FAQ Part II!

 

Its time for Frequently Asked Questions part II!

Part I was pretty popular so I decided to do a part II of even more questions that people ask me all the time. 

So lets jump in...

FAQ Families:

1. Will my child with Autism EVER talk/have friends/use a toilet/live independently, etc.? This is a very common question. The short answer is, no one can tell you definitively. The longer answer is with the correct recipe of intensive treatment, well qualified therapists, excellent parent education and training, and a commitment to consistency, any child with Autism can make great strides and permanently enhance their quality of life. Its good to think about and plan for the future, but parents please don’t drive yourself crazy with endless “What If” questions. Appropriate planning and consideration for the future is good, incessant worrying and anxiety is not.
2. I think my child may be on the Spectrum, but I'm not sure…..she isn’t like those kids you see on TV who have Autism. Maybe she will outgrow it. Autism is not one –size- fits- all. These children will differ greatly from each other. Media portrayals of Autism can be very one dimensional sometimes. Several years ago, every person with Autism was “Rainman”. Now it seems every person with Autism is “Bill Gates”. The pendulum has swung from exaggerating all Autism as a severely debilitating condition, to exaggerating all Autism as just a quirky or odd personality. Do not let the media tell you what Autism looks like, because the reality is Autism can look like anyone. Look for key deficits in specific developmental areas: communication, social interaction, play skills, eye contact, and joint attention deficits. If you have a hunch or gut feeling that something may be wrong, get an evaluation done. The sooner you get a diagnosis, the sooner you can access services.
3. What causes Autism? This question is such a political hot topic right now. The short answer is: we don't know. The longer answer is: There likely is not "one" cause, but rather a complex interaction of genetic and non-genetic factors, and of course Autism will impact different individuals differently. I think there are many causes for Autism, and sadly many myths floating around out there. What is more important is to focus on what to DO about helping your child with Autism and move out of the phase of searching for the cause.
4. My main therapist will be unable to work for 6 weeks, and we are freaking out! Who will cover those sessions?  It is always preferable to have more than one ABA therapist, and this is a big reason why. When you have multiple therapists its easy to cover sessions that are missed due to illness, vacation, car trouble, etc. Another reason for multiple therapists is you don’t want your child to get too attached to being taught by the same person. However if you only employ one direct therapist in your home and that person needs to miss sessions for any reason, guess who the backup therapist is? YOU. In the therapists’ absence the parents can step in and cover a session, or a few sessions. Parents should be so knowledgeable and comfortable with the child’s ABA programs that this could occur. 
5. I worry that my child hates his therapy and dislikes the therapist. He cries when she comes to the house, and he runs away from her. Should I be worried? I actually had this situation happen to me, where I started working with a little boy who just…didn’t…like…me. I would show up at the home, he would burst into tears. Let’s just say the parents weren’t thrilled to see their child react this way. Eventually we had a lightbulb moment and realized that the child was very sensory sensitive and reacted strongly to my perfume. It gave him migraines. So what was happening?  He associated me with pain. If your child has a consistent negative reaction to therapy or to a particular therapist, that’s a problem. It is normal for your child to avoid therapy sometimes, or to occasionally appear upset when the therapist arrives. The key word there is occasionally. A consistent negative reaction could mean many things: the therapist isn’t properly paired with the child, the therapist has become aversive to the child, the child is struggling with transitioning into work-time, the therapist need more training in reinforcement, etc.
6. I'm overwhelmed by all these treatment options. Should I research each one and read more books before I implement anything? Early intervention is key when it comes to Autism treatment. Throw away the concept of “wait and see". The sooner you begin intensive treatment the better the overall prognosis. Yes, the vast array of treatments for Autism is dizzying. Focus on treatments that address the deficits your child is exhibiting. Every child with Autism does not need speech therapy, or social skill groups, or intensive ABA. Autism impacts individuals differently, and some children with Autism may not need any therapies at all.
7. What kind of expert (teacher, physician, psychologist) is the best source to tell me about my child? Doctors, pediatricians, developmental psychologists, nurses, teachers, behavior specialists….as a parent of a child with Autism you may find yourself in the middle of a revolving door of professionals. It’s important that you understand professionals are qualified in a certain area or domain. They may be experts in child development, behavior, or Autism, but who is the expert on your child? You are.

FAQ Therapists:

1. My client completely ignores or is very aggressive with her siblings. I want to help the parents with this but Im not sure what to tell them. I discuss in my social skills post how to teach children with Autism to interact with toys or other people. It is very common to work with a child who will interact with, or be in close proximity to adults yet will cry, scream, or aggress if a child gets too close to them. Many parents feel especially hurt that their child won’t interact with his/her siblings. From the child’s perspective, their siblings are not special. Their siblings are just annoying, unpredictable, short people who happen to live with them. Social skills need to be explicitly taught, and part of your therapy sessions should include bringing the siblings together for structured interactions.
2. I know I'm supposed to provide parent education, but I'm not sure how OR The parents don’t want my help/feedback. Parent education at its core is simply involving the parents in the therapeutic process. You want to include the parents as part of the treatment team, even if you have to convince them why this is important. Your goal with parent education is to inform, educate, and provide feedback. The parents should know what programs you are teaching, what reinforcers are effective, what strengths the child has, etc. You may come across a family that seems uninterested or apathetic about parent education. Your response to this will vary depending on where you work. If you work for a company, parent involvement is often required and parents resistant to feedback are dropped as clients. If you work for yourself, you need to decide how you want to handle an apathetic client. If you aren’t careful some families may start to view your services as glorified babysitting, not therapy. You need to clarify that you are a professional providing a service and you need parent involvement to be successful. If the family is consistently apathetic, you may have to stop providing services to that family.
3. My client hates change. Should I accommodate that or should I intentionally change things so he can get used to it? Resistance to change and a rigidity of interests are characteristics of Autism. It is to be expected. As part of the therapy process, yes, you need to start exposing the child to a varied routine so they can learn to accommodate change. This should be done gradually and in increments. Its also important to use visual cues such as a picture schedule posted on the wall. You can change the pictures every so often to signify to the child that the routine will be different. Help the child learn to adjust to unforseen changes in their routine.
4. What's a Certified ABA Therapist? You might have heard someone refer to themselves as a certified ABA Therapist and wondered what that meant. There is no nationally recognized certification for ABA therapists other than board certification. Board certification comes at 3 levels: BCaBA for Bachelor Degree holders, BCBA for Master Degree holders, and BCBA-D for Doctorate Degree holders. When someone says they are certified in ABA this could mean almost anything. One person could hold an ABA certification due to taking graduate level coursework in Applied Behavior Analysis, but someone else could say they hold an ABA certification if they only attended a 2 day workshop on basic behavior theory.  For more information go to http://www.bacb.com.
5. My client acts so much worse around his parents than he does with me. Why is that? This is a very common question.  This doesn’t always occur for the reasons you may think. Its true that in some situations the parents may be inconsistent or lack follow-through on discipline. Beyond that, sometimes the child hasn’t generalized yet that they must listen to many adults and not just the therapist. For many children with Autism the parents are a safe haven. The parents serve as comforters, providers of food, love, hugs, kisses, and may be the only people the child feels fully comfortable with. Sometimes what looks like bad behavior can be a special parent-child bond.
6. My supervisor is unavailable, unhelpful, or makes me feel stupid for asking questions. What should I do? I love answering questions like these, because I have been in that position. I have had great, bad, and indifferent supervisors. When I was a new therapist it made me feel very uncomfortable to tell a supervisor they weren’t doing a good job. So I understand how hard it is to have that awkward conversation. I suggest talking to your supervisor 1:1 about the issue and providing concrete examples about the areas you feel are lacking. Make “I” statements instead of “You” statements, such as “I feel unprepared when I’m given no background information about a child I am working with” instead of “You need to stop sending me out to see clients without giving me their intake file first”. Focus on what you want to see improve, and explain what you need to benefit from training. If you don’t feel comfortable asking your supervisor questions, venting after a really bad session, or giving input on clinical ideas, then that’s a problem. No matter your experience level your supervisor should be open to your ideas and perspective, as long as you present it respectfully.
7. What do parents look for when hiring ABA therapists? What’s most important to them?  I have helped many families interview and hire in home ABA therapists, and I do think there are a few things all families have in common when hiring a therapist:
• The family wants you to enjoy your job- Even if you have minimal experience or training, clear passion can make a great impression on a family
•  The family wants you to show up when you say you will- Be on time for work, call if you are going to be late, and don’t end sessions early
•  The family wants you to be competent- All families want to see that you know your stuff. They want to see that you are knowledgeable and have expertise, which is why they are hiring you in the first place
•  The family wants you to see their child as a child first and a diagnosis second- Don’t view their child as a list of deficits and weaknesses, or a problem to be fixed
• The family wants you to be loving and kind- Parents love being around people who love their children