Should I be getting more from our ABA provider?
DS has been receiving ABA therapy since the very end of July and he has been making progress.
BUT there are constant scheduling changes. He has 3 therapists and he spends the majority of his time with an Associate Therapist who has only a few months of experience. The Sr therapist only sees him for a few hours a week and usually has no time alone w/my son because one of the associate therapists are overlapping for questions, etc... AND one of the 3 therapis just resigned.
The director stated that she was going to come out one or twice a month but she's only come here 2 times.
We just has so many questions regarding DS's behaviors and don't know if the behaviors are him being 2 or if it's his PDD (ASD) and I feel as though the therapists are not competent of answering the questions.
Would I be crzy at this point to go through the process of taking a chance with a different service provider. What should I be expecting from an ABA provider?
thx!!!!!
Re: Should I be getting more from our ABA provider?
That is a tough situation. I am in a little bit different situation-I have a consultant who oversees our Program Supervisor. Our Program Supervisor is pretty much the one the runs our therapists meetings every two weeks, adding things, changing things, offering advice to the therapists and me, and addressing any concerns that we have. Our consultant comes every 2-3 months, she works under Carbone.
We have 3 therapists and an additional one during the summer months. They are all privately hired by us and are not employees of our consultant or program supervisor. But several of our therapists do have other clients with our same consultant and program supervisor, so they do have a good working relationship established already.
Anyway, to your question, sorry. One of our therapist is notorious for calling in sick at least once every few weeks, she sees my ds twice a week. But, we are fortunate to have one of our other therapists who has agreed to be back up for her. The problem is, as much as this is irritating to us, therapists in our area are few and far between and the autism community is pretty tight around here, everyone knows everyone. Plus this therapist has over 10 years experience, and when she works with our ds, she is impressive. So, really I pretty much have to deal with it, we have no choice.
If you have other programs in the area readily available, then I'd say go for it. Just make sure you leave on good terms, and when switching, don't say anything negative about your current program. Word gets around. I hope this helps some. Good luck!
All our ABA services are centralized through one local provider, so communication is a benefit of that arrangement... if I'm having concerns about DD's program or behaviors, it's very easy to arrange for the BCBA to stop in during one of her sessions (if she isn't already- she comes in once every two or so weeks, which I'm comfortable with). My BA's don't cancel often at all... since July, maybe three times total? I realize that this will probably change as we're getting into flu/cold season, but I trust that they're using their best judgment when deciding to cancel a session. That trust came from spending months with them already, though. My trust in them had already been established, you know?
Have you discussed your concerns with your current providers? Like a PP said, the special needs service community is a small one, so I'd be sure to do whatever you can to address the current situation before deciding to move on. That being said, I have seen first-hand the value of a solid, well-thought-out ABA program administered CONSISTENTLY by qualified BA's and BCBA's, and I would not hesitate for a second to make sure any concerns I had about it were addressed.
You absolutely have the right to request competent therapists. When I was new to this I wasn't very assertive in that aspect either, although I had two very inexperienced therapists and felt they were not doing my son any good. Now that we've been doing this for over a year I realized, we as parents drive the bus more than we think. You absolutely deserve more one on one time with the supervisor/director (in my case it's the director about once every two months, the supervisor once a month, the lead therapist twice a week). And mind you, we're on a phase out program now....earlier I had the director twice a month, and the supervisor twice a month as well. It should even be written in your papers with RC or SD (whichever one pays for the services) how many supervision hours per month you get and they need to stick to it. In my case, it was 6 hours/month (some of it is for paperwork, but at least 3-4 hours were one-on-one with the supervisor/director).
As far as the therapists, one day I finally voiced my concerns and gave examples of why I thought they were incompetent (it's good to keep a log of specifics before you call the supervisor) and they were replaced immediately by experienced therapists.
I think you should do that first - it's much like firing an employee...you first write him/her up and give them a chance to fix it. Same thing with your ABA agency....before you fire them, give them a chance to fix the problem, IMO. But, be very frank about it and even mention you're thinking about switching agencies because of it - threaten them a little with it, if you must. Try to speak to the highest possible ranked person that deals with your case....in my case I informed the director and the supervisor about my concerns. They do want the funding and usually don't like if a client wants to leave them, so they will probably try to fix it and give you their best possible people to pacify you. At least, that's what happenned to me. All of a sudden, "scheduling conflicts" were not a problem anymore, they switched like 6 different cases in order to accomodate us when I really got serious about it. Before that, they were giving me all sorts of excuses why it couldn't be done.
But, if it doesn't get better quickly, I'd say - switch! There are great agencies out there, it's just a matter of finding them (hopefully that's the case in your area, too).
GL!