A fellow twitter friend gave me an idea for a post. My son has went through different types of therapy. I would like to share my experience of each of them with you. When we first found out he was on the autism spectrum the developmental therapist suggested that we get Autism In Home Therapy. I didn’t realize at first everything that went into intensive therapy. Wow 30 – 40 hours a week for 3 years. I realized Dakota needed the help so we started with Wisconsin Early Autism Project aka WEAP. We stayed with them for a few months. The reason was they did a lot of repetition and confined him to one room to do the therapy. Fridays we would have a team meeting and my son would cry. He didn’t like repetition. So I called my case manager and we found a new company. Now I don’t think that WEAP is a bad company at all. I think it is better for a child or person who has low functioning autism with all the repetition. I am not saying that my son didn’t make any gains with them either. If I recall he did make gains.

The next therapy we did was through Innovative counseling. The therapy they did was more of a play therapy. Dakota responded to that real well. There was one therapist he really really enjoyed. She was absolutely fantastic with him. Dakota could have had a bad day and she could get him to do anything. He did make gains but as always we ended up a few steps behind. I wasn’t very happy with one of the therapists because she let him stand on things which I felt were dangerous. Keep in mind yet we are still with intensive therapy as I talk about the next one. We decided to move and when we went to another county Innovative could not move with us.

We only had two choices once we moved. WEAP as I discussed early or place called Phoenix Behavioral Health. We went the Phoenix. Dakota made a lot of gains and he regressed. I think that is normal with Autism. We got lucky and had a lot of really good therapists. They did many things with Dakota. He learned to use his imagination and now that boy has a wonderful imagination. When his three years was almost up, I think it was a couple months before I noticed with a full day of school and therapists going to school and coming after school got to me too much for him. So we decided enough with the intensive therapy and went to post intensive. Post Intensive is 6 – 8 hours a week. Post Intensive worked out much better for us. We were with this company for almost 5 years. I decided it was time for something new as Dakota’s behaviors were getting way to hard to deal with. I didn’t leave this company with a bad note. In fact I would highly suggest them to any one in this county.

What we are doing now is kind of like a family counseling. The lady comes into my home a couple times each week and we talk about what is going on. She is very supportive and listens without judging. She does alot of observing at first and then as time goes on gives suggestions on how to deal with the behaviors. She also comes to each Doctors appointment and IEP at school. So far I really like this option that I recently picked. It’s nice to feel supported and not looked down upon or judged. I was homeschooling Dakota and I noticed his regression and his behaviors. She suggested that Dakota needed structure. I thought about it and he really did. I couldn’t give him the structure he needed as my day can get busy and we didn’t have structure. I enrolled him in school we started off slow and now he is back in full time. It relives the stress of me and they can deal with the regression better than I can as I am no teacher. I noticed some of the behaviors got better and well some are still there. We will work on them. It’s going to take a lot of patience and changing the way we do things around here as a family.

If you have had therapy or any counseling services and would like to comment your experience or comment on mine, please feel free to do so. If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Related posts:

1. My Autistic Son
2. Wisconsin Requires Insurance Companies to Cover Autism
3. Speaking Out For Our Children
4. How Did I Know My Son Had Autism?
5. Back To School

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