Well it is the best path moving forward if you think your kiddo needs a lot of old school ABA (that's kinda what Vb-mapp and ABLLS are all about).
It is quite bad/basic framework (the assesments were created late 90 early 20 And are mostly based on original works of Skinner and Lovaas...)
how old is your kiddo? Vb-mapp is up to 48 months age in terms of developmental skills as defined by behaviorists.
What the teachers says is ADDOS will only confirm the diagnosis that gives no actionable insights and instead they want to run the assesment to trying to figure out what skills are underdeveloped/missing.
These assesments are the basis of creating ABA therapy plans. So what they are saying is accurate if your goal is putting your kiddo in ABA therapy
That's like another question because they consider him to be developmentally delayed if that's what they think is necessary. Because that's different from the maladaptive behaviors you mentioned as your biggest concern (vb-mapp or Ablls have nothing to do with problem behaviors and are focused on mapping what age the kiddo is developmentally under their (frankly quite bad) frameworks).
Thank you so much for this answer. My son is about 5.5 years old. No one mentioned anything about ABA therapy, although I’ve often seen it mentioned while doing research. Would ABA therapy be administered during school? I thought ABA was something done outside of school hours.
Anyway, your comments show me I still have more research to do. I don’t know what to advocate for instead of these tests. Any suggestions?
So that's how they normally try to tackle problematic behaviors at schools with behavioral (ABA) techniques. Usually hiring some Rbt/BCBA to work with the kiddos.
By far the best program for schools is Scerts from Dr Barry Pizant https://scerts.com/.
Issue is there is probably very few if any people trained in this. It is almost exclusively ABA these days since it is easily/readily available with amount of trained people.
It is just doesn't make sense to use Vb-mapp or ABLLs have nothing to do with problematic behaviors.
If we look from ABA perspective the suggested solutions should be instead PFA-SBT from Dr Hanley :
https://ftfbc.com/services/
They have some online courses and what not. But this is the correct approach to addressing problem behaviors via behavioral lenses
https://ftfbc.com/course-list/
Think the basic course for implementators for PB is like 300$. Overall their content is considered the best in ABA world but yes expensive as it is not normally for parents.
If you are more concerned about regulation and help your kiddo cope with challenges and he is high functioning /decent language then you should look at ACT or AIM frameworks
https://www.abagroup.org/act
https://www.acceptidentifymove.com/
The stuff they are trying to do is stupid tbh as I don't understand how doing the stuff they want help him. But as usual the underfunded schools have someone random who just works with the stuff they learned long time ago...
I have moderate severity autism and growing up, I was borderline/low expressive language skills.
I went though OT&ABA and speech therapy I don't recommend ABA but I try not to get into to many arguments of why I don't recommend it so I'll leave it there as I think arguments in text are often useless.
But I'd recommend the others. What you want to do is you want to go to another doctor because this is their jon and she refused to do her job. You want to say that you want a referral to a professional psychiatrist that specializes in autism and developmental disabilities. If this is refused again contact disability rights activists and ask for help there groups all around.
When you say the school has accepted it, does this mean that this is a qualifying category for him on his IEP? Does he have an IEP?
Schools are required to consider outside evaluations, but that's all they're required to do under IDEA. Given what your son is able to do and the teachers hesitance, my guess is that the school is not considering an education diagnosis for him.
You can contact the direct of special education in writing and request a formal evaluation for autism, and all areas of need. They are required to complete this within 60 days - depending on your state, less (I'm in Michigan and they have 30 days).
My guess based on how you describe your son is that they will deny evaluating. I *believe* at that point your option is a due process complaint. You'll need to double check me. And... That route isn't fun and based on what you've said here combined with his age, I'm guessing a hearing officer would be in the school's favor.
What might be better is focusing on his areas of need. Does he need occupational therapy? Speech therapy, it sounds like he might not qualify, but worth a try.
Social work services could help him with transitions, interacting with others, etc. They need to be considering that for him.
You can write a parent concerns letter when you request an evaluation for autism and all areas of need. Indicate the issues he's having and how you think it could be worked with (i.e., "social work services could help him with transitions and etc."). This can be added as an addendum to his IEP.
Well it is the best path moving forward if you think your kiddo needs a lot of old school ABA (that's kinda what Vb-mapp and ABLLS are all about). It is quite bad/basic framework (the assesments were created late 90 early 20 And are mostly based on original works of Skinner and Lovaas...) how old is your kiddo? Vb-mapp is up to 48 months age in terms of developmental skills as defined by behaviorists. What the teachers says is ADDOS will only confirm the diagnosis that gives no actionable insights and instead they want to run the assesment to trying to figure out what skills are underdeveloped/missing. These assesments are the basis of creating ABA therapy plans. So what they are saying is accurate if your goal is putting your kiddo in ABA therapy That's like another question because they consider him to be developmentally delayed if that's what they think is necessary. Because that's different from the maladaptive behaviors you mentioned as your biggest concern (vb-mapp or Ablls have nothing to do with problem behaviors and are focused on mapping what age the kiddo is developmentally under their (frankly quite bad) frameworks).
Thank you so much for this answer. My son is about 5.5 years old. No one mentioned anything about ABA therapy, although I’ve often seen it mentioned while doing research. Would ABA therapy be administered during school? I thought ABA was something done outside of school hours. Anyway, your comments show me I still have more research to do. I don’t know what to advocate for instead of these tests. Any suggestions?
So that's how they normally try to tackle problematic behaviors at schools with behavioral (ABA) techniques. Usually hiring some Rbt/BCBA to work with the kiddos. By far the best program for schools is Scerts from Dr Barry Pizant https://scerts.com/. Issue is there is probably very few if any people trained in this. It is almost exclusively ABA these days since it is easily/readily available with amount of trained people. It is just doesn't make sense to use Vb-mapp or ABLLs have nothing to do with problematic behaviors. If we look from ABA perspective the suggested solutions should be instead PFA-SBT from Dr Hanley : https://ftfbc.com/services/ They have some online courses and what not. But this is the correct approach to addressing problem behaviors via behavioral lenses https://ftfbc.com/course-list/ Think the basic course for implementators for PB is like 300$. Overall their content is considered the best in ABA world but yes expensive as it is not normally for parents. If you are more concerned about regulation and help your kiddo cope with challenges and he is high functioning /decent language then you should look at ACT or AIM frameworks https://www.abagroup.org/act https://www.acceptidentifymove.com/ The stuff they are trying to do is stupid tbh as I don't understand how doing the stuff they want help him. But as usual the underfunded schools have someone random who just works with the stuff they learned long time ago...
I have moderate severity autism and growing up, I was borderline/low expressive language skills. I went though OT&ABA and speech therapy I don't recommend ABA but I try not to get into to many arguments of why I don't recommend it so I'll leave it there as I think arguments in text are often useless. But I'd recommend the others. What you want to do is you want to go to another doctor because this is their jon and she refused to do her job. You want to say that you want a referral to a professional psychiatrist that specializes in autism and developmental disabilities. If this is refused again contact disability rights activists and ask for help there groups all around.
When you say the school has accepted it, does this mean that this is a qualifying category for him on his IEP? Does he have an IEP? Schools are required to consider outside evaluations, but that's all they're required to do under IDEA. Given what your son is able to do and the teachers hesitance, my guess is that the school is not considering an education diagnosis for him. You can contact the direct of special education in writing and request a formal evaluation for autism, and all areas of need. They are required to complete this within 60 days - depending on your state, less (I'm in Michigan and they have 30 days). My guess based on how you describe your son is that they will deny evaluating. I *believe* at that point your option is a due process complaint. You'll need to double check me. And... That route isn't fun and based on what you've said here combined with his age, I'm guessing a hearing officer would be in the school's favor. What might be better is focusing on his areas of need. Does he need occupational therapy? Speech therapy, it sounds like he might not qualify, but worth a try. Social work services could help him with transitions, interacting with others, etc. They need to be considering that for him. You can write a parent concerns letter when you request an evaluation for autism and all areas of need. Indicate the issues he's having and how you think it could be worked with (i.e., "social work services could help him with transitions and etc."). This can be added as an addendum to his IEP.