I've been trying to love this ABA therapy. Yes, trying! I am new to ABA and not sure how everything is supposed to work. The company we are using is new to the area as well. They are originally based out of Alaska and saw a need, through another family, for services here in Omaha. The board certified therapist in charge of Jayen's therapy is actually stationed in Germany right now and the other person in charge is in Florida. I'm not sure everything was in order when they started their practice here and I feel there isn't a lot of overseeing of staff working in Nebraska. We have a therapist who has done ABA therapy for another company in another state. She is very loving towards Jayen, but I'm not sure I love her teaching style. She often seems more interested in talking about topics completely unrelated to Jayen and sometimes even talks down about the company. Today I expressed my concerns about how she was teaching Jayen sequencing. She had some picture cards that she wanted Jayen to place in sequential order, but would introduce them to him as first next then last. I know that is a skill we need to work on as well, but I would think we should introduce what those concepts mean. I asked if she thought he would understand the sequencing if we introduced them as numbers; 1, 2, 3, and 4. Along with that we could say number one comes first, etc. This would introduce the concept of ordinals and sequencing. But I think the icing on the cake came when I was trying to explain a situation that came up today with the military. She is a military spouse and understands slightly what is going on, but proceeded to tell me she thought the situation was "retarded". I tried to pick my mouth back up off the floor before she saw my disgust for what she just said. Really? You work with special needs kids! You should know what that connotation suggests. It might not be meant with the same hurtful emotions as others who say it, but it is slang and the meaning behind the word is hurtful and disgusting. I'm not sure what to do anymore. I know that opening my mouth could mean that she wouldn't be our therapist anymore, and I know that we could always get something worse. Do I just leave things alone for three months? I have too much on my plate right now to even make this an issue I can handle. As long as for the time being Jayen is taken care of and isn't subjected to that language.
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