Early Intervention?

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What are peoples' feelings on "early intervention" and ABA/aversives?
Do you feel it's necessary/helpful, abusive/harmful, inbetween? Adult autists, do you wish you had had more therapy/training, or less?

I'm of the mindset that fearful parenting is easily one of the most harmful things to a child, I see no reason to force change on my son or pursue aggressive behavioral therapy or anything....but there are some people who probably would think my laissez-faire attitude is tantamount to neglect.

I want someone to connect with my son and teach him things, but more by gentle engagement than by force. I think the idea of early intervention is harsh....it sounds like if I don't send him to boot camp some heavy metal door is going to come slamming down and he'll never learn to communicate properly (he's actually fine now, just a little stilted, a little behind, a little obsessive, maybe) but I'd really like to hear some agree/disagree perspectives.

I couldn't choose, as I would never use any means necessary to make a child fit a mold... but I'm not sure I'd be totally hands off if the child is suffering and unhappy due to their impairments.

However I can say that with E.I., it ALL depends on the therapist. A good therapist will know how to be careful and connect to your child. They will push a LITTLE but never more. However a bad therapist is horrible... my daughter has had both kinds and a few in between. It's up to you to be assertive and get rid of the bad ones and demand good ones (easier said than done, I know...).

My daughter was non-verbal & totally shut-down socially when she started E.I.. I was reluctant to start it but her pediatrician kept yelling at me to do something for her. She started out with a horrid speech therapist but later switched to a really great one, and she did start "talking." She will repeat words now whereas she was silent before. And having a little language ability has helped her calm down and she seems happier. She had a great OT as well who really grew to care for her an awful lot. I eventually realized I was lucky to have these women in my daughter's life, that I couldn't do everything for her.

But the bad therapists do more harm them good. If they are brusque, mean, push too hard, complain about the child in front of the child, all those are red flags.

I am still ambivalent about it, she just aged out of E.I. and is going into a half day special ed preschool, 2.5 hours a day 5 days a week. This after being pressured to put her in for 6 hrs a day .

Well -- I don't think this is a yes or no answer.
It depends on the diagnosis and what the child may need the most at that time/age.

For instance: my son needed Occupational Therapy at age 5 for sensory issues [age 5 is usually beyond early intervention, but still a young age].

He was not fully diagnosed with Asperger's until he was almost 9. However, I had strong suspicions when he was age 4 that his social skills were "off" and not age appropriate compared to other children. I enrolled him in a social skills class at age 5 also. He still goes to that same social skills class and will be attending a second new group in late Sept. Every little thing is one small positive step forward.

Any services that I felt were necessary for my son were paid for out of pocket. I always went with my gut instinct. And I truly could only work on "known factors" of what my son needed the most.

I can not in good heart vote on that question/poll.
A child is a person, people are never happy unless they learn to be them selves.
In my eyes everyone is different, so normal is just a common state of mind.
I teach my child by letting him lead the way, he lets me know what he is ready to learn and when.
I help him advance and develop what he gets behind in making it fun and a game.
and what he is good at I help him excel in.
as for whats proper or commonly accepted I try to help him learn to be aware of it,
but I do not force him to be that which he is not.

It's expense, fear, and not knowing where to go that are keeping me from aggressively seeking help. Coupled with the fact that...in family life, he's mostly happy and functions pretty well, asks for what he wants, interacts, etc. The only real difference between him and other kids in family life = 2 things.
1) His language use seems rigid somehow, like he learns phrases as words, and always says them in the same way. He makes creative logical combinations, but not so much emotional or expressive ones.
2) Things have to be on his terms, or he doesn't play.

Obviously it's not a yes/no, black/white question. But the opinions out there are generally polarized.

Like Picklejah, I am sure we will probably need something like social skills training or OT. I'm just wondering if it is okay to wait a little while. He brightens up when he is around certain people. His grandmother, and for some reason, my boyfriend. Which is how I was. I shut down COMPLETELY the first time I went to nursery school then brightened when I went into the care of a neighbor.

But god, it's hard to find any a) help b) money. And I'd like to think we're doing okay anyway.

Take him to places where other children play, let him interact on his own.
try for age ranged children of his age or within 5 years there of.
this will help his social and speech skills much.
If your always there or visible for him he may act out with expectations,
where with other children or new children he does not know what to expect and has to make considerations.

Ugh, I tried this the other night at the bookstore (they have a train table) and there was a little boy (smaller than him, he's big for his age) that was totally in his face. Okay while I was there, the minute I walked away, he started screaming bloody murder!! ! It was like the other child waited until I left to strike (took his train)!

I wanted it to work, too. I'll probably try it again, but it was discouraging.

No, try Play grounds, there is little to take there,
mostly they interact and share the common swings and slides and things.
and believe it or not, a good daycare works wonders as well.
especially if the child gets to learn to see the same children to interact with over and over again.

Yeah, the last daycare was a nightmare. I hope this one will be better, the teacher/caregiver seems warm, which is what he needs. The last one was cold, nearly neglectful under the guise of professionality. Bad vibes all around. I think she tired (too early) of trying to make a connection or didn't want to make one at all. It was like she got exhausted just thinking about my kid. Sometimes I'd knock on the door and she'd show up about 5 minutes after the kids were at the door.

I decided to make a change when the only one he would say goodbye to was her dog....

If you go through the Board of Ed for an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) it should be free. Early Intervention (which goes up to age 3) should also be free.

Maybe it varies state to state? I live in NY and haven't paid a cent, and she has received a LOT of services.

You might want to consider services if your son seems unhappy with his sensory problems. My daughter seemed unhappy and totally shut down a year ago. My son, on the other hand, was perfectly content in his own goofy little way to live in his own world when he was young. He never seemed sad or shut down from us, not counting meltdowns. He didn't receive any services except a few sessions of speech.

Currently waiting on school system. Called once, they said they'd call back, called twice, they said they'd call back soon. Still waiting. *Sigh* Florida passed a law that health insurance has to cover autism'related services....but not until 2010....

I'm pretty sure that if you notify them in writing they have "X" number of days to respond to you. Could you go to the board of ed in person to request that the evaluation be initiated?

How old is your son exactly?

He's 3 and and a half.

Yikes. I can't imagine trying to go to the board of education. I don't even know what that entails.

I wish there was an in between option in your post. My daughter attends early intervention here in Melbourne, Australia but it is "Gentle Engagement" not force at all.

We spent some time looking at a special pre-school near us for children on the autism spectrum and it was horrible. A acquaintance of ours teaches there and she came over one day to 'help' us teach Heidi to sit at the table for meals. That was the most unpleasant hour of my life and needless to say she has not been asked to help again.

Our early intervention centre has taught me about Heidi's sensory needs and given me methods to help Heidi get all the sensory input she needs. This has led to a much happier Heidi.

If she is unhappy we stop what we are doing and reassess.

Heidi needs some level of intervention but I view it in many ways as similar to teaching my NT daughter how to cope with society and life in general, I just teach Heidi using different methods.

Before we started Speech Therapy and PECS Heidi would scream for hours on end. That form of early intervention has changed my daughter in the last 18 months from a non-verbal child who was constantly frustrated to a child who tells me stories about her dolls and can communicate her needs very effectively.

1 hour a fortnight of speech therapy
2 hours a week attending an early intervention class with 4 other children who are also HFA/AS
5 hours a week at 3yo PreSchool

I don't think we are pushing her too hard. With speech therapy Heidi is the one pushing us.

We've been offered ABA but I think that is too full on. She is 3yo I'm not going to make her do anything for 40 hours a week - well other than be a 3yo playing, eating, sleeping, having fun and hopefully learning something new along the way.

Here goes, my opinion on something I am totally unqualified to talk about.

My son wasn't diagnosed until he was seven.

And, honestly, I cannot see what early intervention would have done for him. He wasn't that different from other toddlers. OK, he was different, but in fun and positive ways, mostly. Preschool he had trouble with, and it would have been good to avoid that, but I get to blame it on the preschool and that has been my choice all these years.

I remember asking my pediatrician about OT when someone suggested my son had sensory issues and his response was that he didn't think it accomplished much that an aware parent tuning into the child isn't going to figure out for themselves.

With that, he had a point.

But sometimes parents do need helpers. We're busy, we're worried, we're tired. Staying perfectly tuned in is, well, hard.

If you have a child that is not acquiring necessary skills (not just desirable ones, but necessary ones), I can see using IE to mitigate the issue. If you as a parent are too overloaded to figure things out, I can see using IE to help you. But if you've got the typical AS child who is a little quirky, not exactly on the same time table as other kids, but doing fine as long as you are tuning into him, and you are happy just being with your child, why bring in a stranger?

Basically, I don't see a one size fits all answer, and I worry about the pressure parents are under to get toddlers diagnosed and into help.

But, then, I'm not qualified to really know. It's just my instinct.

So many abbreviations it's hard to keep up.
ABA
OT
EI
PECS...