[David Chan]

Hi Everyone,

Did anyone else see the "Special"- Autism the
road back. on Knowlege network last night
Any comments other than how
Mike and Tammara looked pretty good on TV.

I am very interested in what other people saw
in the special,what they thought about the
information given in the program and their
reaction to it.

I will wait and see how other people felt and
then I will post my thoughts

Dave,

Mr. P's Dad

[David Chan]

Hi all,

Well, me and the boy went to the Lion’s game
last night. Truth, I’m not a real big sports fan,
and sporting events are kind of expensive. As
luck would have it, I was given a pair of tickets
to the game, so me and Mr. P headed for the
game.

We went to the stadium, now, if memory
serves, they showed the total attendance that
night to be 25,681 give of take a few souls.
There were fire works and realllllly loud music
all round!! It was deafening. Oy, such a
headache!

Following the game is pretty darn hard. Mr. P
was paying enough attention to tell me which
way the Lions were, going, I was pretty darn
impressed. He liked his ice cream way better
then the game, and he actually liked looking
the cheerleaders (That’s my boy!), and mascot
Waaaaay better. .

The game was pretty slow until about the end
of the 3rd quarter, and people started to stand
up and cheer, some guy had one of those
aerosol horns, it was just really obnoxious.
He sat maybe two rows ahead of us. Cool
part—we would all stand up and cheer, and
this guy would honk his horn, Mr. P would
cringe, but he would keep cheering and
clapping

Extra cool—I didn’t have to prompt him to
stand, towards the end the game he knew
what to do….

What does any of this have to do with Autism
and ABA therapy, hmmm? –Well, Lets see,
when he was in kindergarten, THEY said loud
noises would set him off, and he would start
to tantrum so really he shouldn’t be in
assemblies, and of course those echo filled
gyms well, he couldn’t possibly participate in
gym class.

Me and Mr.P’s mom came to this conclusion.
People—I mean by that, people with very little
vested interest in seeing our children make
gains–You all know who they are, so I won’t
bother to list the litany of professionals and
para-professionals you all already know.
These folks will take a few features that tag a
kid and decide way ahead of time what they
are like, and that is the way it will like forever
and ever Amen.

Think about what that is doing to our children.

Not only do they marginalize our children, they
diminish any possibility that OUR CHILDREN
WILL have, some kind of a LIFE. It’s as if it
just doesn’t matter. We have our nice jobs
helping SPECIAL children, and we are doin’ it,
so your kid is just one of those unfortunate
souls. What can we do about that…. But I
digress,

Our family has been fortunate and grateful, to
have started Lovaas therapy with Mr. P when
he was five and a half. We have chosen to
share his successes, and triumphs with all of
you, but please, always remember, especially
the new parents reading the chat board, that
this was not always so. This child had 50 to
60 tantrums a day, and was afraid of
thresholds, whenever, he crossed one, he
would tantrum, yep that’s right, every door.
Loud noises, I don’t even want to go there.

It’s the beginning of his 7th year of therapy, is
he done yet? NO, Has he made PROGRESS,
You bet your bottom-mortgaged dollar, and I
have the DATA to back that up, not just good
stories.

Are we going to continue doing ABA therapy?
What do you all think.??

And no, I don’t get a cut or commission from
ANY of the ABA service providers.

During the Football game, I wept; I have an
eleven-year-old Son! I think that says it all

Still living La vida Lovaas

Mr.P’s Mom and Dad

[David Chan]

Being incredibly frugal and fiscally challenged
always look for freebies. When you do
photofinishing at places like London Drugs,
sometime they will have these transparent
plastic photo albums. They have 4" by 6"
pockets.
perfect for an index card, picture etc.

We've use them for sequencing tasks,
rule books.
and of course if you need to pull something
out or change stuff it's a snap

the best part, if you talk really nicely to the
photofinishing clerk, these puppies are FREE

so thats another one for your list Avery

Dave
Mr. P's frugal Dad

[David Chan]

Well, as you all may know Mr. P is quite
hyper-verbal, which is to stay he talks, and
talks and talks and talks most of the time
about things that he's seen, heard,
experienced etc.

finally, we couldn't hack it anymore so our
consultant designed a program for topic
maintenance.

hmmmmmmm

Mr. P's Dad
Glad he's talking, but…………

P.S. This may apply to the chat board of
late……

[David Chan]

Thanx Jean
Dave
Mr. P's Dad

[David Chan]

Thank you once again for your clarity Sabrina !

Dave,
Mr. P's Dad, and case Manager-(with
extensive consultation with our consultant)

[David Chan]

the andersen decision is posted on

http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca

then click supreme court

[David Chan]

As another parent of a child with autism, I
send kudos to the senior executive and parent
of a child with autism for compiling such an
insightful set of guidelines to others trying to
obtain ABA facilitation in the classroom.
Thank you for taking the time out to do this.
Also thank you for your candor in describing
the process ("laughing, crying, screaming,
taking hours and daysÉ, and alienating the
rest of your family") . My husband and I have
been down this long and winding road and
your description is completely apropos.

However, you refer to "moderate success" in
obtaining adequate ABA facilitation. The term
"moderate" concerns me because my child
(and IÕm sure there are many like him) is so
behaviourally complex, and has such a unique
learning style, that "moderate" cooperation
simply will not suffice. Most children require a
high degree of consistency and sophistication
in order for their Lovaas program to produce
the results itÕs meant to.

Based on this, I would caution parents to
avoid settling for anything less than a high
degree of cooperation from their schools. ItÕs
painful to watch your child undergo the "yo-yo"
effect as he/she regresses at school, returns
home and temporarily improves due to
heightened consistency, only to regress again
the next day at school. ItÕs even more painful
to speculate how much improvement he/she
could have made had school not been "the
weakest link".

We are fortunate that our child is now within
the private system, where there are much
fewer resources (those "fancy titles" anon
referred to :) and yet a much higher degree of
cooperation. However our child lost almost an
entire year of school before we got to this
point.

Just a little food for thought.

Mr. PÕs Mom

p.s. Incidentally he did the monkey bars for the
first time today!!! He never ceases to amaze!

[David Chan]

Way to go Miki and Jon. You guys are my
heros, not to mention all you un-named kids
out there working your little tushes off. You
make us proud, and you make us all better
people too.

Way to go !!!!!!!!!!!!

I think that all ABA parents share in the
success of these children. Theses children's
sucesses gives us parents the inspiration to
carry on for yet another day.

To all of you that look in, don't you guys ever,
ever, ever decide ahead of time what OUR
Children will be able to achieve.

Wow, Way to go !!!!!!

Dave
Mr. P' s Dad

[David Chan]

Wow, what a thread you've started. Kinda
gives us parents a swift kick in the pants, and
just when you think there's a light at the end of
the tunnel, it turns out to be a runaway train.

Ya know, our dear maligned Anon poster just
might be yanking our chain and enjoying the
fun. Cruel you say; not bad for a dog trick.

Heck, Anon might not even be for real or–
even a more frightening possiblity–IS for real.

At the end of the day we will carry on, in spite
of the vitriol,cause "getting better, a little better
all the time" is a GOOD thing.

Thank you again to this much maligned Anon,
cause no matter how hard you try to yank my
chain, this dog ain't gonna jump.

By the way, I too ,am grammatically
challenged, but my dear wife proofreads,
before she lets me push the post button.

Been around too long to be jerked around.

Dave,
Mr. P's Dad

[Author]

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