Hi everyone
DD was recently diagnosed with a social communication disorder and we've been told verbally that it's probably ASD (and certainly the symptoms seem to fit).
She's 2 yrs 8 months and we realise we're lucky that problems have been spotted early, but we're struggling to get impartial advice on the best form of early intervention. At the moment we have an hour of speech therapy (private) and an hour of portage each week, which feels like a drop in the ocean. We have a 7 wk old baby to deal with as well so she really isn't getting the attention she needs at home
We are considering 2 options - a home-based ABA programme, or 4 afternoons a week in a nursery which specialises in ASD and follows TEACH (expensive and logistically difficult to get to..). We are really struggling to decide which is the best way forward, and are finding that no-one seems to be offering impartial advice - most people we have come across seem very anti-ABA.
Neither option is cheap but I want to understand what's best before we worry about the £££....
It also feels like the special nursery has a philosophy where they recommend special schools, whereas ABA seems to be aiming for mainstream education - so feels like we may be making a big choice at quite an early age!
I know no-one can tell us what to do, but 'd really love to hear about people's experiences and thoughts, especially on ABA as there seems to be a lot of negativity around it (children come out "weird", can't generalise, won't "perform" without rewards etc).
In case it's useful, dd is verbal & communicative but with lots of echolalia
Thanks everyone