Re: Abilities center vs Beaumont

[Guest guest]

;

I wish there were a magic bullet out there that would give instant results, but like fine wine, progress (even for high functioning kids like ours) seems to come with time, and a lot of steady, hard work on our part.

What therapies have you tried? What have been effective? (sometimes a good place to start is by figuring out where you've already been).

Our daughter was evaluated by Beaumont's CHD (dx: PDD-NOS). They recommended ABA (before they started the HOPE project). The wait list with their behavior therapist was too long, so we began our ABA program 10 months ago with another behavior therapist (recommended by Dr. Anan), and have great results. I'm not claiming our daughter has diagnosed out of the spectrum (we're starting re-evals this week), but the ABA has had a far greater impact than PPI, especially in combination with speech therapy (also at Beaumont).

Good luck.

lauren hirsch

[Guest guest]

My daughter will be 5y.o. in august.

lauren

[Guest guest]

Just curious...how old are both your children?

Robin M.

> ;

>

> I wish there were a magic bullet out there that would give instant

results,

> but like fine wine, progress (even for high functioning kids like

ours) seems

> to come with time, and a lot of steady, hard work on our part.

>

> What therapies have you tried? What have been effective?

(sometimes a good

> place to start is by figuring out where you've already been).

>

> Our daughter was evaluated by Beaumont's CHD (dx: PDD-NOS). They

recommended

> ABA (before they started the HOPE project). The wait list with

their

> behavior therapist was too long, so we began our ABA program 10

months ago

> with another behavior therapist (recommended by Dr. Anan), and have

great

> results. I'm not claiming our daughter has diagnosed out of the

spectrum

> (we're starting re-evals this week), but the ABA has had a far

greater impact

> than PPI, especially in combination with speech therapy (also at

Beaumont).

>

> Good luck.

>

> lauren hirsch

[Guest guest]

Marisa is 4years old. She is in a PPI type class, at the abilities

center we are doing speech and OT w/sensory integration. I feel like

sometimes there is something being missed. I don't know what the HOPE

project is? I will enroll her in Beaumont's summer program and the FAR

Conservatory for music therapy. I just don't know.

> Just curious...how old are both your children?

>

> Robin M.

>

>

>> ;

>>

>> I wish there were a magic bullet out there that would give instant

> results,

>> but like fine wine, progress (even for high functioning kids like

> ours) seems

>> to come with time, and a lot of steady, hard work on our part.

>>

>> What therapies have you tried? What have been effective?

> (sometimes a good

>> place to start is by figuring out where you've already been).

>>

>> Our daughter was evaluated by Beaumont's CHD (dx: PDD-NOS). They

> recommended

>> ABA (before they started the HOPE project). The wait list with

> their

>> behavior therapist was too long, so we began our ABA program 10

> months ago

>> with another behavior therapist (recommended by Dr. Anan), and have

> great

>> results. I'm not claiming our daughter has diagnosed out of the

> spectrum

>> (we're starting re-evals this week), but the ABA has had a far

> greater impact

>> than PPI, especially in combination with speech therapy (also at

> Beaumont).

>>

>> Good luck.

>>

>> lauren hirsch

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi. As you may know, we just completed a year of PLAY with Dr. Solomon and

also found it very helpful and lots of FUN! I just had to write a quick

note about Dawn's explanation of the PLAY Project - it is probably one of

the best I've seen (even better than the pamphlets given out by the PLAY

Project!).

Bravo!

Sue

>

>Reply-To: EverydayMiraclesAutism

>To: EverydayMiraclesAutism

>Subject: RE: Abilities center vs Beaumont

>Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 09:48:29 -0400

>

>Dear ,

>I have never add my son, , diagnosed age two (severe to moderate

>autism), now almost five (now at a mild / high functioning level), on any

>of

>the diets or vitamin regimens nor have we ever done ABA. We have always

>done

>the PLAY Project, speech, therapy, and he's had sensory therapy and music

>therapy, and he's in a summer camp therapy program at Mott's. The Play

>Project involves 20 hours a week of following your child's lead (based on

>Floortime by Dr. Stanley Greenspsan, and just like the Hanen School, which

>is what is utilized by our school speech pathologist, Terri Dillon [they

>used to have grants at Tanger to teach parents the Hanen approach, but the

>grants were cut out of the budget this year--you can yahoo search Hanen,

>and

>find out about their OWL (observe wait listen approach, and their following

>your child's lead approach). The PLAY Project is awesome; for $250.00 a

>month, you get a multitude of approaches, therapy, in-put, an education to

>help your child--scholarships are also available--we got one for $1000.00

>last year--ABA costs in the ten of thousands a year, and may cost up to

>$30,000.00 a year). Dr. Solomon assigns one of his three PLAY consultants

>to

>your family. They create a DIR (direct, individual, relationship-centered)

>approach to your child's and your family's therapy (incorporating all

>children in the home into PLAY.). Once a month, we're down to six times a

>year (year one we had 12 visits, year two we had six visits, and will do

>the

>same for year three), Shari comes to our home to videotape our " play " with

>. She consults us on how to approach our therapy with (the first

>year we worked on entering his " comfort zone--for him it was things like

>spinning of objects, turning lights on and off, opening and closing of

>doors; this process led to us " communicating " with ; first, with eye

>contact, then with sign language, and, then, verbally--his speech is great

>now--he was non-verbal when we first started; the second year focused on

>socializing at home, and we are now working on peer interaction, and when

>we

>go places, kids don't even know he's different--he loves playing tag and

>hide and seek at Mcs; he's getting great with sharing, and he is

>getting over his " hitting issues " (stemming from when he couldn't

>communicate his emotions, and his hitting is almost extinct)). Shari

>videotapes us during our visits, and she and Dr. Solomon review the tapes

>and send us monthly reports (Dr. Solomon learns so much more about the

>child

>by viewing them in their own home, rather than just an office, and even

>though he is a busy man, he has 500 patients, he views, monthly, the tapes

>of the 75+ families in the PLAY Project (which only excepts children age

>five and under, when their minds are still " fixable. " ). Shari constantly

>gives us articles, educational resources like PECs (which Terri and Joyce

>use--those little cards with pictures on them); Shari brings her digital

>camera, and helps us make pictures for our picture schedule, and she also

>writes social stories for . Being PLAY Project parents, we attend Dr.

>Solomon's conferences for free, and he is always available by e-mail and

>phone, and even next week, we have a scheduled phone call appointment with

>him, to discuss some physiological issues is having. We are also

>involved in Dr. Solomond Play and Watch Learn Series, on Thursday evening,

>at the Ingalls Building , in Ann Arbor, where we attend a workshop type

>class with former parents of the PLAY Project, and current families, and we

>discuss videos of children from different developmental levels.

>

> now attends five year old Sunday school, with " typical " kids, and

>we're

>going to enroll him in our local gymnastics school, this fall (he loves

>gymnastic birthday parties). I never thought I'd be able to have him

>attend

> " regular " programs. We're thrilled.

>

>I know all of this is overwhelming, and remember keep all your options

>open.

>Autism is an individual crisis, and what works best for you and your family

>is the most important thing. We don't do the diet, but it works great for

>other children. Unfortunately, there is no quick answer, only gut instinct.

>

>Love,

>

>Dawn

>

> Re: Abilities center vs Beaumont

>

>

> ;

>

> I wish there were a magic bullet out there that would give instant

>results, but like fine wine, progress (even for high functioning kids like

>ours) seems to come with time, and a lot of steady, hard work on our part.

>

> What therapies have you tried? What have been effective? (sometimes a

>good place to start is by figuring out where you've already been).

>

> Our daughter was evaluated by Beaumont's CHD (dx: PDD-NOS). They

>recommended ABA (before they started the HOPE project). The wait list with

>their behavior therapist was too long, so we began our ABA program 10

>months

>ago with another behavior therapist (recommended by Dr. Anan), and have

>great results. I'm not claiming our daughter has diagnosed out of the

>spectrum (we're starting re-evals this week), but the ABA has had a far

>greater impact than PPI, especially in combination with speech therapy

>(also

>at Beaumont).

>

> Good luck.

>

> lauren hirsch

>

[Guest guest]

My son was enrolled in a "mommy & me gymnastics" program at FAR but we dropped it after we found out that 1. we were the only ones enrolled, and 2. it was not gymnastics at all - it was play group. They seem to have alot of programs to offer and would not let my one experience with them stop me from attending another one.

I will be trying Beaumont, hoepfully, this summer for two of their summer groups (little crunchers and ready, set, go). Our evaluation is Friday morning. I attended a talk by the HOPE center that our group has at the Ferndale location a few months ago. It was very impressive but also very expensive. We decided to attempt a home aba program ourselves - with an outside trainer - but stopped after three weeks because my son would not stop screamming. His problem is touch - and one of the apporaches with aba is to do hand-over-hand when the child does not demostrate on their own. My son can not handle anyone touching him to require a movement or gesture. So he would just scream the whole hour we tried. Maybe later in life when he can handle it we'd try that apporah again but for not it's not th right therapy.

I have not been to the Abilities Center, we currently work with Kaufman Children's Center. I have heard good things about there programs and they seem to be very interested in providing programs for children with autism.

Good luck with your decision.

-----Original Message-----From: s bassin Sent: Monday, May 05, 2003 12:08 AMTo: everydayMiraclesAutism Subject: Abilities center vs BeaumontHas anyone out there tired one or the other, what do you think. What about the F.A.R. conservatory anything you have to say would be helpful. My daughter is high functioning, we do the Play Project. But I am still not sure which way to go..you know we want instant results!! But really I want what is best and I don't want to lose time?ThanksSupport Everyday Miracles by shopping online at IGIVE.COM, where a portion of every purchase is donated to this support network. Proceeds received will be used for a variety of functions, such as educational activities, therapy, famiy outings, etc. http://www.igive.com/EDM

[Guest guest]

Beaumont's project HOPE is a group taught ABA program, which is done at the Beaumont office. Usually when ABA is done privately, it is done as a home-based program. I think that this approach may have been designed to meet the needs of the the many families that were wait-listed to become active cases with beaumont's only behavior therapist that does ABA.

lauren

[Guest guest]

, you said it so well... wish I could have done so. Your son has made phenominal progress with the ABA. I keep harping on 's progress (when talking to my friends), because he came a "greater distance" than Alyssa did with the same therapy regimen provided by different experts. I just wish we had the same insurance coverage you had....

By the way, it looks like Alyssa will be going to summer camp at Temple Emanu El (with our shadows). We're looking at private school options for kindergarden (a good school that will work with Krista and let us have our shadows present in the classroom on a part-time basis), since our school district won't let us bring our shadows into the classroom, even on our dime. That's another story. Jon served our notice of rejection of the IEP and demand for a due process hearing today. Enough said, I suppose.

hope all is well.

[Guest guest]

thanks, ...

good luck with the "fight"...it's too bad it has to come to this for you.

And just because had further to come than Alyssa did, don't give yourself any less credit...Alyssa is doing wonderfully. She is pretty darn "indistinguishable" as far as I can see! It's unfortunate that her tremendous progress (thanks to your privately-funded ABA home program) deems her as doing too well to receive the services you feel she still needs at school, by their standards. It's like a double-edged sword. Good luck finding the right place for her...

I'm curious about why the school wouldn't allow shadows (paid by you) in the classroom. Email me privately if you wish...

thanks!

sch

Re: Abilities center vs Beaumont

, you said it so well... wish I could have done so. Your son has made phenominal progress with the ABA. I keep harping on 's progress (when talking to my friends), because he came a "greater distance" than Alyssa did with the same therapy regimen provided by different experts. I just wish we had the same insurance coverage you had.... By the way, it looks like Alyssa will be going to summer camp at Temple Emanu El (with our shadows). We're looking at private school options for kindergarden (a good school that will work with Krista and let us have our shadows present in the classroom on a part-time basis), since our school district won't let us bring our shadows into the classroom, even on our dime. That's another story. Jon served our notice of rejection of the IEP and demand for a due process hearing today. Enough said, I suppose. hope all is well. Support Everyday Miracles by shopping online at IGIVE.COM, where a portion of every purchase is donated to this support network. Proceeds received will be used for a variety of functions, such as educational activities, therapy, famiy outings, etc. http://www.igive.com/EDM

[Guest guest]

We did the "HOPE project" (Hands On Parenting Education) Their purpose is to train parents the principles & techniques of ABA, so they can successfully run their own home program, train their own staff and eventually save money in the long run .......I do believe it is ridiculously expensive, but I can't change that... we spent close to $10,000 for the 90 days. The $6300 for the initial program, plus other testing during the program cost about $500 and another $1000 a month for babysitters,(for my other 2 children) and paying our student/tutor from Eastern to work with him 15 hrs a week. I did 10 hrs a week. NONE OF THIS COVERED BY INSURANCE! I don't know if I would call it saving money in the long run, I would say it bought us TIME, bought TIME. (Time we lost with him over the last few years).

was verbal when he started, but only in labeling all objects and some 2-3 word phrases. He gained so may skills in the 90 days, he learned the answers to 21 social questions: whets your name, how old are you, where do you live, when is your birthday, what color your eyes, whose your best friends, whats mama's name, daddys,your last name, your babysitter,etc.........! He now can say 6-7 word phrase and sometimes 9 word phrases, we always count the words if it is a long sentence. .and say to ourselves "did you hear that"!

He learned how to say' come on lets play" "look at me" "I want "4" cookies"..spontasouesly(one day in the kitchen) blew me away, and when I said 'What did you say?" he said again and got his "4" cookies! his eye contact improved. His play skills went up. He learned to use "and". He can put together a simple puzzle and be interested in it. He can tell you how to make a P & J sandwich....take his coat off, put it on, take his shoes off, wash & dry his hands(still plays in the water sometimes)now he likes to wash his arms with the soap..we're working on it.

It is great to see this progress, we still have a long road ahead of us and my husband swears ABA is all he needs. But I'm starting to feel different now, I do feel ABA and the principles of it are one of the best therapies out there. Unfortunately does not...he knows when we are trying to teach a new program with him (even though, we no longer sit at the table..which he always hated). He can totally tune us out, he would do that at Beaumont too. I think he needs a variety of therapies/methods.

Beaumont was wonderful to us, I had a consultant/therapist at my side for 90 days teaching me new ways to get through to him, encouraging me on, the whole way through....always, always being so patient and kind. They are a great group of special people. Your child actually only sits at the table doing DTT for 11minutes 3 times during the 3 hours your there. The rest of the time is broken up into play time, group time, snack time, and self help time. It is something I defianetly needed, I tried to run a home program for two long months before attending HOPE, under a different consultant from Ann Arbor. She knew what she was doing, but I had no idea what I was doing, my life was upside down. I felt like I was wasting time. I needed the training from HOPE, I needed the structure, the school he was in was not offering us anything, I was desperate! I was at my breaking point and I prayed to God, asking him, begging him to give me strength. I prayed for some kind of sign to know I was doing what was right for my son and the next day the phone rang and it was McG. Two weeks later we started HOPE! That is my story,but only the beginning still has so much to learn and so do we. We are still looking at many other therapies for , continuing his S/L and especiallyr working on his social skills and last but not least trying to find which school we want to send him to.

Oh yeah, Play Project called us, when we were in our 2nd month at HOPE. We had been on there waiting list for 5 months, so even if you are not sure what route you want to go GET ON THE WAITING LISTS, it will give you time to decide if its truly something you need for your child. I actually put PLAY on a waiting list and they kept calling me back every two-weeks, because I could not make up my mind. (plus the money is gone) She was very nice about it and even helpful on the phone. I am still considering PLAY too, I am going to attend another workshop on May 17th and I will decide from there. We will see Dr. Youngs in Dearborn on July 1st, we have been waiting since November.

Lynda

Re: Abilities center vs Beaumont

Beaumont's project HOPE is a group taught ABA program, which is done at the Beaumont office. Usually when ABA is done privately, it is done as a home-based program. I think that this approach may have been designed to meet the needs of the the many families that were wait-listed to become active cases with beaumont's only behavior therapist that does ABA. lauren Support Everyday Miracles by shopping online at IGIVE.COM, where a portion of every purchase is donated to this support network. Proceeds received will be used for a variety of functions, such as educational activities, therapy, famiy outings, etc. http://www.igive.com/EDM

[Guest guest]

The explanation re: renial of use of private shadows in the public elementary school was that it posed "liability issues" (I understand issues of liability. This will mean that we'll just have to push to get reimbursement for the private school tuition, along with everything else. what fun).

[Guest guest]

Apologies for chopping out the relevant section of Dawn's rather long

posting. I hope I don't cause confusion with the way I've structured

this response.

I find one statement of your posting quite troublesome. I'm

concerned about any doctor or approach to treatment that considers

something " fixable " only before a certain age. I most definitely

understand that early intervention provides the best results. But to

say that the mind is unfixable after the age of 5 steals the hope

away from families desperately seeking solutions for their loved

ones, especially considering that people have made progress in the

treatment of autism well after the age of 5. To consider a

child " unfixable " after the age of 5 is really nothing more than

throwing that child away, and I can't accept that proposition coming

from any service provider, regardless of the degrees and accolades

he's acheived. For that reason, Dr. Solomon is being placed on my

never-call list (though I should consider contacting him personally

to ensure that I haven't misunderstood).

Please feel free to clear up any misunderstandings contained in my

response.

Thanks,

Dan

> of the 75+ families in the PLAY Project (which only excepts

children age

> five and under, when their minds are still " fixable. " ). Shari

constantly