Today I’m sharing a Day in the Life: ABA Therapy. The positives, the challenges and everything we have learned.
We have been doing ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) Therapy for our sweet Poppy now almost a year! And I have to say it’s been a wild yet rewarding ride for all of us.
After Poppy was diagnosed with Autism last year, we decided the best way to help her learn and prepare for school was ABA Therapy. At the time we knew little about it but did as much research as we could.
ABA Therapy is usually conducted in the home or at a center. Since I am able to be at home with Poppy, we decided to pursue at-home therapy. This has been a great decision for our family because we are able to learn alongside her.
Let me start by saying it’s hard to know what it’s going to be like until you actually start. Although the ABA company we are working with layed out the potential challenges for the family, it is hard to really know until you do it everyday.
I searched and searched online for any family sharing their experiences and found nothing. So with today’s post, Day in the Life: ABA Therapy I want to share our in the hopes that someone can find some comfort in seeing what day to day is like and decide if it’s for their family.
So far for us, ABA has helped Poppy so much! She is such a happier child in so many ways. Able to communicate, able to play creatively, able to better control her emotions and handle changes in life.
She is also gaining so many skills that will get her prepared for school and becoming confident in her abilities. This is all due to ABA and the countless hours of hard work for Poppy.
ABA Therapy is hard work, for the whole family. But for us, it has been worth it so far.
Advantages
- Therapy is conducted at home, so as parents we are always involved. One of the great things about ABA Therapy at home is learning from the therapists not only by watching how they teach Poppy new things but also through parent training. Every week the hubs and I receive 2 hours of one-on-one training plus an additional 4 hours of meetings/therapy hours to help us learn what is being taught, provide input and ultimately learn how to run therapy ourselves.
- Essentially we are trained to be Behavior Therapist for our own child. This is incredible empowering and reassuring as a parent to know how to help your child learn. And yes, some things are much more challenging than others (teaching Poppy prepositions has been much easier than teaching her how to tolerate transitions). But it’s a pretty rewarding part of at home therapy.
- Therapy is extremely methodical, strategic and repetitive. It often feels like Poppy learns by doing things 100,000 times but it does truly work. Unlike a typical kid who might learn by imitating or being taught a few times, ABA therapy has taught Poppy how to imitate everything from verbal language to motor skills to how to play with toys and our newest endeavor, how to appropriately interact with other kids her age.
- Another huge advantage to ABA is having a dedicated team for your child. We have a team of 5 people dedicated to working with Poppy 40+ hours a week. With our Clinical Supervisor overseeing all of the programs and almost every aspect of Poppy’s life, we always have somewhere to go to for questions on how to handle anything. With the challenges of autism, having a team of people on our side is truly priceless.
- ABA Therapy covers hundreds of life skills all broken down into tiny little steps. And each skill is taught through play. This means Poppy is having fun, engaged and learning most of the day.
- With ABA Therapy at home, Poppy has a full day (8-630pm) day of learning. Although it makes for long days, Poppy is always engaged and learning almost as if she were in school.
Challenges
- The most obvious one is the amount of time ABA Therapy takes. I can honestly say that ABA Therapy dictates everything we do. We have a very rigid daily schedule (8-630pm most days). And similar to working in an office, Poppy has limited time off as this affects therapy programing and her progress.
- Therapy is conducted 100% at our house so it makes for long days with therapists in our home. We are very lucky to have very friendly professional therapists but it’s still difficult at times to have people in our home 40+ hours a week.
- Due to the sheer number of hours, therapy can be very draining for Poppy and our family as a whole. Time off must be requested well in advance and we as parents are also responsible for conducting several hours of therapy with Poppy a week. This means, we run mini therapy sessions with Poppy on the weekend as well.
- It’s often hard to give Beany the same things we have been able to give Poppy. Since we are mostly at home, Beany is not nearly as socialized as Poppy was for her age. Balancing our time and attention to both kids is a work in progress.
For our family, the pros definitely outweigh the cons, especially as we see how much Poppy has learned and grown. That being said, the hubs and I are always communicating trying to come up with ways to cope and give each other time, space and support.
As far as day to day life, here is a sneak peak Day in the Life: ABA Therapy.
Day in the Life:
5am: I am up to get some me time before the household wakes up. This includes coffee, journaling, blogging, making the hub’s work breakfast/lunch and blitzing up a big family smoothie.
615am: Beany is up and asking for her morning smoothie.
630am: The hubs is off off to work!
645am: Poppy is up! The girls and I enjoy our smoothies.
715am: Girls eat breakfast: pumpkin oatmeal muffins today. While they eat, I prep a few things for SPS Meals and grab everyone’s clothes for the day.
8am: Therapist arrives and Poppy’s day starts.
9-945am: While Poppy learns and plays with the therapist, Beany and I sneak out for a super quick jog/shower.
945-10am: Snack time for the girls. And I start gathering their stuff for a quick outing.
10-1115am: We are starting to work on social skills with Poppy so this means we are getting out to do fun little outings. Today we are off to an indoor playground with our therapist. I play with Beany while Liv works with her therapist at the playground.
1145-1210: Poppy wraps up her morning session while I prep lunches, change diapers, and inhale my lunch.
1210-1230: Girls eat lunch. I put Beany to bed, take Poppy to the potty and off to my first parent meeting.
1-3: I set Poppy up with a snack, some music and some toys, and head to our dining room table for our weekly team meeting (full therapist team). Here we discuss progress, change/add programs and basically cover all details of therapy for the next 6 days.
3-630pm: Poppy starts her last session of the day. I get Beany from her nap, wash dishes, assist with therapy, entertain Beany and prep dinner.
530-550pm: The girls eat dinner with a therapist.
630pm: Therapy is over and therapist leaves for the day!
630-715pm: Girls play for a few minutes before the hubs and I start bedtime routines. He takes Beany to bed while I set out dinner.
715-745pm: Hubs and I eat dinner and catch up while Poppy eats a late night bowl of cereal.
745pm: Hubs takes Poppy to bed. I clean up the kitchen.
815-10pm: Everyone is sleeping!!!! Yay! The hubs and I get to chat and catch up. We watch a little John Oliver and have a cup of tea. I clean up the daily mess of toys before going upstairs to bed. Good night.
This is a typical day when I have meetings throughout the day. On most of the other days, Poppy simply has more therapy during the 1230-3 time slot.
Originally posted 2019-11-12 07:04:48.
Jan Sansom says
Valerie says