Child with pdd needs preschool in tx (Austin, Round Rock: credit, university)

[RyansMommy]

My husband and I are looking for preschools in the Austin, TX area for my 3 year old son who was diagnosed with PDD. Right now we live in NY and he is receiving ABA therapy. Does anyone know of any preschools in TX that also use ABA therapy?????

[neddy]

You might look into Round Rock ISD to see what they might offer for pre k also leander isd. If you want private I think the Capital School might be a place to go. Google UTAP (university of Texas Autism project) you might try contacting them to see if they have any ideas. There seems to be a good amount of private resources around town and I know some folks take there kiddos over to HALO with Soma for rapid prompting. My kiddo is 11 and has aspergers so some we have used some we did not. DM if you need some help since its hard moving double hard when you have to look for resources!

[RyansMommy]

Thank you. I am going to look into university of texas autism project.
But what exactly is Rapid Prompting? is it similar to ABA?

[neddy]

Halo-Soma - Rapid Prompting Method for Autism - www.halo-soma.org

[JamesTTodd]

Rapid Prompting--not like ABA at all.

Several reasons: The main one is that there is no scientific evidence that Rapid Prompting works at all, and a lot of reasons to believe it is just a version of the discredited intervention, "facilitated communication." Think of Rapid Prompting as FC, but without the hand holding. The child is taught to respond to cues to point to letters on a letter board or otherwise indicate specific selections; at the same time, the letter board holder unconsciously guides the letter selection usually by moving the letter board around but sometimes by other movements and verbal prompts. We can see Soma Mukhopadhyay clearly doing this herself in the movie "A Mother's Courage" in the "nose picking" scene at 1 hr 22 min into the movie. The child picks his nose and eats it while Soma very obviously moves the letter board to guide the snot-distracted child's letter selections. Another reason Rapid Prompting is not like ABA is that Rapid Prompting does nothing to teach any of the many specific social, academic, and living skills a child will need to live as independently as possible, including those needed in school. Applied Behavior Analysis, as properly done, is designed to teach missing skills in a positive step-by-step way, generalizing those new skills as rapidly as possible to everyday situations.

Below are two items of information about Rapid Prompting/FC that might be helpful:

Why Rapid Prompting Method Doesn

Facilitated Communication: A Price Too High To Pay



The bottom line is that Rapid Prompting seems to be nothing more than a prettied-up version of Facilitated Communication. It offers the promise of independent communication in people who have never spoken or communicated meaningfully. But, like FC, does nothing to ensure that promise is even possible, much less kept. Rapid Prompting is yet another autism intervention sold to the world without a shred of scientific support. Of course, we are speaking of the world of autism treatment. No science is needed: just a catchy name and a basket of false hopes.