Sorry, a different friend, ABA floor therapy or other?

[sste]

Another friend with a diagnosis for her newly turned four year old - - I know I am being selfish but I am uncomfortable directing her to this board and my entire life story!

Her son was diagnosed with a non-specific pervasive developmental delay (the acronym one) and also high-functioning autism. The psychologist who did the testing rec'd continuing with speech and occupational therapy. However, the psychologist's main concern in the testing was social skills (the little boy was low-average for speech and did well on some of the cognitive aspects of the testing but was showed some social atypicalities and delays in motor skills, potty training, etc.).

My friend is confused about whether she should be seeking out ABA Floor therapy or another autism-specific therapy or some sort of social skills intervention. Or just stick with the current speech and OT and his private preschool (nurturing but not autism-trained teachers). Anyone BTDT and have any ideas?

[crl]

Floor time and ABA are two different approaches. To investigate Floortime, I suggest reading something by Stanley Geenspan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floortime. I am sorry I don't have a suggestion for reading about ABA, I am sure better informed people here will have much better suggestions.

My other suggestion is that she look into special education services through her local public school district. Special education starts at age three and we had some excellent therapists and teachers through the public schools. (Disclaimer, ds does not have autism--different special needs).

Catherine

[egoldber]

I agree with crl. I'd have her contact the school district ASAP. He may qualify for a special needs preschool and be able to receive many services either there or through the school system in another way. They can also help to coordinate his services.

I would also suggest she go back to the psychologist and ask for a prioritization of interventions. It isn't feasible for many/most people to work on all of those things at the same time.

I don't have any thoughts on ABA vs. floortime, other than I know that people tend to feel pretty strongly one way or the other.

[sste]

Thank you! I just passed on this info. I think there is a degree of uncertainty/resistance to public preschool but it is lessening the more my friend talks to other parents. She is in a tricky situation as she lives in a big city, public school quality is poor, and she doesn't drive so it is hard to move to the suburbs.

Sorry for so many posts. It is is sort of alarming the number of friends we have had get diagnoses for their kids in the past few months . . .

[o_mom]

Sorry for so many posts. It is is sort of alarming the number of friends we have had get diagnoses for their kids in the past few months . . .

I think some of this is that your kids, and therefore their peers, are right at the age when these things first start to be noticed.

[sste]

Omom, I think that is part of it. Also, alot of my colleague friends have children later in life -- as late as early and mid-forties. I have also noticed quite a few of the diagnoses seem to be from parents that are very high-iq, often exceptionally talented at math. I don't want to start upset here, this is not a firm theory of mine just anecdotal, and may just be random or selection bias in who I am running into!

[crl]

It may also be that your friends feel comfortable talking with you. I was pretty open about ds' special needs, but there were definitely people I told earlier and I knew people who didn't really tell any of their friends with typically developing kids. It's probably a compliment that your friends are telling you.

Catherine

[lurksalot]

Usually an autism diagnosis will automatically qualify children for public school services (without an academic or cognitive discrepancy). I can understand your friend's concerns about school quality, but sometimes the spec ed programs operate completely separate from the rest of the school. For example, the autism pre-school class my student would attend is on a not so great public school campus, but the autism preschool class is taught by the BEST teacher ever (she is just my son's case manager as he is not read for her class). Parents don't have to commit to anything, they can always opt out of services they don't feel comfortable with.

My son is in an intensive 40 hour a week ABA program, which is VERY different from a Floor-time model. We were reluctant to enroll him in an ABA program, but because he is so severely impacted by autism and ID, we determined this was the best approach for his specific needs at this time. He is nonverbal, so learning PECS is a priority for us. We will re-evaluate next year when he is ready for grade 1.

hth, Tiffany