I'm glad you posted this Tricialynne. It's a good idea. If you live near a university, I would contact them to see if they had students looking for experience working with autistic kids.I think it is wonderful that your daughter is doing this. We have an agency
which deals with staff/training. The training is very intense and followed
very closely by the agencies founders who have PHD's and BCBA with over 15
yrs of experience. We have been doing ABA for over 3 1/2 yrs now and I
have learned a lot. In order for ABA to work, you need a good program
coordinator who can write specific detailed programs for yr childs needs.
This is an ongoing process which involves the full cooperation of therapists,
parents, programmer. If ABA is done correctly it works wonders. If it is not,
it is not as effective. With such a high demand for services, big wait lists
everywhere, it has become a big moneymaking business. That being said, I
am glad that you and your daughter are learning as much as possible. It will
help you determine how effective your program will be for your child.
I think my newbie-ness is showing.
I posted this and then read the thread "Was what my ABA coordinator did wrong?"
I had never heard of a college student doing this sort of thing for free and was anxious to share.
We are fortunate that the city we live in has a program set up by a mom of an autistic daughter. We are going to get in-home therapy and pay 10 - 20 % of the cost. They received a grant to help families with the cost. We are meeting with the coordinator tomorrow and will start therapy asap with a person who has been doing it for years I guess. I'm excited.
I just had to share this because I can't believe how resourceful this mom was.
A tiny bit of background.
My oldest daughter is 25 and a psycology major at the university here. Next year she will be a senior and has been looking for volunteer opportunities that would give her one on one with clients experience to help boost her graduate application. Every single one has fallen through for one reason or another. Many times the agencies just don't call her back (probably because they have tons of student volunteers.)
Anyway, this last week she found an ad for a practicum experience working one on one with a young boy with autism and she would be supervised directly by a practicing psycologist who will train her. I asked how many hours she is likely to do this and they are talking about 6-10 hours a week.
My daughter is very excited about it for a few reasons: she will work one on one with a client, she will get to work with a child (she is trying to decide if she wants to specialize in children), she will get to work directly under a psycologist, and she will accumulate experience to help boost her grad application.
The mom is very excited because my daughter knows some about autism because of her brother (although not a ton) and is very tender and good with kids.
Isn't that a great idea though?! The only big drawback I can see is that with student volunteers you could run into a flake who stopped showing up or even if you get a great college student they may only want to do it for a few months, then you would have to start over. But still - a great way to help everyone all around. Helps the child, helps the student gain experience.
And this mom is lucky because my daughter has an amazing work ethic. She will take it very seriously and will be committed.
I am excited too because heck I may learn some good stuff for my son.
Thank you Kathyk and WImomof2. I felt a little silly for posting this after reading a little bit more.
I am still learning so much that when I find something that seems awesome I want to share it.
Being informed definately helps determining whether what the pros are doing is effective or not.
Tricia