My Life Journey With My Special Kid!

@Mehana - I didn't understand your query. Is it hard to talk to the therapist and request goal additions? Therapists do have a hard time switching goals etc so it's best to bring it all up before the ITP is made (or ARD or IEP or whatever else your therapist calls it). If he masters the goals faster, therapists generally test out sooner than their stipulated six months and add to the goals or create new ITP, they are generally good with this since that's monitored closely by insurance. Hope this answers your question.

 

It's good to be back. Thanks for understanding. Hope things are alright now?

Family understanding helps. Thankfully, I do have a wonderful FOO. Every member putting everything else aside and being there for me, day after day, month after month, year after year, God does provide in some ways! DH of course, going way above and beyond.
Oh yeah, talk about feeling guilty about the achievements of one. My mind was asking me yesterday how this little one will react to his sister's achievements. I asked my mom that when I called her and she told me that it's in my hands to make him understand his self worth, just keep reminding him of his strengths like we do with her. Now you know how hard that is, I'm not eager to get to that bridge yet. I have the age gap to thank, for you it must be constant pressure because he sees his sis just a few years ahead of him.

It's a relief to know that there are others who know and understand. Thanks for being there for me. Truly appreciated. I hope you know I'm around too if needed!

 

In an ideal world, the BCBA should be monitoring goals, progress, mastery, skill levels etc and adjust goals accordingly. In the real world, I seldom see this happen. It isn't with malice, it's just that sometimes with so many kids to monitor, the BCBA doesn't work with our child on a daily one on one basis and doesn't quite get what the therapists are doing. I have always noticed, the more involved the mom, the better outcome from therapy. Keep pushing but do it diplomatically. Plus, ABA is always better with parent involvement. The more you follow it at home, the better the outcome. I now know how long skill mastery takes and I am involved in the goals process even before they write the six months goals. I seldom have to have that redone or more added or some removed. Once you get to know how your child works, you will become better than the therapist at knowing his learning style and also what he can accomplish and how long it takes. Always be involved in the goals process, only you know whats best for him.

 

How long has he been doing ABA? How often do they test and revise goals? Is the BCBA answering your questions and traiining you well? And most importantly when you mention he has mastered something what does she say? If he is mastering goals too soon, they may need to review and redo his goals so that he has more goals to work on. We always have a set of goals and they keep cycling through them and when one is mastered they just do maintenance on that but go through the other stuff. There is never a dearth for goals in his ITP, if there is then they start re-testing and re-do the ITP before the stipulated six months. I never get goals added mid way through unless there is really something he needs to do. What you are saying sounds quite haphazard. How is your insurance agreeing to this?

 

Since you do meet/review monthly and adding goals if they don't have enough to work on and you stay on top of sessions to ensure everything is going well, you could ask the bcba if she can think of anything else to add other than what you are suggesting. I always ask my lead therapists for their recommendations and then the bcba. I tell them this is what I would like but what are your suggestions? When I do that, they usually come up with a good set of goals. I also ensure there aren't any academic goals in my son's plan. I also have things that I don't give as goals but work on it myself at home(mostly small things). Sometimes I don't follow recommendations and just do my own thing and for those things I don't tell them. Just do it with him and most often when they see the results they are happy. Do you have any NT kids for your son to play with. I get so many ideas from kids my son plays with in terms of neurotypical things kids do/say. I just teach him those things even though they aren't purely ABA. It helps my son a lot.

Btw, reg reading and going overboard, I do it all the time. But other moms always tell me that staying aware and reading and talking about it only helps. So I continue gaining knowledge. One of these days you and I can become BCBAs ourselves