Thank you so much cheree for the details.

My 6 year old son has been getting ABA therapy for the past year and I LOVE IT. It has worked miracles for his behavior. He gets 2 hours of therapy every day 7 days a week with two different therapists. We still struggle but not as much. Behavior therapy helps them understand what you are saying instead of them tuning you out. Make sure his therapist is good for him. We had 2 therapists that I didn't like. I felt like they didn't know what they were doing. Finally they switched us to a great therapist and she is the one that has helped.

Hi Kavitha, I just wanted to add that on the Autism Research Institute website they have a section for parents of newly diagnosed children and it gives you a step by step guide of things you should do. The Autism Speaks website also has a 100 day tool kit that you can download as well.

Hi Kavitha,

I can give a few suggestions based on what my experience has been so far, but I am not sure if the same resources are available since I am in Michigan. I am learning that things are different from state to state and sometime it depends on insurance, school district, etc.

My son saw a neurologist first and was diagnosed with Autism. With that initial diagnosis he was able to get Speech and OT services paid for by insurance. Here in Michigan, in order for insurance to pay for ABA therapy we had to get a full evaluation to determine if he was on the spectrum or had any other diagnosis. We had to wait a few months to get the evaluation, but it can sometimes be longer. I contacted all the agencies/hospitals in my area that complete the evaluations and went with who could see him the quickest. There are only a handful in my area that insurance will accept the evaluation from. If there are other hospitals/agencies other than Easterseals in your area that can complete the evaluation I would contact them all and schedule an appointment. You can always cancel them after he is seen.

You mentioned other therapies for the summer. Does your son need speech,OT or PT services? There are other therapies such as social skills groups and music therapy. There are also other therapies that are similar to ABA. You can find a lot of information on the Autism Speaks website: https://www.autismspeaks.org/, Taca website: http://www.tacanow.org/ and the Autism Research Institute site: https://www.autism.com/
There are also some book recommendations for parents to help with communication and skills for children with Autism. One book suggested to me was from the Hanen Program, the title is More than words. They also have other books too. You can order them, but I was also able to find them at my local library.

I have not tried any biomedical treatments yet. I have read some info and I am thinking about the GFCF diet for my son. I did give him a b12 vitamin and noticed he talked more when I was giving it to him. Soon I hope to take him to see a nutritionist and MAPS doctor. Those websites I listed will give you more information on biomedical treatments. I do give my son the Alive multivitamin, I give it to all my children. There are other good similar brands.

I can't say whether preschool will be enough, it depends on the child and where he is on the spectrum, behaviors, etc. My son has moderate autism and is verbal, but not much. ABA is helping him to speak more so he can communicate his wants and needs, but there are other therapies. He goes to preschool in the morning and ABA therapy in the afternoon. You can also search on this site to see what other parents recommend, it's been very helpful for me. Just go to the Q+A section to see if a question you have has been asked already. I hope this helps.

Hi. Am new to this site and I would like some info . Our current status is , my son's pediatrician has sent a referral to Easter seals Indianapolis to get a diagnosis - looks like they are not available till August to do a diagnosis. Can you suggest what we can do meanwhile to help our son. We started early intervention in April and my son is turning three on may 5. So not much of therapies he could utilise from early intervention. And he will be joining preschool in August , so there is a couple of months gap.

Can anyone suggest ways to obtain therapies in the summer time ?

Does the biomedical treatment and multivitamin really help ? Pls suggest a good multivitamin name.

Will the preschool therapy be sufficient or how many hours extra therapy can we use to benefit.