hiring therapists??? | Autism PDD

We've been trying to do our son's therapy at home ourselves and well lets just say its not working. I can't put in as much time as he needs with a 3 month old and a house to take care of. We NEED to hire help!! I was thinking about hitting up some local college students but I don't know how to go about it. How much do you pay them and how do you train them??

Background... my son is 2.5 and was just diagnosed with PDD-NOS. They told us he'll most likely get an Asperger's diagnosis later but is too young for that right now. We are being trained in Floortime for him. He goes to speech therapy one hour a week and thats pretty much it.... our county isn't offering anything else. He'll start preschool in Jan when he turns 3. So its all up to us and we are spriraling downward!!

Should I expect to find someone with experience?? Or is this how students get their experience???

How many hours do you hire them for at a time?? We are so new to this I don't even know what to set up. Do you have them come for 1 hour? 2 hours? 4?? I just don't know what to do!!!

I need to preface this with the fact that I have made a lot of mistakes over the years and the way I did things may not be the best... When my daughter was first diagnosed, I ready Catherine Maurices book and decided ABA was for my girl. I didn't have enough confidence to run a home program without help..so I hired ( personal expense)a behavioral dept. at a university about 30 miles away to design a program for my daughter. So they designed the ABA program, taught me the right techniques and taught the people I hired. I found an experienced therapist through the local Autism Society Website and she also helped me train the other therapists. I learned the right way to reach my daughter and I don't regret the money I spent. With my girl..2 hours is her max. So even if I wanted to do 4 hours a day.. I had to break it up into afternoon and morning sessions. So we never got over 20 hours a week, but she still made remarkable progress. Good luck with the programs and I hope that you see amazing progress too!

Aloha, Renee

I post fliers in the therapy programs and education, psychology and social services departments. I would look for someone with experience working with kids. I would pay -12 depending on their experience. As far as trianing- I just had a few play dates with them- showing them, how I work with Neel and the kinds of things I would want them to do. Later on, you can make a goals of the week guidelines. You could also give them reading material- so if you are using floortime- have them read " the child with special needs" by greenspan. I always ask for references and call them.

For the flier use a cute picture and brief statement. Ours says:

ABA therapist needed.

Neel is a fun, loving and adorable 2 1/2 with Autism. He has made great progress over the past 9 months with an ABA program. We have an opening on our team and are looking for bright and enthusiastic students.

-great experience for future teachers, therapists and psychologists.
-Flexible hours. /hour
-One year commitment preferred

Good luck. It's not easy. I've had a couple students call. 2 sounded too young and inexperienced. 1 never showed up for the interview. 1 cancelled. 1 did show up today and seems pretty good- we will see how it goes with her.

Hi there!

My son is 2.5 also. Your son should be able to get Early Intervention, at minimum from the county, which should include an early interventionist and whatever therapies he needs. Does he have any sensory issues or fine motor delays? He should be getting OT. They should also supply speech therapy for him (for free). I have a 2.5 mo old son as well, so I know what you mean about not having enough time to devote to your ASD child!! I do what I can as well, but it's not enough.

As far as hiring college students, you should look into local universities that have early education, special education, or psychology departments and ask if you can hang up flyers advertising for help. In the flyer, you should tell the age of your child and just briefly what you need as far as assitance. Early ed and Sp Ed students should LOVE the opportunity to work with your son. I'm not sure about how to train them, except, I guess, to explain what you're doing with him and to have them follow suit. As far as payment, for students with no experience, I'd suggest maybe -/hr (again, the students should enjoy the opportunity of working with your child -- it'll help their resume!) and for one with experience with ASD kids, maybe a bit more than that (maybe up to ?). That's entirely up to you.

I can empathize with the quandary. We're looking to hire ABA tutors and I feel SO uncomfortable telling them what we want to pay. It's an awkward issue!
has anyone tried the helplearn aba therapy at home to teach their child. i went to untangle autism site and clicked on linda's links looks like start up program is 99.00 i cant afford to hire a therapist just wondering if anyone has tried and been sucesful sherry

He does qualify for early intervention but they aren't doing a darn thing!! We qualified back in June and have only met with our EI specialist ONCE and that was to fill out the IFSP!! Isn't that horrible!!!! They are paying for the 20% of his speech that our insurance doesn't pay for... but thats it!!

He has no fine motor delays at the moment but I see that as a problem in the future as he HATES any sort of crafy-type activity. I think he'll fall behind eventually. No major sensory issues either... he does have a high pain tolerance. He does like to hide under things too which I am assuming is a sensory thing but am not sure?? He doesn't have anything that disrupts daily living though... no oversenstivities or anything and he eats everythign in site and has no sleeping issues.

Gabu, nene, & Srsmom,

Thanks so much for your valuable input! We'll just be starting a program and it never occurred to me to think about discussing with the students a probation period, time off for tests, etc. Our consultant is trying to help us find people, but I'm finding that it's not easy. I called a bunch of people yesterday only to find that they were all hired by other families already! I'm almost starting to feel desperate, but you're right about saying that you want people who will be committed to following through who will 'click' with one's child and not settle for any warm body who walks thru the door.

Oh, boy. Son #2 just awoke. Time to put on my Mommy hat again!

Kellie

I have done different things to hire therapists, and pay them from (no experience)- (after they have been with me a while, or have experience). We have done different things to hire them. I have put ads in the local college newspapers, and I have put fliers up at the colleges, and didn't have really good success with either method. At the college that is closest to us, after putting up fliers one time, the college job center called me and told me they would be glad to help me find someone that filled my needs. So that was really great, since they did the screening of the students, I told them I wanted a speech, psychology, or education major. From that experience over 2 years ago, I have a girl who is still with us today. So I would check and see if your local colleges have a job center for students.

The other thing that has been really helpful is networking with other parents. This is the way to find people with experience. Call your local chapter of the Autism Society and ask them if they have a support group, or a message board on their website. Or just start calling all the parents of kids with autism you know, someone is sure to know someone who has done a home program in your area.

I've got to go get the kids ready for school, I will come back with my thoughts on training.

I don't necessarilyexpect experience with autistic kids- just experience working with children-babysitting, working at daycare etc.

2 hours at a time seems best. We also break it down to morning and afternoon sessions. However the student can do 3-4 sessions per week.

We have an ABA consultant that designs and runs the program- but before we got that started- I had hired an OT student to come play with DS several times per week. I just needed a break. She had experience with floortime through her clinicals at school. Since she was a graduate student with some experience I paid her /hour.

Oh yeah - one of the mistakes I've made is offered paid training. I was so desperate in the beginning. One student, I spent 0 training and then she quit! Now I tell them training is not paid but after 6 months of working with DS I will give them 0 bonus.

This is just my opinion. Most universities have a department that coordinates jobs for students. That would be helpful for you because they screen the students before offering them a position. I also strongly recommend that you contact the nearest ASA chapter, they can give you recommendations and 'real time' support. People there have already paved the path of finding therapy and if they are like the group nearest me, they will hold your hand as you go along.

Every state has an autism training center, google your state and call them, asking them for recommendations, information and support.

I looked into ABA and found the resources through the ASA and ATC, but alas, we simply could not afford to pay for the therapy.

I wish your family great luck and success!

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http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer?pagename=WhatI sAChapter

ASA has chapters in nearly every state reaching out to individuals with autism and their families with information, support, and encouragement.

What is a chapter?

An ASA chapter is the local arm of our organization. A chapter is the place where:

Information and services specific to a local area are provided through dedicated parent and professional volunteers;
Resources for parents of recently diagnosed children can be found;
Comfort and companionship is given to families managing the years of growth and change;
Local grassroots advocacy is organized for implementing change where change is necessary.

Chapters are places that the ASA mission of creating a world where persons within the autism spectrum are fully included, participating members of their communities is implemented. Chapters enhance community awareness, provide education for professionals and parents and, maintain supportive, informative networks comprised of parents, professionals and community leaders. Chapter activities include: support meetings, seminars, fundraisers, community awareness events, fun activities for families, grassroots advocacy, and informative newsletters, just to name a few.

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I just reread your post and realized you are doing floortime, so all my experience with training has been ABA. I will echo what srs mom said about training and then having people leave. I do pay during training, but I don't really get serious about it until I know the indivdual is good with my son, and I feel like they can handle doing therapy with him. Some people are just not cut out for it, and if they don't have experience they will not know until they start. I would tell them up front that there will be a probation period. Sometimes the therapist will be good at the therapy but just doesn't click with your child. Also, tell them if they feel it is not something they are really into, to let you know, and not to feel bad about leaving. You only want people who are really commited and interested.

Be prepared for them to be late, not come, just stop coming, etc. Also, you need to think about how you are going to handle it when you're son is sick. Or, a problem we have a lot is my son falls asleep, he doesn't sleep well at night much of the time, and then we have to cancel. My rule is that if I call them and cancel before they get here, then I don't pay them, but if they get here, I do pay them. But, I am very liberal in letting them cancel too. Since they are students, I tell them I know school comes first for them, so if they have a test or project, and need to cancel that's okay. I was not always like that, but after much frustration with therapists not showing up, I realized I needed to relax a bit.

Yeah, 4 years ago when my son was 2, and we had people coming all the time, I was stricter. But as the years have passed, I have become much more relaxed. Part of it, is that as my son got older, I lost some of that early intervention urgency. And part of it is that it becomes difficult to have people in your home every day for years, I just got tired and decided I had to let go of some of the stress.

You're right gabu-I probably need to RELAX

I'm already more laid back than I was a year ago! Really

I am an ABA Consultant... and my husband works for the state as an E.I. specialist. You really must make sure you are getting all the therapies that the state offers for free. It is nesasary to start as early as possible, and note that legally all counties must offer Early Intervention options to parents with children with any disorders who qualify .

Good Luck!

Robyn Ackerman

Robynackerman82@yahoo.com

Http://CBTservices.tripod.com

I actually handle things a little different than gabu. I tell them up front this is a strict commitment. DS has a complicated therapy schedule- for example Thursday mornings we have ST 8-9am, Kindermusik 9:30-10:10, ABA 10:30-12:30 then lunch and nap.

So if they're late- it throws everything off. Luckily, the ones I have are pretty responsible. Of course once in a while he misses a session, but they are good at covering for each other. I gave them each others cell phone number and ask them to try to provide coverage for missed sessions. There is also an OPEN block a week on Saturday afternoons for make-up if they miss a session for school or b/c they're sick.

I think I wanted to give them the impression that I take this very seriously but I'm not a dictator. I try to be understanding and reasonable.

It is hard. We are still looking a therapist right now-so I feel your pain.

This is some GREAT advice ladies!! Thank you thank you thank you!! I really feel like we are shooting in the dark here... what I REALLY need is someone to hold my hand and tell me what to do. I know that sounds terrible but this is all so complicated and I don't want to make any mistakes for my son.

I will definitely try contacting our ASA chapter and see if they can help pointing us in the right direction. I need to ask our social worker/floortime trainter for recomendations as well. This is too mcuh for any one person to do!!

I think one of our main difficulties is that we aren't doing ABA... seems like all the therapists and coordinators are trained in this. Its much harder to find people trained in floortime. But I really feel like floortime is what my child needs and want to give it a try. Hopeuflly we'll find someone out there to help!! Thanks ladies!!