ABA Therapy

[Guest guest]

Dear Group,

I just attended 's Annual Review Meeting last Friday and was told by his

social worker that they planned to continue 's ABA therapy via a monthly

telephone conference ( between an ABA therapist from our school district and

's one-on-one aide)!! Initially, 's aide received a 5 day " crash

course " training in ABA therapy by one of the district's ABA therapists at the

beginning of the school year. The training was on site at 's school ( a

private school for children w/ Down Syndrome approx. 40 minutes from town).

is the third student that the school has ever had with the dual diagnosis,

but apparently the families of the other 2 students chose not to pursue ABA

therapy for whatever reasons. 's social worker claims that the 5 day

training was sufficient, if you can believe it!!

Fortunately, the principal and director of the school forewarned me that this

outcome would occur at the meeting, so it gave me some time to write up a

rationale why ABA therapy should continue for beforehand . I also made

copies of 3 medical reports from neurodevelopmental peds. who confirmed his

PDD-NOS diagnosis, highlighting the treatment section which of course is ABA

therapy. When the social worker went into her " spiel " basically saying how it

was going to be, I stopped her at the pass and presented my data. It didn't get

me anywhere- she kept repeating the same thing, that 's aide was

sufficiently trained and that the ABA goal book was self-explanatory, requiring

just some phone guidance. I told her that my husband and I were not in agreement

with the district's recommendation and we would schedule a face-to-face meeting

with her boss, the Director of Special Services. I'm still flabbergasted they

would have the audacity to even present this as an option.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions, literature, etc. that you could

suggest for us to take to the next meeting in order to prove our case. The one

good thing that did happen, however, was that the social worker commented to the

principal on her way out that she thought that she offended me and should

get what he needs and that it wasn't her decision to make- she is just the

" mouthpiece " for her boss.

Good- I'm glad that she thought so, because we have no intentions of backing

down.

Thanks in advance for your insights!

Best,

Mom to , 3 years

DS/PDD-NOS

PS- By the way, we were the requesting the same amount of ABA therapy per week

that he was receiving in early intervention since April , with the possibility

of increasing or decreasing the hours depending upon 's progress over time.