12:00 PM at Providence Hearing and Speech center. Today Stephanie used a book and asked William to identify the object (while Ms. Kristie worked at her desk); he could answer most of them. Some questions like “Whose food is this?” William did not understand. 30 minutes passed by really fast.
When it’s weekend, Tim likes to take William out for a short morning walk around the neighborhood. The flower trees are blooming so beautiful during this time of year. Every time we pass by this house, William always want to touch the tile before continue on.
Today Thursday is the last session with Selestie, which is also the last session with ABEST at home because they don’t have any available staffs for us.
So until we can successfully switch to the new vendor, William will not have any ABA sessions at home. At the day care Ms. Han and Ms. Tracy still continue to be there until the last day of service with ABEST, which we don’t know when yet.
I’m really sad that our relationship with ABEST is about to end. They had a great team for William case but they lost it. I’m worried that the team at the new vendor will not be as good; but I guess we have no choice now. We can’t just wait for ABEST to find new staffs; and there’s no guarantee that the new staffs are good either.
Tuesday 12:00 PM. Took William to his second session of Speech Therapy at Providence Hearing and Speech Center in Fountain Valley. The session was only 30 minutes, the first 20 minutes was in the room, the next 5 minutes was in the gym and the last 5 minutes was for the therapist to take notes (which means we left after the gym, which was about 12:25 PM).
When we got in the room, Ms. Kristy let him sat in the small chair and buckled him up (so that he doesn’t run around). She taught him the concept of TOP and UNDER. Also, he had to ask for things “I NEED ….”. She also introduced the functionality of things “What does it do?”, “An airplane fly”…
William tried to unbuckle the straps a few times but could not.
When in the gym, William had to ask for things he wanted to play “I want swing”, etc.
Tuesday 11:30 AM. Picked William up a little bit early to take him to the Speech Therapy. He was learning the letter P with Ms. Susan.
After about 7 months under construction, the school is now has a new beautiful look. William’s classroom still remain the same; the new building is mostly for front desk, principle office, nurse office and other administrative staffs.
Now we don’t have to walk that far to get to the class anymore; and because William is so excited with the new building he has not asked for the stroller; and he’s willing to walk.
Sat 11:30 AM. We went to my mom’s house to celebrate New Year.
Monday 10:30 AM. We went to Hsi Lai temple and then to Tim’s Dad & Mom house afterward.
William was near by when I tried to arrange the fruits on the tray so I took the opportunity to test him on the name of the fruits; he knows them all. Then he started to drum using the chopsticks on the fruits. He had so much fun playing drum that he would not want to to bed!
So I started a little game where I’d say the name of the fruit and then he’d hit that fruit with the chopsticks. Fun little game!
Wednesday morning. It’s Valentine’s day but it’s also a sad day for us. Ms. Nhu called me around 10:00 AM and delivered the bad news that Kevin (the supervisor) already left the company this week, Annie (who was William’s Behavorial Technician from the beginning and now that she’s promoted to supervisor, she has been parent training Tim for about 2 months) is also leaving the company end of this month. It’s getting worse when I was told Ms. Selestie who has been William’s BT for every night at home for the past 3 months also thinking about leaving too. Which means the team that we love so much is about to leave us soon; and the worse news is that ABEST doesn’t have any available staffs to teach William at home. One thing I’m glad is that Ms. Han and Tracy will still be with William at the day care from 2:00 – 5:00 pm.
Ms. Nhu also said that it’s ok if I want to look for another vendor; and I should look soon before July. Because after July, RCOC will transfer all the cases to CalOptima, then it’s gonna be harder to find a vendor.
I cried when I heard the news while still on the phone with her. I just love every one in this team so much, they’re all good teachers to William; and my boy has learned so much from them. It’s heart breaking to see such a good team falling apart.
I also felt bad for Ms. Nhu, she’s a very dedicated and passionate about this work. It’s a small company so she handles everything from recruiting to billing and doing paperwork. It must be tough for her that 3 staffs are leaving at the same time. Because of her I decided to stay and wait until she can find a new BT for William.
Thursday 2/15/2018. Evening session with BT Selestie at home as usual.
Ms. Selestie told me to keep this as a secret that Ms. Nhu also is leaving the company in 2 months! I was so shock; I just simply thought it’s the staffs that are leaving; never thought the company is not doing well. Not sure what the reason is but Ms. Nhu is 1 of the most important person in the company; and if she leaves, there’s no one else can run the company. Once again I felt sad for Ms. Nhu; she invested lots of her time and energy into this company; she must feel really bad. I always admire her passion about helping children with autism; that’s why she opened this company with hoping that she can do better than other companies. I wish I could do something to help her and bring the company back.
William of today is totally different than William of 8 months ago. Thanks to all wonderful BTs from ABEST that William has progressed so much at the rate that everyone is amazed; especially Ms. Han and Annie who have been there with William from the beginning. 8 months sounds like a long time but to us it’s not that long. I really missed those days when there were times 3 or even 4 staffs came to our house at once. I still remembered we talked and laughed.
I’d like to list the name of all ABEST staffs here so that I won’t forget:
Ms. Nhu, Ms. Nhi, Ms. Jody, Ms. Annie, Ms. Han, Ms. Selestie, Ms. Tracy (she just started with William for 2 weeks), Mr. Kevin (supervisor).
It’s so hard to say goodbye!
Valentine’s day we bought some dipped chocolate strawberries for the teachers at Mitchell as well as the teachers at the Children world preschool.
