Video of Dylan Doing ABA Therapy

Click HERE if you are unable to view the video.

One of the reasons I started this blog is because so many moms with newly diagnosed kids have asked me how we are teaching him at home. So with that in mind, I recorded a session with Dylan and his ABA therapist Stefani.

He has been doing ABA for about a year and while I realize his progress is not indicative of how far a child can go with a years worth of therapy, this is where we are. If you are reading this and are considering different ways to help your child, keep in mind that autism is a spectrum and you could see different results than this after one year. But I wanted moms to have a concrete idea of what the therapy looks like.

According to the experts, children need 40-60 hours of ABA as early as possible and up to the age of 5-6. Dylan Started therapy when he had just turned three, and we have only been able to get him 10-15 hours per week with our best efforts to cut expenses and work as much as possible. While this is not close to what they say he needs, we can be at peace with the fact that we are doing all we can for him.

If you have a tight budget and are considering ABA therapy, here are some things I recommend:

1. Read The ABA Program Companion and Understanding Applied Behavioral Analysis.
2. Find a certified ABA therapist in your area and ask for an estimate to evaluate your child, set up an in-home program and train you. Ideally you will find a therapist who has done this before. I should mention that not all ABA therapists have experience with autism, so you'll need to ask questions such as:

• how long have you been certified
• how much experience have you had with autism (look for specific answers eg: number of kids, ages, how long he/she was with them, etc)
• ask for references
• ask if they have ever set up and managed a home program on their own before

Those therapists who have worked with autistic kids may only have experience with older children or more/less severe children so make sure the experience matches your need. Since many therapists only have experience implementing therapy and not writing an entire home program and training parents to do it, you'll want to try and find someone with this experience as well. The longer they've been doing it, the better your program will be.

In many cases, therapists rates are negotiable. They're not going to tell you that up front but rates should vary between $70-$150 per hour. If you get someone you like who is on the high end just let them know that you really like them but that you've spoken with other therapists who are only charging $__.

In a perfect world, we would all be able to afford a certified therapist for 60 hours per week.  But in this economy very few people are in a position to do that.  So here are some options.

For a very tight budget the best thing you can do is arm yourself with as much knowledge as possible before bringing in the therapist.  That way there will be less of a learning curve and it will take less time to train you (which means less expense).  Expect to pay the therapist for 15-25 hours to evaluate your child, set up the program and train you.  Then hire them to return 1-2 times per month to look at your data, reevaluate your child and make changes to the program where needed.

Be prepared to spend $200-$400 on materials.  This should include a variety of educational toys.  Your therapist should be able to give you a list of what you need.  You can also make some of your own materials.  Head over and read my posts HERE and HERE for free online resources that offer printable material.

If you find you are unable to implement the program and do the therapy by yourself, you can do what we are doing.  We have one certified ABA therapist and one therapy assistant.  Some people have several assistants so if one is sick, on vacation or if they quit, you don't need to start over.  If you can't afford this, just do what you can on your own.  Something is better than nothing.

The therapist trains the assistant to implement the program and he/she is far less expensive.  Expect to pay $12-$25 per hour for a good assistant, preferably someone with special education experience or experience working with autistic children.  If they have experience in ABA you'll likely pay on the high end of that estimate.  I had great success finding an assistant when I posted the job through the public school system.  My son's speech therapist was kind enough to send a district wide email letting everyone know what we were looking for.  If you can find someone to help you, just be sure to give them a thorough written job description and contact information.

If this is all new to you then you are likely overwhelmed.  I know the feeling.  Please be encouraged and just take small steps every day to learn what you need to and build up to the point where you can invest a little in starting this program.  You can do this.

In future posts, I will show you some of the learning material we use and how we set up our data sheets to record Dylan's progress.