RE: ABA/Floor Time

[Guest guest]

( ) ABA/Floor Time

My 3 1/2 year old was recently diagnosed with ASD/PDD most likely

Asperger's. The psychiatrist who diagnosed him has recommended a

combination of floor time and ABA therapy, with an emphasis on tying

together home and school strategies. My son has a tendency toward

ritualistic, rigid behavior and I think the psychiatrist wants us to

get some support in helping him to move beyond these behaviors.

He has given us two referrals to local specialists, neither of which

has made much sense to us. The first was to an organization that seems

to specialize in profoundly autistic children and generally works with

kids full time. The second was to an organization where the actual

therapists would be trained at the BA level and might have as little

as twelve hours of training in ABA, many of whom are in their early

20's I have a hard time imagining that someone with this amount of

training and inexperience is going to be able to make a big difference

to my son.

I'm wondering whether anyone has any experience getting floor time

therapy and/or ABA. What kind of professionals are best suited to do

this kind of work? What's the nature of the intervention? How many

hours per week?

Thank you for any help you can provide.

Gail

I'm not sure what kind of places you went to. Most of the time, an ABA

program is run by a consultant who is educated in behavioral science. So

this could be the first place you went. Naturally, they will have clients

all across the spectrum but what counts is that they are providing a program

that is individually planned for your child and his needs.

The second group sounds to me like a place to get ABA therapists. Many

times, the people who do the work are young college kids who want to make

some money. ABA is not rocket science and sitting there working with a

child to do trials is not something that requires a lot of training. You

need training in the basics and a lot of patience and a knack for working

with kids who have autism. I am an ABA therapist for a 4 yo right now. My

only claim to training is that we did our own ABA program with our ds, who

is now 9 yo. And now I have logged countless hours with this little guy,

making me a total expert at working with HIM. lol.

This would be my guess at your description of places. I would ask a lot of

questions and ask them, " What do you do exactly? "

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 3/18/2006 8:26:12 PM Eastern Standard Time, Gasok@...

writes:

I'm wondering whether anyone has any experience getting floor time

therapy and/or ABA. What kind of professionals are best suited to do

this kind of work? What's the nature of the intervention? How many

hours per week?

Hi Gail. I did Floortime with my son. I read information online and got

input from his therapists. We would spend about an hour twice a day " playing " .

I am just now going through all the materials and toys I had purchased when

doing Floortime and donating them to the preschool at my son's school. Alot

of the strategies you can do on your own. There is alot of information

here: There are some others on list who have experience with ABA. I have

observed the ABA process but never did it personally with my son. Pam

_Floor Time_ (http://www.mindspring.com/~dgn/playther.htm)