REAL STORIES FROM REAL PARENTS

Home Programming on a Budget by Liz

After learning of our son’s diagnosis of autism and developmental delay, we were anxious to help him in any way possible. We read about Applied Behavioral Analysis and attended courses; we were anxious to begin but were  in no way able to do  what Dr. Maurice suggested in terms of the 40/hr/wk and the $80,000/yr. So we set about setting up a home program on a budget.  Our son has still made remarkable progress.  We started our home program when he was 2 yrs 3months old.

Here is what I did to cut costs:

Most importantly, hire ONE person (or agency) with a background in ABA.  This person is someone you will use to train your staff, mediate staff meetings and to help get your home program off the ground. Check out our Questions to ask ABA/IBI Service Providers.

A terrific resource is now available in Kathy Lear's Help Us Learn program.  It is a complete self-paced training program for preparing parents, educators, students, teachers, therapists, service providers, friends and family to use ABA programs.  The package comes complete with an administrator's manual, teacher/therapist manual (s) and a floppy disk, which contains customizable forms, applications, data sheets, graphing and more!  Reasonably priced, this is the book to help set up and maintain your program professionally.

You may have to pay a high hourly rate for this  person, but it is important to have someone who can give direction to the program. Knowing WHAT to teach and HOW to teach it are key to success. Also, make sure this person has a good rapport with your child. They should do a little of Dr. Greenspan's 'Floortime' with him/her, to help build trust and friendship first. Keep in mind that for the first couple of months, your ABA therapist will put in extra hours getting you set up. Eventually, they can provide help once per week, or even on a monthly, supervisory capacity.

This therapist can either give suggestions for hiring or actually sit in on interviews with you. Ask them to help put together an application for you. You can find sample ads, questionnaires and more for the hiring process in the Help Us Learn Manual.

Now you are ready to hire your staff. Start with the ABA therapist and perhaps 2 students. You can hire these students from colleges, universities, camps or even high school. They don't have to have experience, they just have to be able to relate to your son or daughter in some way. A pre-existing rapport would be most helpful. You should pay anywhere between $5 to $10/hr to start (depending on age and experience of student).

When hiring, look for things like an animated personality, pleasant voice, lots of energy, commitment and responsibility.  Arrange to have the main therapist train them both (and you, plus important family members) all at the same time. This may take a couple of sessions.

When hiring, make it a condition of employment that prospective staff have a police check done.  Also very important is a vulnerable sector check.  These have to be asked for by them.  It is up to you whether you want to pay for these searches; if the staff member is a volunteer, I'd suggest you pay; otherwise have them pay for it.  Ask for a photocopy of all paperwork.