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A New Opportunity
Ben's story
Our son Benjamin commenced at a Special Education Development
Unit (SEDU) in April 1995 at the age of 2 years 9 months.
He was ascertained by the SEDU 16 months later at the age
of 4 years. To us, as parents, we noticed no discernible improvement
in Ben in any areas. His excesses and abnormal behaviours
such as tantrum throwing and self-stimulatory behaviour were
as bad as ever and his deficits, such as lack of eye contact,
no communication, poor motor skills, poor cognition etc were
as obvious as ever. It appeared to us that we had squandered
16 months of our son's life.
We were frustrated and angry that the existing services were
providing virtually no positive outcomes.
The facet of this that disappointed us most was that the
SEDU itself had such modest expectations for Ben's improvement.
To quote from some of the SEDU's IEP goals and strategies:
- to physically assist Ben to complete tasks;
- alternate periods of sitting and attending with free
time;
- play with toys that require some action on Ben's part
to produce an effect;
- washing hands using verbal prompts only; and
- for Ben to be able to unpack his school bag using a photo
sequence.
We felt that these were incredibly modest expectations. Contrast
this with the expectations of an ABA programme:
- extinction of inappropriate excesses, such as self mutilation;
- normal range of social skills;
- normal range of cognition skills;
- ability to communicate freely;
- normal range of emotional skills; and
- normal range of academic skills.
So not only were the expectations of an ABA programme infinitely
higher, but research has shown that ABA has proven efficacy.
Statistically, ABA will produce high outcome levels in a high
percentage of children. We have invested $60,000 and two years
of hard work into Ben's ABA programme. It is, without doubt,
the best $60,000 we could ever spend. Even though Ben has
not yet achieved normal functioning in all areas (but has
in some), he has nevertheless made huge gains in all areas,
and we have real hopes for Ben's future. We know in our hearts,
that had Ben stayed in existing services, he would have remained
totally unmanageable, locked in his autistic world and ultimately,
he would have been institutionalised.
Dave and Gaye
Next: Chris' story
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