Everything about my sons is the same but different. They both have blonde hair, but one has my texture and the other has my husband’s. They both walked at very early ages (8 ½ months for my older son and 7 ½ months for my younger one), but my older son skipped crawling altogether.
And, of course, they are both autistic but their traits are a little different. They both enjoying lining things up and spinning; although, my younger son is more particular about how things line up and my older son enjoys spinning to the point of making me dizzy. My younger son enjoys toe walking most of the day, while my older son never really got into it.
Then there are the differences in services and therapy. We got services through Early Start for both our sons and they were evaluated in the same exact building. But in eight years, the building and the process have changed. The building is home to a special needs school, an office for a different state program, and the Early Start program.
When we went into the building 8 years ago, the program used offices belonging to the school and we sat in a huge open waiting room. This time, we noticed the big waiting room was gone and Early Start now had their own separate evaluation rooms and waiting room.
And let’s not forget the process changes. When we got services 8 years ago, it was Early Start evaluation, IFSP meeting, and then services begin. Now, before services can “officially” start, the state of California has all parents submit requests to their health insurance providers to see if they will foot the bill for any of the services. For autism services, the answer is most often going to be no and then the state will go ahead and take care of the costs.
As a Kaiser member, I found this process to be extremely frustrating and confusing. People at the Kaiser regional office had no idea what I was talking about and the Early Start case worker was no help. The most confusing part was that his services actually started in the meantime and I was told by someone at the state office for Early Start that if the health insurance agrees to pay anything they would be billed for these services. All of this so the state can try to save a buck.
Funny thing is that parents of autistic children have been trying to get a bill passed in California to require healthcare providers to cover autism services, like ABA therapy. (see http://www.autismspeaks.org/government_affairs/state_issues.php). Seems to me that passing legislation like this would decrease the costs associated with Early Start, without sending parent on a wild goose chase for a “denial letter.”
So the process is different from 8 years ago, but so are the services provided. ABA therapy has long been associated with helping autistic children, but it was difficult to get the service unless you private-paid or your child was on the severe end of the spectrum. My older son did not receive ABA therapy; rather, he was provided with a speech and language small group class 3 times a week, a private speech session once a week, a private session with an OT once a week, and a in-home visit from a behaviorist once a month. Now, I’m not saying my son did not improve, because he really did, but he was not given the same opportunities as children nowadays. My younger son is receiving 15 hours of in-home ABA therapy a week—and this is just an evaluation period. They will decide if he will need more therapy, less therapy, time in a center-based program, additional services, and so on. He is already showing signs of improvement and his word count is growing everyday.
Oh gosh, what am I really saying here? I guess that there is no such thing as a “veteran” parent. The moment you think you have everything figured out, they go and change it on you. We may know how to raise autistic sons, but we are also learning something new everyday.
