Aide for our preschooler with sensory processing disorder?
Hi folks, my 3.5 year old son has been diagnosed with Sensory processing disorder and lately he has been using his hands a lot on other kids in school and even teachers, sometimes due to sensory seeking mode, sometimes for trying to show frustration and sometimes just because. The school has been keeping a log and try and talk to him each time an incident happens but within few minutes he goes right back at it. School is recommending we get someone like ABA aide/shadow for him, we are fine with that approach. Challenge is because my son is not diagnosed with any autism code and is not on spectrum, insurance is not covering the aide. I asked around and without insurance an ABA aide can cost upto 11 grand a month for 15 hours a week, which is definitely impossible for us.
Has anyone been in this situation? Where have you found someone reasonable for correcting a behavioral issue onsite and is at $50 or under and hour? I will take any advice here!!
Thank you!!
Parent Replies
Is it possible for him to be evaluated for Autism? Many people consider SPD to be a symptom of Autism, rather than a stand-alone diagnosis. I personally did not want to accept that until my son's behavior really crossed some lines, and now we have the ASD diagnosis and I wish we had sought it out earlier. It's hard to go through this, but it sounds like a diagnosis will get you access to services that your child needs, so I would ask for evaluations from a developmental pediatrician. Hugs to you.
If your son has a diagnosis, I imagine the OT or whoever assessed him came up with recommendations to support him. These should be discussed at the school and hopefully some modifications could be made. If there were no recommendations, go back to the person and request them. Talking about it to him doesn't necessarily help if he can't help it!! At this age, kids still need support to manage these kinds of things.In my experience, ABA therapists don't necessarily know how to address all kinds of sensory differences.It depends on their training.
Hello. We saw your post and wanted to give a recommendation for Rebecah Freeling, who is a parent coach in Berkeley. Rebecah is exactly the person you want to work with to help resolve challenges with your child. We faced similar challenges with our daughter including willful disobedience, difficulty focusing, proprioception, picky appetite and other parenting issues. Rebecah helped us through many of the issues and we have developed much better techniques to work with our daughter and now have a better relationship with her as a result. Some of the issues began manifesting themselves at school as well, especially around circle and story time. Rebecah was able to do some training with the teachers, making it possible for us to solve the problems without hiring an aide. Rebecah's sense of creativity and understanding will probably help you work through many of the issues. We really appreciated Rebecah because her approach allowed for really teaching our daughter rather than just stopping/intervening in the behavior. It also cost a lot less than an aide would have! The highest recommendation for Rebecah!!