EI sessions-observing

Do most of you watch your child's therapy sessions ?

How do you try to carry over the therapy into the day, especially something so specialized as ABA ? Do you offer reinforcements ?

What do you do during family training ?

Thanks in advance

Re: EI sessions-observing

I watch all of DS' in home services (tomorrow is his last day, he ages out of EI and starts Pre-K next week).

I sit in the kitchen with DD. I can see, hear everything in the den.
I ask questions.

My DS gets ABA and PT at home but next week everything will be at school.

The therapists suggest things to do and I keep up with it.

Re: EI sessions-observing

I stay in some sessions (I am on the computer in the same room). I listen but do not interact.

I ask questions at the end of their session.

At the beginning I attended all sessions, then only some of them, then none of them. But after a while, I went back to attending a lot of them. I just stay on my side of the room.

DS has ABA, OT, PT, Speech.

Family training. We talk about goals but personally after 1.5+ year of EI, it is a huge waste of my time.

Re: EI sessions-observing

DS gets some services at home, some at daycare. Obviously, I am not there for the daycare sessions (although I was in the beginning for speech). At home, I generally don't stay in the room, because DS is too attached to me, and it interferes with what the therapist is trying to do.

I usually am in another room, with a closed door between us. I can hear what's going on, and I do listen to some of it, but as I became more comfortable with the individual therapists, I don't listen to every single thing they do.

I usually get a rundown of what happened in the session and recommendations of what to work on at home (written in a notebook for daycare sessions, verbally at home). My son gets ABA and I do find the team meetings helpful in hearing the progress he is making and whether or not there are things he struggles with across the board, or if it is just with certain personalities. One of the things we worked on with the ABA teachers was eating, so this was definitely something we got suggestions on how to build on what they were doing in their sessions. Other times, they will suggest activities you can do at home, or outside the house that will help your DC become more engaged socially with other people, especially other kids (another thing we work on with DS.)

Family training varies from week to week. Some weeks we have a lot to discuss and toss around a lot of ideas of things to try. Other weeks, we don't have to much to share or talk about.

Re: EI sessions-observing

Thank you for all your replies. My DD just started EI in July. She has only received about 1/3 of her sessions due to ABA therapist's vacations, meetings and sick days. I have only sat in on one session as she is a twin and her sister needs constant watching/attention.

My DD receives her ABA services in her room with the door closed. Our family training has been fairly useless. The team leader will also only being seeing my daughter for one session a week. I am not quite sure how effective her strategies or advice will be with such limited exposure to my dd ?

I just want to make sure I am making the most out of EI as possible. I am generally a very easy going person but I know how important EI is and how quickly the time goes.

Re: EI sessions-observing

Message edited 8/31/2010 3:07:52 PM.

Re: EI sessions-observing

we did all our therapies EVERYWHERE in the house.

the main section was in his playroom, which is where he spends most of his day...

in the living room
in his bedroom
in the kitchen
at the table
in the car
out at the mall
at playdates
getting haircuts
at the park
the pool
in the backyard
in the front of the house
at restaurants

we had ABA sessions EVERYWHERE..

when they are done in the house in the playroom, i usually dont sit with him, i hear them, but i have my DD and she can be a real PITA.

sometimes i would send her down and the therapists would work with the both of them. that taught AJ how to interact with his sister and not to always sit on her, stomp on her, push her.

if i were to sit in on all of his therapies, i would have been in therapy from 9am - 6pm, i would join them but i wouldnt sit with them all the time.

as for family training.. we did it once a week and we just had goals and lists of things to follow.

we are working on handwriting right now.. he just aged out, but it's something we can still do.

he knows his address and phone number, now we have to teach him how to generalize it... so if i give him a phone and say call home, he will dial it. he will tell you what the number is, but putting 2 and 2 together is where we need to bring on over.

if you arent comfortable with your team leader, you can always request another one.

our 1st team leader we saw once a week on the weekends, but he did his 1 session and family training in one, so it really helped, and he was very good with programs

once he left (due to his license) one of his other ABA therapists took over and we saw her 3x a week on top of the 1 hour family training... when she left (maternity leave) another one of his ABA therapist took over who saw him 4x a week.

all in all we loved his 1st Family trainer so much that he will now be AJs family trainer for CPSE.

ok i am so babbling right now.... remember you are your DDs voice.. if there is something you dont like speak up, if there uis someone you dont care for, request someone new.

generalize her therapy EVERYWHERE... make sure they include her twin in some sessions (once they get to know her)

they become like family. each of our therapist have been with us for 16 months and we are retaining 2 for CPSE.

you need to be comfortable and you need to make sure you speak up when you have a question or concern.

EI is fantastic

Re: EI sessions-observing

According to our therapists, I am in the minority, but I watch all of my son's sessions. I even participate when the therapists need an extra hand. DS is my one and only, so it's definitely a luxury I have.

We do most of his therapy in his main play area, but we also use the dining room, kitchen, and backyard.

To carry over into the rest of our day, I take the main skills they are trying to teach him, and in the most natural way possible, I try and teach him. For example, now we are working on identifying body parts. If they are working on "touch nose" for example, I will read a book with body parts and ask him to show me his nose. We also work on making him request items he wants using either sounds, signs or pictures. (The same way the therapists make him request items.)

There are certain things, I really don't push him on. The therapists make him match or identify pictures, and we don't do that with him. It's just too much.

As a side note, I wish DS had a twin sister. The social component is so important, and I think siblings help.

Sorry for the long ramble.

Re: EI sessions-observing

I know I'm answering this post a little late but I wanted to come at your question with a DIR perspective as well. My answer coincides with alot of the other posters in that you should absolutely be in on the session, but with DIR you are at the heart of the session. Its your relationship with your child that we are trying to foster therefore you are a critical component to the therapy. I only do therapy if the parent or parents or caregiver is in the session 100% willing to take coaching to foster and facilitate your interactions with your child. A child is only capable of carryover if you as the parent know how to foster there emotional and intellectual capacities everyday. A therapist can never substitute what you the parent can offer your child and remember your child's motivation to engage and interact is greatest with their parent. So my advice is always become a willing participant in all sessions and be wary of anyone who tries to disengage you from the process.

Re: EI sessions-observing

I'm an OT and my experience has been that most parents do not sit in on the sessions. Most run around the house cleaning or cooking or go on the computer. I usually like them to be within ear shot so if I want them to see something the child is doing or if the child needs something (diaper change, food....). I also like to take the last 5 or 10 minutes of the session going over things with the parent and I have them sign the log note. To be honest, I've only had 2 or 3 OT EI cases where the mom sat in on the session and those sessions were always the least productive and very frustrating for me professionally. The children whose moms sat in on the session always acted out more and was much less focused. It took a lot of time out of the session. Also the moms were so nice and would chat with me and really seemed to look forward to having the therapists come to the house for their socialization. It was soooo hard to carry on a conversation about who might win American idol while singing wheels on the bus and trying to keep a 2 year old from ripping my glasses of my face at the same time! As long as the parent is available and can sit in for the last few min of each session in order to go over any strategies they can use with their child that seems to be a good balence.

Re: EI sessions-observing

I was in every therapy session, most of the time directly involved. If my husband was home we were both there. It was really amazing to see his progress!

Re: EI sessions-observing

I want to thank everyone for giving me their different perspectives and experiences. It has helped me greatly.

First off, they switched my team leader to one of the therapists who comes 3x a week, which was excellent news. And now we decided that half the session is going to be spent working on new programs or reinforcing programs, in my dd's room (so she isn't distracted by her sister/brother) and the other 45 minutes will be working on her play skills in front of myself and with her siblings around. This has been working out beautifully. I get to see how to follow through with the therapy during the course of the day and she gets to show off how great she is doing. The last thing I am interested in doing is talking about what's the latest reality show with her therapists. I have a ton of friends that I barely have time for, I am definitely not looking to her therapists as a way for me to socialize. My dd's therapists are for me to learn from, not to interfere with. I completely agree, there has to be a balance.

I can not thank everyone enough who participated in this thread. It really empowered me to take a much more active role in her therapy. I feel 1000 times better already.