When you have a child with autism, you may be involved with many different therapies and providers. These may include school, ABA, OT, PT, Speech, counseling, doctor’s visits, etc. So naturally, one of the common questions parents have is, “how do we coordinate all of this therapy?”
One of the most helpful analogies I can provide is that of a social worker. A social worker often plays the role of care coordinator, ensuring a client has access to all the necessary services and supports. In some ways, you need to be your own child’s social worker.
Step 1: Familiarize yourself with the different therapies. What is ABA? What is Speech? Understand their purpose in broad terms.
Step 2: Get a copy of your child’s plan for each therapy. Every therapy should have a copy of a procedure or assessment they completed. Schools will have this as well.
Step 3: Read the plan yourself and ask questions. If you don’t understand something, ask the person who wrote it to explain it to you.
Step 4: Share those plans with all the other providers.
Step 5: Do spot checks to make sure the different therapies aren’t conflicting with one another. For example, is speech saying use pictures to communicate, but ABA is saying use spoken language? If there are differences, bring them up and make the providers resolve them.
Step 6: Keep a watchful eye on all the different therapies. As a parent, you’ll know what’s best for your child. So be sure always to have a critical look at each treatment. If one isn’t working, ask them to change it.
