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Treatments For Financially Strapped Families

Treatments For Financially Strapped Families

Having a child that is diagnosed with autism brings in many stresses for the parents and the whole family. One of the most critical of these is the financial aspect. Caring for an autistic child is costly, especially in the first few years from the time of the diagnosis. This can be a major dilemma for families that are financially limited. Without proper research, you may commit your child to treatments that are extremely expensive but offer no guarantee of making your child’s condition better.

There are several widely used approaches that you may include in your child’s intervention program. These typically cost less than other treatments, are easy to learn, and are relatively risk-free.


DIR/ Floortime

Floortime, as it is called, is one of the most popular low-cost, do-it-yourself therapies being used for diagnosed children. All you need is the book Engaging Autism, a kitchen timer, a few old toys, and a lot of energy and imagination. Floortime helps in building healthy social, emotional, and intellectual capacities in a child.

Relationship Development Intervention (RDI)

RDI is a more formal intervention compared to Floortime. It teaches a child to develop social skills. Technically, the full program costs several thousands of dollars, but you can check their website for free resources to help you start the program. You may purchase the full program if you see great results with your child. It aims to build dynamic intelligence in a child diagnosed with autism.

Social Stories

You may create interesting stories yourself, using things your child likes as topics and interjecting lessons at the same time. Your child will not just learn from this but will surely be enjoying this activity.

Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)

This is a good choice for non-verbal or children that have low communicating skills. It gives them an alternative means to communicate with other people. It makes use of pictures for them to relay what they want. Pictures can be obtained for free online. It is advised to watch the DVD instructions from its creator, Pyramid Educational Products.

Pointing

Pointing teaches non-verbal children to relay what they want by pointing at letters. The website of Portia Iversen can give your free information on how to apply this approach to your own child. Due to the intensity of the activities involved, this therapy works best with children that are already seven years and above.

Video Modeling

This teaches children effective proper social skills by using videos. There are many videos available for you to make your child watch. They are inexpensive and can be reused again and again.

It is still recommended to see a medical professional or a professional therapist in order to give their expert recommendations on which approaches you may use with your child. These can be used as supplemental or alternative to some of your paid therapies to reduce costs. The mentioned approaches do not guarantee that they will work for your child, as each child has unique needs and learning capacities. But these approaches offer virtually no risk and cost very little to implement.

References:

www.floortime.org

www.rdiconnect.com

www.pecs.com

www.portiaiversen.com

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Being an RBT for me was extremely fun because where were you going to find a place where you can be completely silly without having to worry what people thought about you? This was the only job that made me feel like I could make a dramatic difference while being myself.

I also liked to be surrounded by people that had the same goals of wanting to help kids and the teamwork made the job much easier and more enjoyable.

Change and progress was the ultimate goal for our kiddos. The early intervention program was seriously only a miracle because I saw changes in the kiddos that from day one, you wouldn’t even recognize who they were.

Changes from being able to utter 3-4 words where they can only make a syllable from when they started, the behavior decreases in which kiddo that used to engage in 30-40 0 self-harm to only half, learning how to wait during games, table work where they use to swipe and drop to the floor if they had to.

My favorite was when the parents would tell us what amazing progress they were making at home. I used to tear up and felt for these parents so much because it was already difficult for them and now, they can trust and rely on ABA and the therapists knowing their goal was ours.

By Emma Rogers, BA, RBT

Mother Child
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