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Hello,
my name is Claudia and I'm an NT parent of a 3 years old boy on the spectrum. You can read my presentation.
I'm Italian so my english could be not correct, please ask me to explain again if you don't understand.
My son Stefano has been diagnosed 3 months ago and I'm trying to get the appropriate therapy for him.
He has started speech therapy since september and now he is going to start ABA.
In Italy neuropsychiatrist don't recommend any therapy and often don't inform parents about available ones.
I did't find in Italy a community like WP, and I only managed to share my experience with other parents. I found ABA supervisor and therapists through a parent association.
I would learn as much as possible to be capable to appraise an ABA program, since doctors don't.
Please tell me about your experince.
I'll try to help you understand what kind of autistic my son is. I got ATEC test, I know that you might not agree with me, but is the only I found.
The result is:
I. Language and communication: 17
II. Socialization: 5
III. Sensory and cognitive consciousness: 9
IV. Healt and behaviour: 3

Total ATEC: 34

The more the partial score is high, the more you have the problem.
The problem is mainly in communication, so i Think ABA program should be focused on that.
Speech therapy worked for Stefano. On july 2010 he was not able to look at me and to point at objects, now he does and he started expressive language. He's able to say 4 understandable words.
I would ask you
- how many hours a day are you doing ABA
- what should the program include

Thank you in advance for your help...

Our situation is different from yours, so I don't know how much I can provide in the way of useful answers, but I definitely want to welcome you!

We didn't have a diagnosis until my son was 7, and he had never had language issues when he was very young, so we have not done any ABA. I believe how much is done can vary a lot, anywhere from an hour a week to 20 hours a week. Do remember when choosing the schedule that there is much that you can do by yourself with your child that will help. There are floor time programs, I believe, that many families have used at this young age with good results.

Long term, speech seems to be a key therapy, even for children like mine with what look like good language skills.

Other common therapy is occupational therapy, so look into that one, as well.

The most important thing you will do for your child is learn to understand the world from his perspective, and adapt the world to his needs for as long as you have that luxury. He is likely to have sensory issues and other unconventional needs. Pay attention to him and what he seems to respond well to, and use that as the basis for teaching him what he needs most. Never assume that something is not bothering him just because people cannot conceive of it bothering anyone; ASD children can be deeply upset by things we cannot relate to, but that upset is very real, and needs to be treated as real.

For now, I don't think the precise label is all that important. That could change as you try to access services through the schools, etc., but even then remember that the label is only worth what it does - or does not - get you. If you need label A to get service B that you truly believe will benefit your child, that you take label A. If you don't, and you have done well figuring out your unique child's needs, then it doesn't matter.

One of our members wrote a book that is free for download that you may find helpful: http://www.ASDstuff.com

Welcome to Wrong Planet! It's great to see so many parents joining our community!

Hi Claudia-

Welcome to Wrong Planet! I think you will be able to find great insight and support here!

My son was diagnosed at age 2.5, and the main therapies that we have used is speech therapy and occupational therapy. He is in the public school system here in the US, and they did a very small amount of ABA therapy with him at school. He has always been verbal although he did have strange language patterns. I think they only did about an hour or so a week with him of ABA.

Many parents have had great success with ABA. I think the amount that you do depends on the severity of your son's autism. I have read cases where parents did 20-40 hours a week. Your son may not need that much. I think you will be able to tell, and also it may become quite expensive. As DW stated, you can do a lot of this with your son as you go along. There is a book written by Catherine Maurice called "Let Me Hear Your Voice" which details her experience with ABA with 2 of her 3 children. Just as a warning, ABA can be a very controversial subject with some parents because they feel that it is more like training the child to be "normal" instead of accepting the child as they are.

I would also recommend the Floortime Method written by Dr. Stanley Greenspan. His approach is based on letting the child lead you to show you what they are interested in, and then engaging with them on that level. Basically, trying to get into their world in order to bring them into yours.

Please feel free to come here anytime you have questions! I have found WP to be a very valuable resource!

Good luck!

Thank you I was searching for something like that.

Hi angelbear,
I know that ABA has been criticized, but actually seems to be the only therapy that can help Stefano, along with speech therapy. I don't want to give him any drug or medication because he's only 3 and because he hasn't meltdowns and phisical problems.
Also, I don't want to start a diet.
If speech therapy and ABA will not work, I'm afraid I will be forced to try something else...

Hi Claudia, our boy is nearly four he has been doing ABA about 4-5 months we are doing 30 hours a week. Big big improvements in him, apart from speech. I am VERY pleased with how it's going. Setting the programme up and getting past his resistance was hard but we're there now, and it now has it's own momentum and he enjoys it or at least is happy enough to do the work.
Have a look at a website called rethinkautism.com you can sign up for a trial and so you can watch some videos of how a pretty typical ABA programme is done. I find it a bit 'american' but that's just a cultural difference perhaps.
Feel free to PM me or post here, sorry I would give you more info right now, but it's bed time!

Here is a list of all the different types of therapy and interventions which can be used:

http://www.autism.org.uk/en-gb/living-w ... tions.aspx

It's produced by the National Autistic Society UK so it is very UK centred but it will at least give you an idea of the types of things you could look for.

My 11 year old AS/PDD son didn't talk at all until he was about four, and then in a very mangled/poorly pronounced sort of "telegraphese" which almost noone apart from me understood.

When he still spoke like that at age 5 we tried a couple of speech therapists but after a first session with each when he talked enthusiastically if still very "brokenly", incomprehensibly and mainly in "nouns" with the therapists about dinosaurs, ( his special interest at the time ), he stopped saying anything in the sessions, didn't respond to the mind-numbingly dull and boring picture cards and other material which was supposed to develop his speech, nor the exercises with individual letters/sounds, etc.

The two speech-therapists said that they could not assess him because he wouldn't speak ... ... ... :lol

We withdrew him after a couple of months, ( of weekly/twice weekly sessions ) and decided to "trust" that he would speak properly in his own time/at his own pace ... ... ... and he has!

He learned to read, almost overnight, aged 7 and a half, with almost no lessons/classes at all, ( he has home-un-schooled most of his life ), and as soon as he began reading his speech improved dramatically, as if seeing the smaller words, and how things were spelled, and the more subtle complex structures of speech in black and white, in writing, gave him the data he needed, ( and which he didn't seem to be able to get from spoken language ), in order to speak properly.

He now speaks english very well indeed, ( if with either a slightly monotone or unregulated/pressured tone/delivery, depending on the situation ), and french ( his papa's tongue, we live in France ), fairly well, if more slowly and laboriously/hesitatingly. He has the vocabulary, in both languages, of an adult ( and a well-read one at that ).

He also reads like a rocket; Agatha Christie, the "Cadfael" series, "Sherlock Holmes", Charles Dickens, "Harry Potter", Nick Hornby, Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", Kipling's "Kim", Rider Haggard's "King Solomon's Mines", Philip K Dick, John Wyndham, Isaac Asimov, and other sci-fi, "The Lord of the Rings", among many other things.

We have almost never put pressure on him to read, or write, or, ( apart from that one very worried year ), to speak ... and he loves language.

He hated the speech therapy sessions, found them a sort of incomprehensible/bewildering humiliating torture, ( both painfully boring, and in some way denigrating of him ), and was very glad to get back to doing things which interested him at that point; drawing, looking at Tintin, Asterix, the Schtroumphs/Smurfs and other BDs/comic books, playing with lego and playmobil and cars, etc.

He didn't in fact need therapy. He just learned at a different pace to most people.
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