ABA update

 

I had to advocate hard (read: get an attorney involved) for Trevor to receive ABA therapy through school.  In our state, ABA therapy is primarily a Medicaid approved home-based program.  Which is great.  If you have Medicaid.  And also, if your child’s primary needs are self care or behavioral.  Which Trevor has as well because by God I want the boy to dress himself eventually!    However, I passionately believe that the ABA model is what he needs to receive and retain academics.  Almost more important (to me) than dressing himself.

 

 

With the help of RI Disability Law Center, the school agreed.

 

 

Trevor has been receiving 8 hours of ABA instruction as part of his Individualized Education Plan for a little over a year now.  He goes to school about an hour and a half before his friends.  And the remaining half an hour is in class to help with generalization (layman’s terms:  being able to use the skills gained in ABA in other settings as well). 

 

 

At this point, I think it safe to say – MOMMY WAS RIGHT!

 

 

Every gain Trevor has made can be traced back to his ABA program!  Every gain.  Which is not my way of saying ABA is the right choice for every child.  I don’t believe that at all!  In fact, I don’t use the ABA model when I work with him at home because I think children learn best when they have a variety of learning input/output avenues.  But I do think that ABA (which has shown great success among those with Autism) is a good model for children with brain injury.  I also think, when in doubt, try it it out!  I’m not sure how other ABA providers collect data.  I only know our provider.  And our provider is AH-mazing!  In fact, I’m going to show you some of the data right now.  That’s how impressive it is!

 

 

Trevor was given and ABLLS-R evaluation in September 2010 (blue) and again in September 2011 (green).  So what is ABLLS-R?  Lucky you…I’m linking in this great explaination  .

 

 

 

 

Trevor has 25 lessons on a variety of skills.  If you’d like to know more specifically what skills…just shoot me an email.

 

 

The number of lessons completed each day really depends on him.  Some days his focus is spot on and he’s flying through lessons.  Other days he’s seizure-y or more distracted (which Dr. Neuro believes means spiking in that pesky right frontal lobe) and his momentum is less organized.  The next day, lessons will pick up where he left off.  And they continue through the cycle. 

 

 

Remember blue is last year green this. 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve seen the largest growth in his receptive language! 

 

 

Amazing. 

 

 

Considering. 

 

 

When they took our his left hemisphere that included removing his SPEECH CENTER! 

 

 

A week or so ago, I had the joy of playing 1:1 Aide with Trevy for a whooooole week!  During that week I was able to capture some cute little clips of him working hard in his ABA sessions.  How could I not share?

 

 

 

He’s getting pretty darn good at spelling his name!

 

 

One of my fave things about ABA (Montessori does this too) is the simplification process.  I love how she have the squares drawn on the board for him.  And is only giving him one letter at a time!  Which promotes success NOT stress.  Success, in turn, promotes LEARNING!  Also, a super happy Trevy!   He loves being praised for a job well done.

 

 

And he’s a super pro at shapes.  If you’re not a Seizure Mommy or Daddy, you probably didn’t notice.  And then even if you are more seizure educated than you ever wanted to be…but maybe not a Trevy expert…chances are you missed it too.  How sloooow he was moving in the Shapes lesson.  The way his words were slurring.  How his eyes look confused.  Grips the air right out of my heart. 

 

 

That is one of the seizures we’re seeing more often than we’d like.

 

 

He earns a token for each correct response.  After earning 5 tokens he gets to choose a fun activity.  The timer is set for 2 minutes.  When it beeps he is allowed to ask for one more minute.  <3  His favorite choices include using the iPad or Pod and walking to the gym where he can run and be crazy.  Or maybe just roll some hotwheels around. 

 

 

There is SO much more I want and could say about Trevy’s ABA…

 

 

but alas.  I’m mommy of more than one.  And the other two happen to need my help with their language arts right now.  You’ll give a wink at any typos or scrambled thoughts, right?  

 

 

…danielle