A Home based ABA Program Model
Purpose: The purpose of this page is just to present our own
experiences. It is not to suggest that
everyone must follow our model. This
was a program that was highly individualized- especially in the last two years. If you blindly
cut and paste our programs and apply it to another child, you will do that
child a disservice and can even do harm.
NEW: Added in the month of December: more biomedical information under methods we tried , new programs: What’s Missing?, TOM, TOM/Syntax, self-monitor, and essays: Welcome to Beirut, Updated 2d grade journal, new link of another family “the Kearneys”, Pronouns, gender, I SEE,
Object labels, first grade shadow form, a flow chart used by some families, writing samples under both “writing” and “2nd” grade journal.
Over the next few months, we plan to add all
of the programs we worked on, all of our journal entries, and even talk about
some of the mistakes we made in our programming. Please forgive us if the website seems out of order or
random. We have to input over three
years worth of data, experience, and information. Admitting our mistakes might help others to avoid the same
path. The mistakes we made were usually
not because ABA was wrong, but because
we were misapplying ABA.
Chapter
essays tell
a little about our history and about the myths and lessons we learned from
Autism. They are personal in
nature. We felt this was important
because it is not easy to run a homebased program or to design an intervention
program. It is hard on parents
physically, financially, and more important, emotionally. Even though
our official ABA program has now ended with the encouragement of our
behaviorist, we are still healing from Autism as a family. Our credit cards still reflect the effects
of having a child with autism. Our lives are still dealing with the
consequences over what occurred the last three and half years.
Conversation
journals
are moments that we have had with Lukas.
We felt it important to include these because this is not a story about
Autism. Lukas is not an project. Lukas is a real human boy with a spirit and
mind of his own. We were dealing not
with an abstract thing, but another being who has a soul.
We
just wanted to share our experience in an honest way. Far too many books out
there today either gloss over the hardships or they make it sound as though
Autism is the worst thing that can ever happen to a family. Neither is true.
I
will not defend my positions to anyone- especially those who are anti-ABA. We have done what we feel best for our
child. Your emails will just be put on extinction if you are hostile to ABA. J I also hope that by sharing
our mistakes that our words and story is not misused. This is copyrighted material.
Someone
asked if there was a clearer way to let users know when I have added something
new. There are days when I get a
little obsessive and add 3-5 new things and then I burn out and leave the site
alone for a week or two. If anyone has any design ideas or know a
little html coding trick that would make it easier for readers to clearly see
what has been added since they last visited,
feel free to contact me. If there is something on the website that you
wish I would upload, feel free to contact me and I will put that in my “do
first” pile. As it stands, I am just
randomly going through things and it isn’t a bother to upload something you
want to read first versus something else. I am going for getting as much up on the website versus caring
how the website looks. J I hope everyone doesn’t mind the lack of a “pretty” site! I am of
the old “input html” or use word crowd.
Contact Information
E-mail address
abaantonia@DIRECTVInternet.com
Current Projects
entering ABA programs from our first
year
entering the human side to all of
this.
Figuring out what to do now that we
are done with formalized programming but not quite “everything is all okay”.
Personal Interests
biomedical issues
environmental issues