Finding the Right Autism Therapy Program or Service for Your Child with Autism.

One of the most stressful tasks that a parent of a child with special needs is finding the right therapy service or program. Very often parents are presented with quite a few options out there that seem and sound effective for the treatment of children with autism. However, usually things may not be what they seem or sound like. And when the seemingly most effective program doesn't work out as expected, many parents become despondent and stressed out. In fact stress is the number one factor affecting many parents of children with autism. So what should you look out for when choosing a suitable therapy program for your child?

Here are some suggestions that you may consider when selecting an autism therapy service for you child. Or if you are already engaging your child in a therapy program, you may just want to make sure that some of these factors continue to be in place so that you continue to receive the results you would expect from the autism therapy program you hired for you child.

• Is the centre, company or therapist providing the autism therapy service reliable? Does the company have a good track record with its clients. Have there been positive referral from parents who have accessed their services for autistic children before?
  
• While you may have good reviews from other parents and professionals about a particular centre or company, you may want to enquire about the therapists available as well. Again, do parents generally have good reviews of any therapists in that centre in particular? How will the therapists reccomended to you be experienced and professional in dealing with your autistic child's learning needs and goals?

• Are you involved in the program delivery to your child with autism? In other words, are you being kept constant inform of your child's development and the progress of the program. Are you being consulted on the various issues that you may be concerned with? Do your therapists and/or consultants take your opinions into considerations and work out soultions based on your concerns and feedback? Are the therapists and the service providers consistent and regular with their reports on your child's progress and learning goals and in their correspondence with you?
  
• Are the therapists working with your child able to build a good and trusting rapport with your child? In other words, does your child feel comfortable working with the therapists or does your child feel intimidated by the therapists' presence? Of course there are children who just do not like to work with other adults but parents should pay attention if the discomfort is of extended periods of time with the therapists are not trying methods to ease things for the child.
   
• Do your child's learning needs and issues match the services that you are accessing? Do the service provider's goals set for your child match his learning needs and issues?
  
• Do the programs of the autism service complement with other programs you are accessing? In other word, do services that you access encourage a holistic approach to learning? At times we have professionals who claim that their programs are the only effective services provided, discouraging parents to seek other professional opnions or to do away with any existing services that they are accessing. Be very wary of claims such as "scientifically proven", "clinically proven" or "only therapy with scientific evidence" because to date nothing is proven that autism can be totally treated by any one approach. Furthermore, while there may be researches with promising results, they do not represent a significant sample size of the autistic population. Researches done on less than a hundred (or even less than that!) of children do not represent enough the numbers of autistic children around the world. In fact, National Research Council (a committee appointed by the National Academy of Sciences, NRC, 2001), concluded that the current state of research in ASD suggests that there is no evidence that any one approach is better than any other for children between 1 and 8 years old.
  
• Finally, the one most important aspect is, are you observing any significant gains and progress in your child after accessing the service for a period of time?  Are your concerns being addressed and given solutions that worked for you and your family?

What are some of the challenges you face when seeking a suitable autism therapy program for your child? I would like to hear from you! Email me at davensim@triumphantkids.com to share with me your many concerns regarding providing education for your child with special needs wherever you may be. Maybe you can provide some suggestions for other parents on what to look out for providing an educational structure for their children with autism. Whatever it is, your opinions and feedbacks are greatly appreciated. :)  

Till the next post, with deepest regards.

P.S: You can also leave me a message through my website www.triumphantkids.com!

References:
National Research Council (2001). Educating children with autism. Committee on
Educational Interventions for Children with Autism. Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. (www.nap.edu)