This video below is a new clip from Autism Resolution Ontario, an advocacy group for ABA services in Ontario:
This is the next fear of parents who get publically-funded ABA for their kids - how long will it last? If the autism provider doesn't think your children is "progressing" according to their criteria (each provider has different criteria - there is currently no standard), your child is ejected into the school system.
Here's what I don't really get: the claim for ejecting kids from IBI is that "it's not working fast enough." That is, they do not feel they are "altering the child's trajectory fast enough". Even if the child is learning, they will remain autistic. The solution is to replace an intensive program with a non-intensive program - special education at school... where your child will learn slower. I get the reason, but I wish they would just call a spade a spade. Instead of saying, "IBI isn't working so let's transition to more appropriate supports", they should say, "IBI is damn expensive and it's not going to substantially improve your child's outcome. We'd rather spend this money on a kid who may have a much better outcome. So still he or she is going to learn slowly anyway, let's put them in a learning environment where they can still learn but costs us a lot less money." Of course, no one is ever going to say that to a parent's face.
I sure hope intensive ABA works for Alanna. I'd hate to be in the position of these parents in 8-9 years. So far, so good.
Wow! Breaks my heart.
ReplyDeletethe IBI they provide itself is a disgrace to learning (for any human being in general). Thats why they call it IBI - because it is not even ABA. Its just some mutant form of something ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteThat's the bonus of DFO - you decide how the IBI goes, and if you wanted to blend RDI like you are now, it would work fine.
ReplyDeleteIt drives me crazy when decisions are based on not progressing fast enough. My daughter has aphasia and we didn't discover the right speech therapy for her (the association method) until she was 15 yo. At 18 yo, RDI is doing wonders for her social and emotional milestones as well as dynamic thinking. She's 21 yo, and, through a brainstorming session with our RDI consultant, we might just have the key to fuller sentences! It's only been a few days, so I don't want to blog it until we're sure it is helping. NEVER GIVE UP!
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