Re: finally, a diagnosis

[Guest guest]

Hi Eileen,

My grandson has just started at the Achievement Center. He

attended our local Public School in a Center Based Pre-School for

the past two years. They were very limited as to what they could

offer him. He attended 20 hr/week and received 40 min Speech and 10

min OT per MONTH. We've been doing biomedical for the past 18 months

and as of last Oct., he began to progress so quickly that his Ed

Team recommended a more intensive program. They offered to send him

to the Achievement Center or Monarch School. We choose the AC

because it's a little easier to get to from his house, but a mom on

this board, whose son went to the AC from day one, is opting for

Monarch this fall, just because she wanted a little different

approach. She had very good things to say about the AC. Noah

attended their summer program and in 5 weeks time, has made amazing

progress. His IEP calls for 120 min Seech and 30 min OT per WEEK.

They also do Floortime, T.E.A.C.H. & Pecs.

The therapy that he received at his local school, although it was

not nearly enough, did help him a great deal. I feel that they

worked as hard as they could and he did make progress. However, now

that he is healing from the inside out, he is ready to learn even

more.

We are looking forward to this school year and are anticipting

lots of good things.

I would suggest that you call and take a tour of all 3 programs.

Talk to parents of kids who go there if you can. Ask all kinds of

questions. Make sure they will follow any special instructions that

you have such as the gf/cf diet, etc. If you do not want certain

products or play materials such as baby wipes, playdough certain

lotions that may be used in therapy, etc., make sure that they will

respect that and use any replacements that you may send in.

My first inquiry to the Director of the Pre-School program was

what are their views on biomedical treatment? He told me that

several of the children in the class were seeing Dr. DeMio and were

gf/cf. I got a pretty good feeling when we went for the tour. The

rooms have observation mirrors, and much of the therapy is video

taped. They also provide a Home Educational Specialist (I think

that's her title). She comes to the child's home to observe and is

like a bridge between school and home. She usually consults

2x/month, but with my dds chaotic household and schedule, she

requested that she come only 1x/month. They were very respectful and

flexible.

It is a definite challenge that you are facing, but you will find

a lot of help and support. We all understand the emotions, the

fears, the tears and the joys that our kids bring to us. And

remember, you are not alone!

I know that whatever decision you make, it will be the right one!

-Trish

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> Hello all! We saw Dr. Wiznitzner on Friday (a month earlier than

expected) and he confirmed our suspicions about and said he was

definitely autistic. It was rather anti-climatic; after 5-10

minutes, he just said, " I agree with you " and we hadn't even used

the " a " word yet. In all, the appt. went a lot better than

expected, but maybe b/c we had heard so much about Dr. W. before

going. Anyway, he said (2 1/2 yrs.) needed to be in a special

program for at least 25 hours a week (that is, more than the speech

and OT we're doing now) He brought up Achievement Centers, the

Monarch School, and the CCF in particular as places that we should

look into. Does anyone have any thoughts on these programs?

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> Thanks. Eileen

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[Guest guest]

Eileen,

I send my son to an achievement center summer camp called Camp Cheerful.

They do a great job with children that have disabilities. I also have

been to their Lakewood office. They are expensive but may take

insurance. I used MRDD money for camp and it saved us 50% plus of the

cost. Look into them for help. Good luck!!!

Jackie

[Guest guest]

Eileen,

You may want to consider Middleburg Early Education Center as

well...Once your child turns 3 you can utilize the autism

scholarship, unfortunately until then you will be private paying,

unless your insurance covers intervention.

With our daughter we also went the aba route, before you hire anyone

for aba..make sure you have interviewed several consultants and

found who will be a good fit for your son. We interviewed CCF and I

wasn't really excited about how long it took to get a program off

the ground...we had already had tutors arranged and it would have

still taken at least 4 months before they were actually

tutoring...Granted I am rather impatient..but so should any parent

because the sooner you start intensive intervention, the better your

outcomes. You may want to do some research regarding ABA...there

are several " subdivisions " of it..including DTT (discrete trial, the

ccf way), RDI (relationship development) VB (verbal behavior)

etc...We chose the VB route and found it was much more friendly for

language acquisition and functional use of language. www.

Mariposaschool.org has an awesome site, somewhere on it has an

indepth manual you can download for free.

You should consider putting your child in PT, OT, and ST,...even

though he may have minor deficits in any of these areas at this

point, they will become more pronounced with time without

intervention.

As for preschool vs ABA..if you can do both. Besides the

individualized learning with ABA, our children from a young age need

to be taught to socialize in public and to follow classroom

routines. The younger you do it, the easier it is on them.

And don't be shy about how many hours of intervention you put your

son in...initially more is better. Our daughter started as a 40/wk

intervention between pt, ot speech, school and tutors. She is

currently at about 25 after 2 1/2 years of intervention.

The autism scholarship will also cover the cost of private tutors

via NorthCoast tutoring for a nominal fee.

We access pt ot speech through our private insurance. School,

consultant and tutors are paid through the scholarship.

Good Luck, and if you want some names email me..I can also forward

you some websites of interest.

Patty