ABA Therapy FINALLY!

Shortly after my last blog post we finally got a determination in the mail from the state medical review team. In Minnesota they are the ones that review all of the social security disability benefits to determine if you really have a disability that meets certain criteria. Our income is a little too high for Cade to receive the actual social security disability income benefits but they reviewed his medical diagnosis and all of the medical testing that he has had done (which is autism and expressive and receptive language disorder.) And determined that his medical conditions are severe enough to warrant him to be certified disabled from the state. While I am over the moon happy that this means he now receives state medical insurance that is automatically given to those with disabilities to help offset the cost of higher medical treatments; it is still heart wrenching to hear that yes his medical condition really is that disabling and will likely be life long. 

Anyways now that we finally got that piece of information and his new insurance we could finally get him started with ABA services! We have personal insurance through my husbands work and getting them to approve anything that costly seems to be harder than learning how to sprout wings and fly. Since we had been on the waiting list since juneish and had all of the paperwork filled out we were able to get him started right away. His first day was TODAY! 

Cades ABA services are provided outside of our home at the center above. We just thought that getting him outside of the house to do these services would be better than having someone come into our home. Cade is VERY attached to me and if I was at home it would be nothing but a disaster -- not to mention his older sister who is always jealous of him getting to see so many fun teachers and likes to try and help when they come by. :) The center provides parent training so we can become educated to provide ABA services with him at home and that is something that we are definitely going to be doing after they get to know him and develop their plan of action. The more hours that he can get the better off his future will look. 

As I mentioned he is very attached to mommy and no one but immediate family has ever watched him before so I was really nervous on how he would do at his first day. He must have remembered coming here last week when we met some of the therapists that would be working with him because as soon as we walked in the door he started crying and hiding behind me. I walked back with him for a few minutes and slowly edged my way out of the room when he was distracted. This would have made my daughter freak out when she was his age but with Cade really mommy being out of sight is out of mind and he did just fine the second I left. His supervisor promises that he didn't shed a single tear until I returned to pick him up and he felt like he needed to remind me how mad he was at me by shedding a few tears. Whatever they did to him they sure wore him out there. This was at the first set of stoplights I hit on our way home. 

Cade is going to the center 21 hours a week for therapy, and then receives weekly speech and occupational therapy and bi weekly physical therapy now that his physical therapist is back from maternity leave. The first week or two (longer if needed) will be spent with them just getting to know Cade and get him comfortable to coming there. They want him to be happy there and enjoy it or he isn't going to want to be compliant in doing what they ask/want him to do. After that point they will start actually implementing more of the therapy where he is sitting at the work table or the floor working with the therapists. ABA is kind of confusing and its hard to put into words exactly what they do because a lot of it really looks like play but really they are teaching him SO much. Alot of it is based on communication and attention. Teaching him signs/pecs/talking. But some of it is listening skills, helping his OT stuff, playing with him, physical coordination and balance it really doesn't just stop at behavior modification or repeating flashcards as it appeared when I first started researching. After the center gets to know him and develops a plan for him they provide parent training so we will be-able to implement this with him at home too. I am really so excited to get to see this little boy blossom with all of the wonderful therapies that he is receiving. I am so thankful to live in a state that has so many wonderful resources for special needs kids. While this isn't a diagnosis or a path I would have chosen for him his future is BRIGHT with everything that is available!