A look at a program in another state:

[Guest guest]

I've met someone through another type of board, who worked with kids

with autism. Just look at the program this state has! Why cant we

have something similar?

" I do not mind at all all the questions.. I will do my best to

answer all of them.

I worked near Pittsburgh, Pa as a TSS (therapeutic staff support. A

lot of states might not have that, so I wasn't sure if you knew what

a TSS was). In case you don't, I used to work for a wraparound

program. Each child had a whole team of TSS and supervisors that

worked with them. The supervisor, called a BSC (behavior specialist

consultant) would write up a treatment plan for the kids based on

their particular needs and the TSS would come in and implement those

goals. (I'm sorry if you know all of this already. Some states don't

offer this service, which I think is sad.) Also depending on the

kids' needs, they would have a prescription of hours that the TSS

could work with them. It could be anywhere from 5-40 hours a week.

The more hours the kid had, the more TSS they would have. For

someone who had 40 hours, they would usually have 3-4 TSS so that

the same therapist wasn't there all the time. I was a TSS for 4

years. I had a range of ages from 2-16 boys and girls. Mostly boys

of course.

Most TSS around here (Pittsburgh area) go to the families houses

and work with the children there. We find that it creates for much

more success because they are in their natural environment with

their family around, their toys, comfort in general. The time that

we would work with them would depend on the number of hours that

they had. If they had 40 hours, they would probably have 8 sessions

a week. 8-12 then 1-5, monday through friday. Pretty much people

coming in and out every day. If they had less hours, maybe just 3-6

after school would work for them. I usually had 2 kids a day so

would travel from home to home.

I've always thought that it would be harder to be a parent

than it would a teacher or therapist. I would go in for 2-4 hours a

day with the kid and then leave. I had no work to take home with me,

did my job for those hours and would come back on my next scheduled

day and do it again. If I had a specific kid maybe 12 of their 40

hours, that's nothing compared to the parent who had them 24 hours a

day. One of our main goals as a therapist was not only to teach the

child, but to teach the parents as well. We very much made an effort

to have the parents watch and copy what we did so that it could be

universal throughout the kids life. If we did something with them

that was working well, but whenever we walked out the door, the

parents did it differently, then they were undoing everything we had

taught the kid. We had bi-weekly meetings in the homes where the

whole team came and we went over everything to make sure everyone

was on the same page. "

Hugs,

Scarlett

^