The start of the road

After we got the diagnosis, we had to head back to the pediatrician to get all the necessary referrals. We were told early child intervention is best, so I jumped on it.  I asked for Early Intervention preschool, speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy and ABA (applied behavior analysis) therapy. Anyone who has had to go down this road knows the waiting lists, the one that accepts your insurance and all the in between, of finding these services. Luckily after months of searching I found an early intervention preschool that also had speech, OT and physical therapy offered within the school! I felt so blessed to have found something for my boys. And the best part, insurance covered it! I felt like I hit the lotto. The only thing that was on hold was the ABA therapy. All slots were filled at every facility I could find, and we were put on a dozen waiting lists. I ended up finding one a couple months later, it was a new clinic. They were able to serve both of my kids after school until 5:00 pm. Things seemed to be looking up for us. My oldest was striving, he was only struggling with the structure and schedule of school life. My youngest still had a long way to go but I remained hopeful. It was probably just 6 months in and my youngest started having aggressive meltdowns. Just crying and wanting to pinch people with his frustration. The ABA clinic decided to let us go due to this but claiming it was for a “medical reason”. It is the job of an Applied Behavior Analysis to help the parents figure out how to regulate these BEHAVIORS. I was very upset because this was not okay. Afterwards, the people of the ABA clinic would see us at the preschool (as they still had clients there) and would pretend like they didn’t know us. To me, that was an even bigger sign that something was off with them and that clinic.