My son is mod-severe and hard to engage. He has a team of rotating RBTs at his ABA center. About half of them look bored/sleepy when working with him. I know he doesn't respond much to people trying to engage him, so I don't blame the RBTs for feeling it's not worth faking enthusiasm. Is this normal? Every time I see this, I consider switching centers but I don't think his previous center was dramatically better. Does it even matter since they are otherwise doing ABA correctly?
I found a clinical setting does not work for my son. He just stares at the walls and won't respond. We moved around to several places before figuring this out. Once we moved to a place that is in a home, on a horse ranch, he opened up. He is so much more comfortable there and has responded to his therapies. He has speech, occupational, and physical there. We found a place that offers ABA services in a play like environment. He loves it.
We are in Houston
It is pretty awesome. Where are you located?
Wow, that center sounds awesome!
Thanks for your response. They may say good job but not very enthusiastically or ask for a high five (which he doesn't find reinforcing but he complies anyway). He doesn't engage with us very much either so our own enthusiasm with him is mostly ignored unless we are engaging in some song he likes or something. They use the iPad as his major reinforcer because he doesn't have a lot of reinforcers they can use in that setting.