SpecEd Class, Head Start or Home ABA Prog | Autism PDD
Yes, he does have those behaviors you're talking about. Not sure about the last one, though. I haven't noticed that before.
Well, the Psychologist who diagnosed him first only recommended ST, OT, and Social Skills training. The Neurologist who diagnosed him second (at one of the best Children's Hospitals in the country) simply recommended the Special Ed class and Speech Therapy. That's it! I was expecting a lot more guidance. And for some reason I can't fathom, I forgot to ask for more guidance!
If no mental retardation, then a large part of the problem probably is not being able to take the other person's viewpoint ("theory of mind") and ABA can work on that. I have not seen the SLPs (locally) work as hard on that as the ABAs can. They just don't have the hours necessary, this seems to be something that has to be worked on every "teaching" moment across the day.You might look yourself a bit and see if he has the lack of theory of mind sort of behaviors like not answering to his name, leading you by hand instead of pointing, not looking at you while speaking, expecting you to know things that he does, even if it ought to be clear that you won't (such as expecting you to know what is in a picture even if he has not shown it to you). These are all part of my one son's PDD-NOS and the other's autism.
But another bottom line is if you trust the person who diagnosed PDD-NOS you should ask him/her. You'd get 1000% more trustworthy results. I have not see your child at all... I hate to say it, but "trust" probably includes knowing that person has no financial interest in the services to be provided.
special ed offers speech but it's usually not enough.
So we do afterschool private speech as well.
My youngest son has a severe language delay. He has been in a Birth to 3 program, received early intervention services, and had private speech sessions with a highly regarded speech-language pathologist. He made progress with all of this. However, the best thing we ever did for him was VB/ABA. For children with speech issues, VB/ABA is really the best therapy available. I know it's expensive, but go for it if you can.
Go for the home based ABA, you will net the best results. You can alwaysadd the preschool later in addition to it. As WIMomof2 has stated for
language issues this is the best therapy to be had. You will never regret it.
If money were no object, and if your classes are similar to here (a couple of states over) then I'd go for the ABA with parent training. ABA has helped my son a lot, and the parent training will allow you to make the ABA almost 24/7. You will also be able to use ABA ideas to reinforce the use of language to communicate.
I am assuming that there is no mental retardation, so that the problem is lack of a theory of mind leading to communications difficulties.
OTs will not work on communications. And my local SD has never offered SLPs for anywhere near the hours that ABA folks try to work.
Thank you all so much!
Dad2Luke&Allen,
Yes, you're right, he's not mentally retarded according to the school district.
I know it's expensive. The reason we haven't pursued ABA. However, I think it is a really important part of helping them. I pray you make the decision right for yoru family.
The last one (about knowing what the other person knows) is possibly something that you'd not notice at three.You might ask the first what "Social Skills training" means and similarly the second about "Special Ed class". I will assume that they recommend ABA, and you are trying to get the school district to may for this as the appropriate placement...
Since you are likely to ask for something a good deal more expensive than what they are planning, you might try to get a report with details such as hours per week for the ABA and parent training. I find it really hard to do ABA just from reading a book.
I have heard, but not yet tried, that things go better for the parent if the evaluator comes to the IEP. Our experience is that w/o the evaluator present the wording in the report gets selectively read to qualify for whatever the school district has open at the moment. That aside, it is also recommended to give the reports to the school ahead of time so that they get a chance to prepare.
[QUOTE=Sammy415]im a newby here and have a 7 year old. i am looking for a good program either in a school district or out or private. We live in port washington and my very high functioning child is in need of a good placement. My district is not so helpful. Does anyone know of great programs on LI - even queens is ok. Thanks for any help anyone can be.
[/QUOTE]I think that you probably need to start a new thread if you don't hear anything soon. There are some active parents from NY state here.
Can you all please give me advice on which I should choose for my son? He just turned 3 and has PDD-NOS. His main deficit is in Language which is around the 12 month level and is actually lower than it was a year ago. His behavioral issues are relatively mild. He has no repetitive behaviors, but does have a good bit of aggression. He also has tantrums, but these are not too excessive.
I haven't yet had his ARD with the school district, so I don't know what the Special Ed class will have to offer him. I believe the class size is about 6 with a teacher and 2 aides. They told me they will provide Speech & OT even if we choose Head Start or a home program. By the way, we are in Texas.
I have talked with the Special Ed coordinator of Head Start and was thrilled with what they would do for him. They would provide an aide for him plus one girl in a wheelchair who mainly needs assistance in going to the restroom. This aide will give him extra help and work with him on language. He'd also be able to have a flexible schedule tailored to his needs (that was a biggie to me--I hate the thought of sending my baby away). They would make a behavior plan for the aggression and tantrums, and help potty-train him.
The other option is a home ABA program. I would have therapists (people I know that my BCBA would train) doing 10-15 hours a week, then I would also do an additional 10 hours a week myself. The BCBA would oversee the program.
Financially, the home program will be hard for us to afford. We're in debt up to our eyeballs already and can't borrow anymore money. We have no significant savings. We do have a large tax refund coming which would fund the initial program setup and training.
I want to provide him with the most intensive work I can (especially in language/speech) while he's young.
We're also about to be starting Speech Therapy through an outside SLP with extensive Autism experience who uses ABA. That will be 2 or 3 50 minute sessions a week.
Please, any advice would help me so much! I had pretty much decided not to send him to school, but that was before I knew they would do so much for him. I had no idea the help offered would be so extensive. Plus, I think he may enjoy the other kids and the extra stimulation should be good for him. We don't get out too much, because he has 2 younger sisters.
[QUOTE=proudofmyself]Sometimes speech therapy is the answer. Some Special Education programs for the Autistic offer Speech Therapy right there. With the right therapy, they'll be on track, usually. Sometimes they'll improve over time. If you don't want the therapy...do whatevers recommended.[/QUOTE]Problem in my part of my state is the speech therapy is only 1 - 2 hours a week. ABA can be 10-20 hours a week. That is a big difference in teaching time. Also cost. IMHO, In an ideal world you'd get ABA for behaviors (theory of mind sort of questions and socialization) and speech to help with (pragmatic) language. But if you had to choose - and that seemed to be the question - I'd take the ABA to get the hours. But I'd go with what the evaluators recommend first.
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