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I'm new to the listserv and am looking forward to learning from others

who share our journey. We have a wonderful 8 1/2 year old daughter

with DS who was recently diagnosed as also having PDD. We are having

her MFE (multi-factorial evaluation) done a little early to determine

if additional goals (mostly behavioral) need to be added to her IEP.

Her Neuro-psychologists has recommended that we have an ABA consult to

determine if it will be of benefit. She also has recommended the

Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) program. We would like to

know if anyone has tried to begin an ABA program on an older child and

if so, how was it implemented. Our school district does not have any

ABA trained teachers/therapist on staff so we don't know if it will be

possible to get this added to her IEP. There are a few programs in our

community that offer the ABA-based curriculum that are not part of the

school systems but most are for younger children. We want to do what

is best for our daughter and are trying to weigh the risk/benefit of an

ABA-based program vs. keeping her in her current environment (multi-

handicapped special ed classroom) with some additional IEP goals to

address the behaviors that interfere with learning. The RDI program

also looks promising but is somewhat costly and time-consuming. We

look forward to your responses on any of these issues.