Harnessing Hope: Transforming Autism Care with ABA Specialists and Innovative Resources

Discover the transformative power of ABA behavior specialists for children on the autism spectrum and the relief it can bring to families. As a former educator and parent navigating these challenging waters, I share how these specialists can work wonders in improving functional activities, managing meltdowns, and enhancing social skills. Every child and specialist is different—some interventions may be subtle, while others are overtly involved. Yet, the key lies in collaboration with parents and educators, embracing their strategies with an open mind for the benefit of the child.

In our latest episode, we don't just stop at behavior specialists. We unravel a treasure trove of resources for families, like centers that offer comprehensive therapy options all in one place, such as Precious Kiddos in Florida. For those moments when your heart skips a beat worrying about your child's whereabouts, the Angel Sense GPS tracker emerges as a beacon of hope. Join us as we explore these support systems that promise to ease the daily hurdles and enrich the lives of children with autism and their families, ensuring that no one walks this journey alone.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:26

Hi everyone. I'm going to do a little podcast about care for parents that have a child on the autistic or the spectrum and I just want to talk about some different things to help support parents, because I think our parents need a lot of support. They shouldn't feel like they're alone. One of the things that I want to talk about is the ABA Behavior Specialists. One of the things that I want to talk about is the ABA Behavior Specialists. They will do like one-to-one and they can help increase the function activities that you want them to do. They can decrease outbursts or meltdowns. They can increase social skills. They include the parents and teachers in training to help you to work with your child. Include the parents and teachers in training to help you to work with your child. Young kids from like two to six. Many families will or can get full-time ABA like 40 hours a week I think you get and they will go into the schools and help work with the child and the teacher to help them. You know what they can do to help support the outbursts and behaviors and things that they're looking for to improve on for that child. I know that some people have had bad experiences with behavior specialists and I have to admit, when I was a teacher I had one that came into the room and I didn't know why she was really there, to be honest, because I didn't see anything that she did for the child. Now she did give me some tips a couple times but I wasn't sure. And then I learned that they will if their child is working and doing what he's supposed to, they're not going to interrupt or do anything, they're just going to monitor. So it's kind of like a case by case kind of situation. But now I work with one two hours, four days a week and she's very helpful and she does a lot with that kid to help me too, so he can learn and she's able to help change his behavior. So she she's been very beneficial. So I think it's just that you know you get good and bad in any profession and and this is no different but I think they can be very beneficial. So I think it's just that you know you get good and bad in any profession and this is no different, but I think they can be very beneficial, very helpful in a classroom or to a teacher and a parent and be willing to be open to their suggestions and allow them to train. Even if you've been a teacher for a long time or you've been a parent forever with this child, you know, make yourself, open up your mind to what they have to say.

Speaker 1: 2:54

The second thing I'm talking about four different things I want to talk about is centers or daycares, therapies. Now I just learned in my area that we have one and it's called I think it's called Precious Kiddos and it's there in Florida, and I don't know if there are other places, but you want to check and see what places offer centers for kids that are on the spectrum or other disabilities. And at this center it's open six days a week and it's from 7 to 7, monday through Friday, and 8 to 5 on Saturday, and then Sundays they're off. But in this center they have a lot of different therapies occupation, physical, speech, respiratory, they do academics and then one other thing too, but anyway they have different services like that. So you're not running to one place for occupation and another one for physical therapy and another one for speech therapy. You're not running all over. It's that one center and that's something that you want to look into in your area, see what there is Put in, you know, daycare or whatever centers for autism or learning disabilities or whatever the situation may be, and look and see what's available. And I guess at the center there's parents that drop them off at seven in the morning, don't come and get them until seven at night, but I think that's a little bit too much, but they still do it.

Speaker 1: 4:28

So also in my research I looked up and found it's called Angel Sense S-E-N-S-E. It's a GPS, it's a little round thing that you put on your child or in a bag or somewhere. And the things that I liked about it it tells you if your child is on the bus or in the carpool lane, and so that's very helpful to know. That it kind of gives you you know. Especially if you have a student that escapes, then you want to have something to be able to locate them and the teacher too. It will help the teacher also and it will also If they're in a crowd or something like that. It will kind of do a signal so people will know this child is lost and it'll also show you who the child is with, if it's with a teacher or in the office or a nurse or whatever. It's sensory friendly. You can place it different places, like in the bag or on the shirt or in the back or wherever I didn't look up all the places. It's really good for non-verbal kids because you can talk into it and then and it will talk back to you too or it will also you can hear people's voices around it. So it's just something maybe to look into, especially like if you have a child that elopes. It's kind of nice to have something like that, because even if they just elope and they hide, I had a situation it didn't happen to me. It was another teacher and she had a kid that did that and what he did he got in the closet and got into a box and he deliberately hiding from them, didn't want to come out and of course they panicked. They called the police until they located the child. But if they had that tracker then they would have known where he's at, especially, like I said, a nonverbal child that isn't able to tell. So something to think about.

Speaker 1: 6:31

Also for these nonverbal kids speech absolutely need to have speech Touch chat. Sorry about that. It's called Gaston language processor. I've heard a lot of parents talk about this. I don't know much about it, but I think it's something to look into. It really helped with their speech. They started to, by five or six or seven, started forming sentences. Another way to help communicate is sign language, which I'm a favor for and I have used it in my room. And then, of course, the PAC system, where they use pictures Okay, we're going to the gym, okay, we're going to school on the bus, those kind of things. So they know, okay, I check this off, check that off. And that goes along with my podcast. I talk about task box and having different ways to communicate with your child. So those are just some of the things I wanted to share a little bit.

Speaker 1: 7:29

This is just another short little little podcast today just to kind of help parents to find out.

Speaker 1: 7:35

But look into your area and find out what there is. You know, because, like I just learned that um this weekend about the center here in where I live in Florida, so I'm sure there's other centers that are also provide it's called uh, is called precious kiddos medical daycare, so they take care of all that stuff. They have nurses there and they have people on trip, they have a trach and all that any kind of system that has to our child that needs uh assistance with medical they. They provide that and the kids can be there all day. So it helps parents that are working. Both parents are working and you don't have time to run all over the place. Maybe and I know our schools provide a lot of that stuff, but if you can get even extra stuff like extra time and speech or occupation, therapy, all those things, then why not? You know, the more the merrier. So anyway, that's all I had to say today. I hope you're having a blessed day and I will talk to you soon. Bye, bye.