Re: Find ABA therapist

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone, I work with an 11 year old boy who is very aggressive towards others and also has self injury behaviors. He needs pressure on his head at all times or he begins to hit himself in the head, around his ears or temporal area to the point that he gets black eyes or makes himself bleed. His parents are becoming very frustrated, as they have tried several medications and nothing seems to help these behaviors. They are unable to take him out in public for fear he will be aggressive towards others in public. He is recently on abilify but he is rapidly losing weight as he will not eat on this med even though he tries but when he eats it he throws it or becomes aggressive as if it does not taste good to him. He was on risperdol last but he would not stop eating on this med and continued to be aggressive. Does anyone have any suggestions for behaviors like this or meds that have helped aggressive

children? The family is very frustrated and will take any suggestions. Also, has anyone ever heard of the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore? It is a place where they do intense behavior therapy with autistic children or mentally retarded children who are extremely aggressive. I believe it may be affiliated with Hopkins University. It seems to sound like a great place for the boy I work with but no one has rerturned their phone call. If anyone knows of this place I would love to hear about it. Thanks, Kim abadirectory wrote: Hello everyone,You can find an ABA therapist by searching www.abadirectory.com.You can search for free by city, state, zip code, or area of expertise.We have providers in most states and several countries world-wide.This site is designed to serve as a resource for families and we hopeyou find it useful.Thank you.ABA Directory

Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.

[Guest guest]

I worked with a student (he was 19) that needed pressue on his head

at all times. His parents had to buy him a special seizure-type

helmet with a front shield to help him. I remember that he would

have black eyes and was always swollen when he didn't wear it. He

hit himself in the face with the top of his wrist and they used a

sweat band on his wrist, like the tennis players used, to cushion the

blows. He had already done permanent damage to one eye and they were

making a great effort to preserve the other eye. He also liked to

kick himself (and anyone around him) and they had to put shields on

his shins, like the hockey players wore. When I would work with him

and he got mad he could used that helmet and hit me right on the

collar bone. The parents finally sent him to that specialized school

in Huntsville, TX, that I mentioned earlier that also went

to. It's Bayes Achievement Center.

From when I last heard, they successfully were able to get him to

work without his helmet and him not hurting himself anymore. I have

special feelings for that student.

Kids like him remind me of my favorite saying: Every Good Has a

Better, and Every Bad Has a Worse. Whenever I get down about

, I manage to think of someone else in a much more difficult

situation than me.

[Guest guest]

Is the child in school? My thought was for the

parents to request an Functional Behavioral

Assessment. This is how my son's behaviors have been

addressed. The behaviorist could be your district's,

if they have one. Our district didn't have one until

recently so they had to hire one to do the " FBA " . If

he is in school then I would think that he is

exhibiting at least some of these behaviors in school.

Therefore the school IS RESPONSIBLE for addressing

the behavior and MUST, with an evaluation by a PhD,

Board Certified Behavior Analyst. (Any lesser degree-d

individual is a waste of time and the boys behaviors

need to be addressed NOW (I learned this the hard

way). Beware if the school offers a " behavioral

consultation " which is not at all appropriate and

essentially, is ridiculously ineffectual at this

point. It would be putting the cart before the horse

(and saving the school from having to do what they

must do for the child); A behavioral consultation is

done later, once effective interventions are in place

and positive results are being documented and the

program may just need a little tweaking). Again, I

learned this the hard way. Then, as the FBA will make

recommendations which may include ABA therapy but

probably other methods/therapy too. If you need a

name, please let me know a name of City; I will ask a

someone at a local association if she can get a name

or more than one name of a behaviorist in your

area/State.

________________________________________________________________________________\

____

Be a better friend, newshound, and

know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.

http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ