My son was 4 when he started - later than the ideal beginning age, but even though we started looking for help when he was 1.5, it took me this long to figure out what was going on... I was told he had a language processing disorder, "not autism" for quite awhile, then all of a sudden, oh yes, this is an ASD. But thankfully, someone recommended this to us. It's based on Stanley Greenspan's "floortime" model. My favorite book is "Engaging Autism" that also taught me much, and I think explains the theory behind the PLAY project very well.
The only comparison i have to any other treatment, is that with PLAY, they teach the parents to be the 'therapists' - my child's future was then in my hands. An MD and a panel of his staff would watch video of me playing/engaging with my child, and audio-tape themselves discussing what was going on with 'play by play' comments. "yes, look how he looked at you waiting for you to answer" or "mom, you are trying to make him do what you want him to do, try to follow HIS lead" are just small samples of the kind of comments I would hear. In addition, they send a consultant to my house who does the video recording and who also models ideas of how to help the child 'engage' and leaves me with 'homework' for my 15+ hours that I am supposed to spend a week on one-on-one time with my child trying out recommended techniques to 'move him up the developmental ladder.'
I can't think of use of negative feedback. Well - they do suggest you do your best to 'playfully interfer' sometimes. It's just a method to get some back and forth communication going, though. (verbal or non-verbal) It uses positive feedback by teaching the parents to 'meet the child where they are'. When a child is spinning a wheel, and stops, and give you the pedal for a turn... THAT is the positive feedback. We now have a back and forth that we can build on.
I guess I don't even see this as a 'program' - - I see it as something to incorporate in many different interactions thoughout my child's day, and something that just becomes part of our life. I think you can search the "ABA" method and find what I believe are mostly negative reviews unless it is trying to teach a skill such as potty training. But PLAY teaches the parent how to woo their child out of their confortable 'world' and give ours a try. But we have to meet them in their world first, not just force them into ours. Does this make sense? It really did teach me quite a bit, and I think my son benefited greatly. I make sure to look out for his 'feelings' and sometimes he even needs help knowing what his own feeling are. One thing they teach, especially for kids that aren't very verbal, is to narrate what they are quietly doing.
We formally finished paying for this service a over a year ago, but the therapy lives on because of everthing I learned, and how I still work it into our day. We still see the MD for checkups and new advice as my son gets older. A couple relatives, I will say, had a hard time with this 'program' because they really couldn't get over the fact that they should be "teaching" something all the time, and felt weird letting the child 'get away with' behaviors like spinning a wheel. They wanted it to stop right away an just didn't 'get it' about how this all works in the long run. My son now NEVER spins wheels - he's learned there are other much more fun things to do, and that's why he doesn't do it anymore. Not because he learned to stop because someone wouldn't give him a candy, or whatever ABA would do to 'extinguish the undesired behavior'. I'm no expert - just a happy parent of a kid that did great with the program.
12 Aug 2009, 6:59 pm
