You are welcome. It sounded like you are close. They are not all table time. I am curious to hear what you think.

Elizabeth,

Thank you so much for all of the great information. I really appreciate it! The company we were really not impressed with was North Shore Pediatric in Glenview. We know other people who do like them, maybe it was the therpaists we meet with but we were not impressed. I felt like it was all table time and was the program was not going to be individualized to meet our son's needs.

We are really searching for a program that is not strict ABA, but more flexible that incorporates the best method for our son. We are going to set up an appointment with KGH as we are very close to their facility.

Thank you again for all of the great information.

We are also looking into By Your Side. They are closer and we heard good things. The National Research Council suggests 25 hours of therapy/education weekly for kids with autism ages 3-5. I think this can include small group instruction at school and parent delivered activities. After that school meets those hours. I think it depends on the kid, but that is the guideline that we always tried to use.

Hi Steph,We continued at Il. Masonic. The parent training explained Autism,treatment options and which treatment has the most research behind it, how to use visuals and social stories, and shared resources that are available.They provided child care.We went weekly for about a month. It is required in order to use the services. We took our son for behavioral therapy 1-2 hours a week. We went in with him so that we knew how to work with him. He attended a Two's Company group where he worked with another child and 2 therapists. We observed from the observation room. We eventually participated in a great program called Bridges. It is an ABA program that included Early Start Denver Model and Structured Teaching. We went into therapy twice weekly for 90 minutes. We went to a separate hour group training where we shared videos. We were given homework. We committed to 10 hours of weekly homework. Eventually one of the days turns into an OT then speech group. Parents observe. They might offer in home but depends on insurance. We moved to the suburbs, but will still use them for evaluations etc.
I heard that Easter Seals Tap program also provides evaluations.
Instructional ABA company was not successful with our son. A lot of different inexperienced people that were not supervised. CBI canceled on us a lot.
We used KGH for a Summer parent training and saw a lot of results. We are looking into using them again. We only stopped because we did not have the right insurance at the time. We switched a little due to coverage and a couple of companies not being a fit for him.

Do you mind sharing which companies that you were not impressed with?

Elizabeth, thank you for the response. We are actually on the waiting list at Erickson right now and I have heard some concerning things, so I am looking for other options. Did you continue going to IL Masonic after the evaluation for parent training? What type of training?

If you don't mind me asking where is your child getting ABA?
We are just starting to look into adding ABA and have not been impressed with the two providers we have met with.