So, yesterday, was the first day he went to pre-school in the morning, came home had lunch and then off to pre-school #2. He was home by 2:30 with an hour and 1/2 break and then ABA from 4:00 - 6:00. After therapy, I had his dinner ready. He melted down (I don't want steak - I WANT NOODLES). Yikes. He calmed down fairly quick and did eat his dinner.
I think we are going to have to talk about dinner the night before so he knows what to expect on the days he does both schools and ABA. That's a pretty long day for an almost 5 year old.
God, please tell me all this is going to help my kid!!!
When my son was that age, school from 8:30 to 12:30 was enough for him, but each child is different.
If your son is still overwhelmed after a couple weeks, you may want to adjust the schedule.
I struggle with the same issue for my son. It's hard for me to scale back on hours becaue he is making so much progress and seems to be tolerating it. Is there anyway you can get some of your ABA hours in on the weekends instead of during the week or more on Friday when he doesn't have 2 schools to go to? That helps us out a lot.
I think too, try it for a little while longer...if it seems to keep causing problems or gets worse, then it might be time to cut back. Good luck, I hope he adjusts to everything!!
My boys have a busy schedule too, but I have replaced some of school hours with ABA, OT and Speech, so every day of the week they are all done by 3:30. the evenings are their down time, and they are still tired. Remember that while he is preschool you are in charge, and if you want to cut certain school hours for ABA or other therapies you can do that. When they are school age that will change, but for preschool you can do that. I'd give it a couple of weeks too, and then if he is just getting to tired then think about rearanging it.My son went to Head Start on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings. This was his mainstream placement for interaction with typical peers. He got on the bus at 7:45 and usually got home on the bus around 12:40 or so. School was in session from 8:30 until 12:00. He enjoyed the long bus ride home.
On Mondays and Wednesdays, he went to ECSE. So, on Wednesdays, the Head Start bus would take him right to ECSE. School was in session from 1:00 until 3:35. On Monday afternoons, the SE bus would pick him up at around 12:30 and he would arrive home at around 4:00. Wednesdays were REALLY long with being gone from 7:45 until 4:00.
Tuesday afternoons were PT from 2:30 until 3:30. Thursday afternoons were OT from 3:00 until 4:00. Friday afternoons he attended a pre-school tumbling camp from 1:00 until 4:00 run by a fantastic woman who had tons of experience with kids with autism. This was an integrated class as well. Oh! I forgot swim lessons on Mondays from 4:30 until 5:00. Thank goodness he got lunch at Head Start so I didn't have to worry about him getting fed!
Anyway, this year he has all-day kindergarten. The days are long, but I think he is doing better than he would have because he had such a hectic schedule last year. And like another poster said - the amount of intervention he got REALLY, REALLY helped. BTW, we completely took the summer off of everything - with the exception of swim lessons in our new town. This helped him have downtime and get adjusted to the new town.
I think every child is different. We tried to use a visual schedule (I wasn't terribly good about keeping it up) but more importantly - I talked with him every night at bedtime about what would happen the next day. He had his schedule memorized better than I did at times! We did quit OT towards the end of the school year because the therapist's schedule was crazy and ds was really resisting going. In addition, his OT at school said he had had marked improvement. I don't see it as much as she did, but he definitely is doing better.
Everyone was worried that this schedule would totally stress him out. I think he did very well and we always had breaks in between things - except on Wednesdays. But, on Wednesdays the very awesome Head Start bus driver would drop him off last and would drive around with him for a while until it was time to drop him off (12:50). He really liked the driver and the bus rider and this was a great time for him to just veg out as well.
However, this schedule really stressed ME out. But, I knew it was our last chance to get everything in - so I sucked it up and did it. I'm very glad I did! But as was said before - every child is different...
So here's a recap of his weekly schedule:
Monday - 12:30 get on bus, 1:00-3:30 in ECSE, arrive home at 3:58 or so. 4:30-5:00 swim lessons.
Tuesday - 7:45 get on bus, 8:30-12:00 Head Start, 12:40 arrive home. 2:30-3:30 PT.
Wednesday - 7:45 get on bus, 8:30-12:00 Head Start, then get on bus, 12:50 arrive at ECSE. 1:00-3:30 ECSE, arrive home at 3:58 or so.
Thursday - 7:45 get on bus, 8:30-12:00 Head Start, arrive home around 12:40. 3:00-4:00 OT.
Friday - 7:45 get on bus, 8:30-12:00 Head Start. I picked him up on Fridays so as to give him more time for a break, then drove him to tumbling/preschool camp from 1:00 until 4:00.
Pretty busy week!