Private therapy
Those who are doing private therapy, do you go in with your child? Iused to go in to therapy with my child, and now my therapist doestherapy alone & gives me a brief synopsis at the end. I am not happyabout this because I was learning so much before when I was watching.The therapist feels very strongly about doing it alone saying that Iam a distraction. I think that she prefers I am not there to askquestions, but otherwise it went well with me in the room. I onlyspoke or joined when asked. I would like the input of others before Ilet her know that I disagree with her wanting to do therapy alone.She knew I wasn’t thrilled, but I agreed to try it. Months later, Ifeel like therapy is not as helpful anymore and certainly not longterm since I am not learning from watching her. I really like thistherapist other than this.
Lyle Farrington said,
Wrote on March 13, 2007 @ 2:50 pm
Is there a possibility of observing without being seen? Some children behavevery differently when out of the presence of their parent. Also, you shouldconsider that it is good for your child to learn to take directions fromsomeone other than you. Having said that, you might ask to sit in on aportion of the session, one that you might have a part in. I used to sit inon, and participate in my daughter’s OT sessions in private and school-basedOT. I would play with her and the OT, and when it was a session with oneother child, I would play with them as well and help out when help wasneeded. This was especially helpful when we worked on role-playing skills.
There are plusses and minuses. I guess it all depends on what goals arebeing worked on and how much headway the therapist is making at this pointin time.
Janay Bild said,
Wrote on March 14, 2007 @ 6:08 am
I found an ABA Consultant. He provided us (including family) with2 days of training and provided us with all forms to fill out andtrack his performance (he even allowed us to record the training toreview as we needed to). We actually run the ABA program out of ourhome. Right now my wife and I, and some willing family members, dothe sessions ourselves, but if we ever decided to hire therapistsour consultant would train us how to do it and because he consultsother families that do hire therapists he can pull in people thatare already trained. About every 3 weeks we meet with ourconsultant to update him on our progress and he gives us additionaltraining and techniques as well as the next programs to start himon.
I know that a lot of people don’t believe parents can do ABA therapybut I simply don’t believe it. Even my wife who usually is a softiehas been doing the therapy with precision and great results.Dealing with behavioral problems can be challenging but if you stickto the ABA techniques addressing those problems then it works outgreat.
I have had to train some of my family to help with the ABA therapy.I have had them in the room with me as we did the therapy with myson. I would try to have the person I am training be perfectlyquiet during the sitting and simply observe. After the sitting Iwould then discuss how it went with the person I was training andteach them what they needed to know. It was not a distraction forme. I personally do about 12 hours a week of therapy with my sonand others fill in the rest of the time so that we always give atleast 20 hours.
I know that everyone’s situation is different. I know that everyparent cannot do ABA therapy with their kids or have the time to. Ipersonally could not afford to do ABA any other way.
Personally, with my experience, I see no reason why you cannot be inthe room with your child if you are quiet and out of the way (not adistraction) during each sitting. Then during play time you shouldbe able to get more involved. Good Luck!
Angelica Roefaro said,
Wrote on March 15, 2007 @ 6:40 am
Thank you for the replies! It was speech therapy. I think thetherapist was overwhelmed when I asked questions she couldn’t answer.So I stopped asking so much, but my son would come over and want toplay with me. So she asked me to no longer come into the room. Now Ijust get a quick synopsis at the end. Now I hear my son crying forme, but he calms down most of the time. He usually seems a littlestressed after each session, and before he was happier. I want him tobe able to take instructions from others without needing me nearby,but for that I could send him to a teacher or off with friends. Thisis therapy, and I believe I should be learning to do the therapy. Iam glad to hear the thoughts of those more experienced and believe mygut is right.
Shane Dearmond said,
Wrote on March 15, 2007 @ 8:49 pm
My son goes to a place called Mitchell’s Place ( http://www.mitchells-place.com ) for private OT therapy. They have observation rooms ineach room so that parents can observe without the child knowing.They also have observation rooms in all of the psychologist officesso that the parents can see the evaluations. They have a way to lockthe observation room if the child is old enough to have a privacyright and is talking about “feelings” but when it comes toevaluations and stuff the parents can watch. We love it there.
Jody Hetherman said,
Wrote on March 15, 2007 @ 11:43 pm
We are currently taking our 6 yr old son, Christopher, to Dr. Buckley’s practicein Florida for treatment of autism. We are also taking him to a speechtherapist once a week and we have a aba therapist to consult with us at home. The GFCF diet and supplements are working great but the stubborn attitude (saying no and being defiant ) and there is still the disconnected monologueenvironment ( less but still prominent ). I went onto your site Crystal and ithas convinced me to try the hyperbaric therapy. We are going to start 2therapies a week. Is there any advice you can give me??I do have trouble disciplining Christopher as compared to my other two childrenbecause Christopher will agree with you when he is not upset or extremelyexcited that he should not whine or yell or be defiant. We constantly go overthis but yet when the moments arise he will also go back to the same routine andwe put him in time out. He cries and says that he is sorry and he has thisgenuine honesty that it torments him each time he has broken this rule. Italways is three minutes of this exact misbehaving and then he comes thru to sayhe’s sorry. My aba therapist is telling me that continuing this time outroutine will cut this behavior and if this is true I will be extremely grateful.However, it seems that he cannot control himself during these episodes. I haveto constantly repeat the instructions during this time and even then he does notfollow thru until three minutes are over. The aba therapist when to the school and told me that he rarely talks inschool to anyone and does not initiate interaction in playtime. He also getupset when other kids are whispering because he thinks that others are talkingabout him. ( He has been made fun of in the past for his little monologues. ) I am a pharmacist and I work full time plus my husband travels a lot but wetake a lot of quality time for Christopher. However, there is always the parentguilt that we could be doing something more. I am definitely the softee and mytherapist picked up on that right away. I have enjoyed reading all the messages on this site and it is really nice tosee how much we all love our children.