[Deleted User]

Hi everybody,
I am trying to get in touch with Sharon Baxter. If anybody out there could forward my email and/or phone number to her, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,

Franca
Tessa's Mom
francapastro@shaw.ca
(250) 598-9701

[Deleted User]

Here in Ontario when the IBI program was initiated, we parents who had been running ABA programs were worried too. Would the children be " PUNISHED" for beating their autism and making too much progress to now be considered for the discrimnitory Government IBI program?
Fortunately in many cases, evidence was taken into account when determining eligibility for Government funded treatment. They viewed video records parents had made showing where the children were when they started ABA. In some cases that was two or more years before the IBI program starting accepting children.
This may be a point to be brought up in BC.
Just thought I would throw that out your way.
norrah
aba4u@earthlink.net
fight4aba@hotmail.com

[Deleted User]

Forgot one thing,

Any child who is already recognized as being autistic and is already on the MCF list, even if only diagnosed by a pedicatrician is eligible. In other words the multi disciplinary team is for new diagnosis only. However Sabrina is right, parents just in the process of getting a diagnosis, beware of Sunnyhill and the diagnosis of "PDD". I've heard many horror stories of diagnosis day including my all time favorite…

the mother of a child who had been in an ABA program for a year and who had started before the age of 2 and who had made significant progress but who continued to exhibit self-injurious behaviour, rigidities and stims on an extremely frequent basis was told despite the previous sunnyhill diagnosis of autism, the child was not actually autistic because the child had made TOO much progress. Apparently children with autism (the mother was told) do not actually make any progress – despite all the research studies, law suits and other official documents out there. THe mother replied with this and reminded the team that the child had been doing ABA for a significant period of time but was assured that none of this mattered for even then, children with autism don't actually make progress.

Those of us whose children are making progress, apparently are kids aren't actually autistic. Oh, how reassuring!!!

with a roll of the eyes, I once again sign off

Michelle

[Deleted User]

A small addendum to Sabrina's post as well as those before it…

The cutoff age is actually the month that your child turns 7 so children who are ages 6 AND under are eligible. I urge anyone who's child is within that bracket to call their social worker if they have not been notified of this.

I too have tried to get a list of service providers and have had no luck, it is supposed to be posted at http://www.autismbc.ca

While I have not yet seen the list, I have seen their qualifications for people who are able to be paid out of these funds, these include Behavioural Consultants who must be either a registered psychologist, masters of education, SLP or masters degre in a closely related field, with strong behavioural background workign with young childreen with ASD and knowledge in ABA or an indificual who has completed training or apprenticeship program under the supervision of an individual with the above qualifications and who has several years direct experience designing and implementing tretament programs for young children with Autism Spectrum disorder

money can also be used to pay behavioural interventionists which is defined as the person who implements an individualized plan on intervention on a one to one basis. They must also be 19 years of age and pass a criminal record check.

It also includes SLP's, occupatioknal therapists and physcial therapists.

And the previous post is right, there is provision for music therapy or horse back riding or other non ABA methods.

My husband spoke with an administrator of the program and she assured us that if our consultant was not already on the list her qualifications were valid. THe qualifications seem loose enough that any valid consultant should be able to get in. Actually they seem loose enough that alot of unqualified people could be eligible as well – Parents shop wisely when choosing!!

The magic number is 1,667 per month for everyone. (and I am curious how the previous post was receiving 1800 a month, talk about the gov being all over the place in regards to funding. THe inequality of the previous system infuriates me to no end… another discussion though).

While this is a big step for those who have children who are eligible, it is only one step in this fight. Our children too will reach that magic age of 7 and guess what, there is no magic cure on that day. We must continue to fight with the parents of "older" children (since when is a 7 year old too old, since when do we give up and turn our back on a child?!?!) to ensure that they too receive medically necessary treatment.

And we MUST remember that this victory was won through their suffering and their struggles. We owe them and the way to pay them back is to continue to remain vigilant about our demand for equality for ALL children with autism.

Thank you to all of you who were part of the AUTON decision, whether in the fore front or background of the fight. This fight is not over.

okay, off of my soapbox now…

Michelle
Mommy and Case manager of two tremendously successful program for Breanna and Griffen

[Deleted User]

Does anyone know if this theory of vaccines vs. autims has been previously tried in court? What happened? Also, has anyone had a chance to talk to Klein-Lyons in Vancouver about the specifics of the case?

[Deleted User]

Re: Class Action Lawsuit, dpt vaccines, etc.

Maybe you guys can fill me in. I thought that up to this point, there was no scientific support for a link between childhood vaccines and autism? Has something changed or is this just more hogwash perpetrated by naturopaths/Scientologists/assorted other varmints?

[Deleted User]

I think she posted it anonymously because she was trying to be discrete. The chat board is a tool to talk about anything that might help that child's program. Not everyone can afford a number #1 consultant and not everyone has their consultant at their beckon call. And there are many times you have used your consultants ideas and they do not work PERIOD. If I would not have seeked out families and therapists to aide in our son's language program he probably would still not be talking to this day. I am so glad I did because my son is speaking now thanks to a therapists program.
I admire that person's intentions and noticing that there is a problem and doing their best to help the child. It probably took them alot of courage to post on here because each time you reach out, there is someone (usually Avery) beating them down to a pulp. People should be giving there experience or knowledge they have about the situation to help them if they can. If not then move on and not post an arguementive comment. People do their best in whatever situation they are in. We should not judge. I find there are more postings on the arguement of what people should post rather than helping them. Don't divide us intentionally.
To try and help…always look for the inconsistency from different environments and try to have expectations consistent. That would set off my son. Most importantly, show her at her level what is appropriate and what is not. At my son's level, when he needed it, we had a red and green square. Red side had a sad face and 4 different behaviours we were targeting drawn on there. Green side had a happy face and 4 appropriate things he could do instead. This worked well and eventually our teacher used it in class.
If she has lots of language maybe she could use that to communicate she is frustrated. Have her say before she hits, "i am mad" or "i don't like this". Of course eventually she would have to do the task at hand, but my consultant has always said to have our son communicate without agression and deal with it brick by brick. Eventually, when he got to a task he didn't like, he would say I don't like it or I don't want to do it, and that was the end of the learning there because our goal was for him to express without being aggressive. We then changed our focus to
him being able to complete the task without being agressive. We at first had to coax him through it and then that behaviour became a thing of the past. We used visual and verbal reinforcement.

I guess before the goal was to have her complete that task but now I think your goal has changed to have her communicate frustration appropriately and have her complete tasks without being aggressive. Hope this helps (even a little bit) and sorry you got your head chopped off)

I posted anonymously so I won't get my head bitten off too.

[Deleted User]

Oh my god, " Bunch of stranger "?, we are all here to help each other, and for the Anonymous you don't have to say sorry for anything is like you say before this list is like other list we are here to provide support and get some help from parents and professionals.

[Deleted User]

I'm sorry that the post was taken so wrong! Of course we are doing everything as stated by the consultant… we were just wondering if anyone had any other ideas to help cope with the behaviour or to provide support during this stage. Just like any website, support group, peer review journal, or book on ABA therapy would provide ideas, that is what the intent was. I wasn't doing it anonymously to protect myself, and the family is fully aware of the post. I have done my education in order to dedicate myself to doing the best I can for these children. It hurts that this was read the wrong way..I am definitely not a deceitful person! I am sorry for offending you.

[Deleted User]

I am posting this on behalf of a team I am a member of. We are looking for any suggestions on how to extinguish aggressive behaviour – specifically hitting. This young girl (who has been in therapy for several years) has been striking out when called to the table for some drills, usually ones that require sentence responses or phonetics. Another scenario in which she has hit therapists is during Pretend Play with blocks. We try to incorporate a "play" situation with a finished building (which she correctly copied with no problem whatsoever) by adding a toy animal or person. She also strikes out when a therapist intervenes on inappropriate use of toys, or when guided through a structured play activity with a schedule. This behaviour has been present in school and seems to have perhaps carried into the home therapy program. Our consultant has suggested extinction, compliance, and increasing reinforcements. This is a new behaviour for her, as she is usually cheerful and enthusiastic. We were wondering if anyone had any suggestions or ideas about what we could do to extinguish this hitting? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

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