First ABA Team Meeting

Last night we had our first ABA Team Meeting. These are going to be held monthly from this point forward. I couldn't believe it was going to take 2 hours, but it actually went a little over that.

After her regular session ended and they recorded all of their data collections, Janine, Jennifer, Cari and myself basically sat on the floor and talked about everything going on and reviewed her progress. They got out Raquel's binder and reviewed it section by section, with Janine making adjustments as needed. It's important to have these meetings so all therapists are on the same page and are remaining consistent throughout each session. It also gives me a chance to ask questions as well as provide them with my feedback. Janine said that now that she is off and running in the program, the therapists will be leaving notes for each other, detailing specific methods that worked and didn't work as far as getting Raquel to perform her tasks. This continues to be an ongoing challenge. Raquel gets easily bored with specific items and if you don't have something else to interest her, she's very uncooperative. Janine says this is a good thing - they like seeing so much personality - they just need to figure out what works and what doesn't.

Raquel's ABA Session consists of the following:

• Body Parts - right now we're doing "tummy"
• Drawing
• Hi/Bye
• Intraverbals - the "ready, set, go" stuff
• Familiar People - she's doing Gabby in a field of 3 now
• Matching
• Manding for Reinforcers - indicating a choice of 2 items
• Manding for Attention- tap arm/tap leg
• Non-Verbal Immitations/Gross Motor - today we start with tapping table
• Non-Verbal Immitations/Objects - shaking maracas
• Oral Motor Immitations - open mouth
• Pointing
• PECS
• Receptive Commands - put in (such as ball in cup)
• Sitting - the goal is to eventually have her sitting at her table for the entire session
• Toy Play
• Verbal Immitations

Raquel is asked to do each program at least 5 times (more if possible). Once you factor in the time it takes to do this, not to mention all of her "no's", it can make for a pretty exhausting session. Intense is definitely a good way to describe the program.

Towards the end of our meeting, Mike was able to sit down with us and go over his concerns - the main one being that Raquel wants my constant attention and will literally follow me around the house, room by room, usually crying. Janine explained to him that properly asking for my attention is one of the things they are working on, and that we've already noticed big improvements with her not only tapping my leg, but also during the sessions. When we first started, I had to be next to her at all times. Now I can go in the other room briefly before she comes looking for me. She also said that a lot of what is going on with her is nothing more than separation anxiety, which will go away with time.

I know we have a long way to go, but am so fortunate to be involved in this program and surrounded by such truly amazing people.