ABA and the 1st week

So sorry this is a little later than what I wanted it to be, my computer contracted a virus and we spent a good chunck of Saturday scanning and getting frustrated, its all fixed! Yay!

Well Elijah has officially been in the new ABA program for a week. What a week! It felt more like a year, a very long year. It was as rough as they warned me it would be, the nice thing was I was prepared for it. Or at least as prepared as I could be..

In the ABA style program they chart every little thing including tantrums. or “behaviors” as they call them…you should see Elijah’s behavior chart, its almost laughable. they already filled it and working on a new one! He has really been resisting the new style, which is very typical. ABA is a teacher lead and directed program. Elijah is expected to do the probes (which are like repetitive drills) when the teachers tell him to. His old therapy was DRA or DIR style which was child led, they followed him around and used what he wanted to do to teach him. The change is so different and abrupt he definitely noticed it. So we get to listen to him scream and throw fits all. Day. Long.

ABA..so far it is exactly what I had hoped it would be. All the research I did really paid off. Because now that he has started I am even more confidant this is what he needed. Some times the things we need are the hardest on us. This is very true in Elijah’s case. This has been so hard on him, very tiring. ABA is a curriculum of sorts. They start with very basic things to teach him, things that Elijah can already do but they are trying to teach him compliance…… some of his probes are as followed

*Teacher “Elijah look at me” and Elijah is expected to give eye contact. most of the time he doesn’t. and then they direct his gaze to achieve eye contact, if he does it he gets rewarded.

*Teacher ”Elijah sit down” and Elijah is expected to sit. If he doesn’t sit, he is sat down.

*Teacher “Elijah, do this” and either pushes a matchbox car back and forth or stacks blocks. he is expected to imitate. and he normally doesn’t and has hand over hand guidance and is made to imitate

Teacher “Lets play” and then expects him to do a shape sorter

These drills are done over and over again. and the goal is to achieve compliance. While teaching him the skill.. Right now he has 17 hrs of therapy a week and that will soon increase once he gets acclimated. He pretty much throws a temper at every drill. He screams and throws himself back, it can get pretty intense!

 My poor other two kids don’t know what to think of it all because it does add allot of stress. But we know in time it will get better.

You see for me, hope, carries me through these rough days. When I look at Elijah all I see is the potential in him. What he can achieve, what he is capable of. I choose not to look at what he cant do, but what he can do. The ABA program is intense, its  hard it’s the less traveled path because its not easy…but allot of kids recover from autism that are in the program by 1^st grade. if there is follow through at home. Which of course we are doing. So, in these really hard times, and they are really really hard. I remind myself of our goal. I remind myself to stay thankful. Because I was never promised that this would be easy but my little boy is worth any minor discomfort I may feel…because someday, when he tells me he loves me,  at that moment, I wont remember any of this.