Have You Considered Not Doing Therapy? | MyAutismTeam

Connect with others who understand.

sign up Log in
Resources
About MyAutismTeam
Powered By
Real members of MyAutismTeam have posted questions and answers that support our community guidelines, and should not be taken as medical advice. Looking for the latest medically reviewed content by doctors and experts? Visit our resource section.
Have You Considered Not Doing Therapy?
A MyAutismTeam Member asked a question πŸ’­

If your child is pretty high functioning and doesn't have a lot of obvious behavior issues, have you considered not doing all the therapy? My child is almost two. Everywhere I look, it says "get him in intensive therapy now!!!!"
I posed the question over at wrongplanet (an autism forum) asking what type of therapy some of those that actually had autism, mostly now teen and adult, would prescribe. Most of them actually said that if they had to go through ABA or something so rigorous, it… read more

posted December 4, 2014
β€’
View reactions
A MyAutismTeam Member

Reading @A MyAutismTeam Member's blog made me think about the mundane issue of shuttling kids all over the place; as a practical matter, our setup where therapists went to school and then came to our house really cut down on that. There's a big difference between driving a kid to a 2-hour appointment and then hanging around during it, versus having someone come to your house and teach some skills in the living room while you do the dishes... it's totally fair to consider this kind of issue when choosing what to do! It will matter in terms of what's practical and sustainable for the family.

posted December 8, 2014
A MyAutismTeam Member

Figuring out what type of therapy and how much will be effective is unique to each of our kids and families. I hear this from a lot of families I work with at the Asperger/Autism Network (AANE) and I remember feeling really confused about it when my son was young and we were getting lots of different recommendations. Here's a blog post I wrote to try and help families make these decisions: http://www.brendadater.com/blog/therapy-101-tip...
Good luck deciding what will work for you!

posted December 8, 2014
A MyAutismTeam Member

I'm leery of anything I read on wrongplanet. Be aware that those folks were either on the higher end of the spectrum, got there naturally or were able to respond well to some form of education/therapy. They remind of people who dropped out of high school and got rich. They then go on about how higher education is a waste of time and money. I wish I had the ABA option because I feel like I'm letting my daughter down. It's sad to hear what's available in other states but we can't from here to there. Now I know a little how it feels like to live in ebola areas in West Africa and know there's treatment in more advanced countries.

posted December 5, 2014
A MyAutismTeam Member

We did consider it, and now that our son is 5 and doing very well we've scaled the therapy WAY back (from 25 hours to ~5) and are close to dropping it entirely. But I'm really glad we did it.

1. Unfortunately, it is impossible to predict the future (see this question about that: http://www.myautismteam.com/questions/546f3d710... ). Our son was middle-of-spectrum at 3 and is now doing fantastic at 5; but nobody could have known that. If your son is not even 2, it's even harder to know.

2. Our son is a super happy kid too and ABA hasn't changed that. He loved the tutors coming over to entertain him.

3. I had the benefit of looking back on my own childhood. I was very rule-following and didn't cause adults any trouble. However, and I don't think my parents even knew the extent of it, I was also bullied daily and constantly for years, with zero friends - due to total social cluelessness. Having lived this and also seeing my son's ABA... his ABA program was that a fun college kid came over and played with him every day. Now he's mostly caught up with the other kids socially and has a lot of fun playing with them. My childhood was very hard. Grass is always greener I suppose, but I think my son wins this contrast; I would not wish for him what I went through, and I love that he has SO much fun now with friends.

4. A lot of kids who are verbal, smart, etc. still truly struggle. They don't know how to interact with others, they misbehave in ways that are unsafe or get them kicked out of school, they are anxious. It can be bad. Is this always true - no. But it often is.

5. Some issues are caused by delay. If you get behind too much, you can't make friends and practice socializing, you get anxious, and then it's a vicious cycle. Catching up quickly in preschool can pay off.

6. Our goals for our son were never about toileting and playing with toys unusually and stuff like that; it's OK in our book to be unusual and we thought he'd learn life skills eventually. ABA goals were focused on friends and play.

7. Lots of good intervention for 2 years, or even 6 months, might beat 15 years of inadequate stuff. We became much better parents after just 6 months of coaching. Couple-hours-of-speech-and-OT does almost nothing to help with friends, play, or home life. Social skills therapy is hard for kids at age 12 in a way that it isn't at age 3.

8. You can fire therapists, adjust hours, etc. at any time; you don't have to decide forever. When it's not needed or it's too stressful, scale back. If a therapist is bad, lose them.

9. 15 of our son's hours per week overlapped a mainstream play-based preschool and 10 were at home; this worked great for him.

10. I dislike medicalization of my son's personality and don't believe in trying to "normalize" him. ABA can go in those directions, but I feel we found a way to avoid them. Our son is still himself (and not at all normal) but now he has better skills.

posted December 4, 2014
A MyAutismTeam Member

http://www.superduperinc.com/ This is a great site with material that you can buy to help your son with his therapies yourself all of the therapist get there products from here.

posted December 13, 2014

Related content

View All
Where Are Good Places For Therapy In Nashville, TN
A MyAutismTeam Member asked a question πŸ’­
Help! We Can't Rely On Anyone For Help Spending Time With Our Daughter. She Is 24 With Mild Autism. Need A Companion/buddy In SC.
A MyAutismTeam Member asked a question πŸ’­
Experiences Of GFCF Diet, Does It Help?
A MyAutismTeam Member asked a question πŸ’­
Continue with Facebook
Continue with Google
Your privacy is our priority. By continuing, you accept our Terms of use and Privacy policy.
Already a Member? Log in