Aaron Shakur is
now 24 months old. He has been receiving early intervention treatment for about
six months now. His parents decided to go with Applied Behavior Analysis Home
therapy, because they heard that that type of therapy achieved the greatest
results. Aaron’s therapist’s name is Susan Riley. She is a therapist in
training. Hannah and Ali chose to have a therapist in training because it would
be way more expensive to have a full time professional ABA therapist. This type
of therapy is very costly for them, but Hannah feels that it will be the most
effective, and she wants what is best for her little boy. ABA home therapy can
range from about $5,000 to $20,000 a year for therapists in training, while a
professional ABA therapy team can be about $50,000 and it is not covered by
insurance. For their specific therapy choice, it cost about $10,000 a year.
So far ABA seems
to be working out for Aaron. Susan evaluated the skills and difficulties Aaron
had when first meeting with him. She noticed that he has very low social
skills, so that is one thing that she really feels that she would like to work
on with him. He wouldn’t respond to familiar voices before, and now after six
months of ABA, he is at least responding to his name. She is trying to get
Aaron to work on more than one word phrases and she eventually wants him to be
asking for things and making requests. These are goals that she has set for him
and has shared with the family. She expects the family to be working on these
things with Aaron while she is not there as well.
Hannah and Ali
were told that the effects of early intervention treatment could be very
helpful, and could potentially alter Aaron’s brain so that the effects of
Autism would be significantly less noticeable than if he were to receive
treatment while he’s older. Since the child’s brain is still developing at a
young age, early intervention has the potential to change the way it is
developing. Susan feels that she wants to work on Aaron’s play, social skills
and speech and language skills.
Not
only can Early Intervention be helpful for Aaron, it can also be helpful for
the family. In this case it has been extremely helpful to the parents. Since
figuring out that Aaron has been diagnosed with Autism so early, it has helped
them to learn about the disorder and will potentially give them more time to
handle it as well as accept it. They also have time to understand that Aaron’s
future may take a different path than what they originally expected or wanted
for him.
Unfortunately
not everyone has benefitted from Aaron’s treatment. Kayla has been acting out a
lot more. Since she is not receiving as much attention from her parents as
Aaron is, she throws a lot of temper tantrums and has started to retaliate.
Also, it is hard for Kayla because her older brother Amir has just started
kindergarten. She feels alone and is crying out for more attention from her
parents. Ali’s parents have tried to show Kayla love and support but it is
still hard for her because she wants it from her parents.
With Amir being
in kindergarten now, the family has a lot on their hands. Thankfully Ali’s
parents have been helping out a lot with watching Kayla while Aaron is doing
treatment. Treatment is about thirty hours a week, so it has taken up a lot of
Hannah’s time. Ali has still been working at the fire department and he is
still contemplating getting another job in order to make more money for the
family to live comfortably. Hannah’s mental state is also something that she is
working on. She is taking an anti depressant, and with Aaron showing
improvement, she seems to be doing better herself.
Questions:
1.
How do children with Autism’s siblings handle
their sibling having a disorder that needs so much time and attention?
2.
What is the success rate for ABA therapy? What
types of therapies are considered ABA?
3.
What other types of early intervention
treatments could the Shakur’s chosen for Aaron? How successful have they been
proven?
Decision Point: Do Hannah and Ali
act to stop Kayla from the path she is going down? If so, what do they do?
1. How do children with Autism’s siblings handle their sibling having a disorder that needs so much time and attention?
ReplyDeleteBecause each type of family is so different, there is no specific way that children will react to having a sibling with autism. Some may act out, some may choose to join in helping, and some have no change. Some ways to diminish making the sibling feel left out or boost a positive change is by providing the sibling with facts about autism, give them opportunities to share their feelings, giving opportunities to meet other siblings and families with children with autism, and being given special time with parents. (Schubert)
2. What is the success rate for ABA therapy? What types of therapies are considered ABA?
I have found from an unreliable source that success rate from ABA therapy is ~90%. This was neither references nor statistics to support this. No other sources within my current means were found.
The different kinds of therapy that fall under ABA vary widely but can generally be broken down into four basic categories which are Discrete Trial Training which is a basic reward system for learning how to complete specific steps of a task in the correct order, Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention which is for very young children, Pivotal Response Training which increases a child’s motivation to learn and control their own behavior, and Verbal Behavior Intervention which focuses on verbal skills.
3. What other types of early intervention treatments could the Shakur’s choose for Aaron? How successful have they been proven?
The Shakur's can also try consulting their pediatrician or therapist about possible medications that Aaron can take to limit some symptoms that go along with ASD such as managing energy levels. Since it seems that Aaron does have any secondary issues resulting from his autism then that probably wouldn’t be necessary. Also, medication does not cure autism. It only helps to manage other aspects. They can also try altering his diet. There is no proof that altering a diet can be beneficial or helpful and it differs by child. Some parents say that it makes a big difference for their child whiles other report no change.
Decision Point: Do Hannah and Ali act to stop Kayla from the path she is going down? If so, what do they do?
Hannah and Ali do choose to help Kayla become more comfortable with her brother and try to moderate her acting out. The more knowledge and experience Kayla has with the subject, the more comfortable she will be with her brother and the different attention he receives. They should choose to seek out communities that do activities together so that Kayla can hopefully meet other children her age with siblings who have autism where she can learn more about how others experiences are as well as her parents should get her to interact more with Aaron to help her be more involved.
Effect of Autism on Siblings (2014, January 1). Retrieved June 22, 2014, from http://www.autism.com/siblings
CDC| Treatment| Autism (2014, March 13). Retrieved June 22, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/treatment.html