Lots to do if I'm going to be ready for home schooling Grace in 2012. Dawson and I went to a one-day course at Waikato University yesterday titled "An introduction to ABA therapy for parents and educators" with Dr Thomas. Long day with lecture-type structure, but some good basic information about the principles of ABA. For me, it was an opportunity to meet an ABA consultant. I now the name of ONE potential consultant based in the Waikato - check! I'm going to need to have someone who has trained in ABA to help out with initial assessment, developing a programme, some training and programme evaluation. I have managed to source some good books listed below, as well as a new website (est. 2011) that "supports parents as therapists" called Rethink Autism.
The plan for 2012 is to put together an ABA programme that I can run myself...yip, I said it! Now, I can guess what some (if not most) will be thinking. Too hard basket! Get real! Can you handle that? Do you know what you're doing? Believe me, I've asked myself the same things repeatedly over the last 3 months...but I'm now at the point where I'm ready to give it a go. One year of my life! If I think where I was last year, I can't remember much I (or Grace) personally achieved.
I came home last night with a mission to seek funding for next year. After an hour of searching Ministry of Health and Education sites, I hit the jack-pot...tucked away in a site that supports Auckland Home Educators (www.ahe.org.nz/resources-and-links/faq). Basically, because of her very high needs, Grace qualifies for ORS (on-going Resourcing Scheme) funding, which can be used to pay for 20 hours per week of teacher-aide support if I home-school!!! But there is one condition...to access her ORS funding I need to enrol her with the Correspondence School under either an Educational or Medical exemption. I may need to get supporting documentation from a ‘professional’ to qualify, which means that the services of the Correspondence school will be free. The Correspondence school will pay the teacher-aide. This can be someone that I already know of. If I choose to home-school without enrolling with the Correspondence School, the Government will not give me access to her ORS funding.
Wow!! The mind boggles at what I could do with 20 hours of teacher-aide support next year. Get some funding for 2012 - check! Where to from here...contact correspondence school to begin enrolment process; contact GSE (Waikato) to ask for help in securing one of their ABA consultants for next year...oh yeah...and let my boss know I want to take time off without pay next year. I've been avoiding making this decision...I can hear the bank balance dropping as I type.
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