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Clean up After Your Mess, William!

Posted on by MICHELLE N
Ipad after clean up

Wednesday, ABA session with Mr. Dan at 5:30 PM.

William saw me walking to the living so he followed me there.  He turned on the light and then pushed all the magazines from the coffee table to the ground!  So Mr. Dan set a mission to make William put up everything back on the table before he can play.

His method is to get William’s attention on a toy, then ask William to clean up before he can play the toy.

First Dan tried to blow the bubbles and made some noise with domino.  William didn’t seem to be interested in that: he kept playing and sitting on the magazines without looking up.   Then Dan tried different toys but William did not care either. Finally Dan asked me for William’s ipad: the most powerful enforcer!

So Dan turned on YouTube, played some videos on the iPad; and soon William came to him.  So iPad won!

– “Hi William, do you want iPad?  – Dan kept the iPad and would not let William touched it.”

– “iPad”

– “You will have iPad but fist let’s clean up the magazine first and then we get to play with iPad.”

So they both went to the coffee table.

– “Dan’s turn to clean up” –  Dan put some magazines on the table while he said that.  “William’s turn to clean up” – he gave some to William and asked him to put on the table.  William did a few times and then refused to do it.

– “Sorry William, you have to clean up first.”  So Dan went back to the dining table, turn on the iPad; and push up the speaker volumn.

William hang around the coffee table a bit and then ran back to the iPad.  Mr. Dan repeated the same thing.  “Let’s clean up first, then iPad!”

This time William helped to put all the magazines back on the  coffee table but as soon as he done, he pushed everything back on the ground!

– “Sorry William, that’s not right, clean up first before we can play.”  – So Dan took the iPad with him to the dining room.

William ran to the iPad. Mr. Dan said the same thing!

4th time, finally William was compliant; with Mr. Dan’s help to put all the magazines on the table and did not push them down again.

I was so impressed with the way Dan handled the situation with a very calm voice and patience.

Hopefully this way William will understands that if he messes things up, he needs to clean up.

 

 

 

 

New ABA Staff

Posted on by MICHELLE N
William with teacher Dan, playing “Breaking the Ice” game

In order to prepare for transition to ABA services funded by Cal-Optima (currently our ABA service is funded by RCOC until end of Oct 2017),  ABEST’s director has made some changes with the staffs that teach William.  Ms. Annie has been the primary teacher for William, and some times Ms. Jody; and Mrs. Jody is also to supervise and parent training.   Cal-Optima has different requirements for ABA staffs that’s why Ms. Annie and Jody can’t be on the case anymore.

So William’s new teacher would be Mr. Dan, a very young nice man; and the supervisor would be Mr. Kevin which we have not met yet.

First day Mr. Dan is 1 on 1 with William, Mrs. Nhu came to make sure everything is fine. I love how she cares for her staffs and clients.
First day Mr. Dan came with lots of toys, he put them on the floor to see which one William likes.
Playing domino

 

Discrete Trial Training (DTT)

Posted on by MICHELLE N

William has DTT every morning from 8:30 AM for 20 minutes.  I heard the teacher and staffs saying the word DTT all the time, “William, let’s go to DTT” but never knew the meaning of it so today I asked Ms. Vanessa what it means.  She saids it’s Discrete Trial Training.

So i’m looking up this word in internet and starting to understand more about this technique.

http://www.educateautism.com/applied-behaviour-analysis/discrete-trial-training.html

“Discrete Trial Training is one of the most important instructional methods for children with autism”
– Smith (2001, p.86)

Hopefully William is learning from DTT.  William has made lots of progress over the past few months; I’m not sure it’s because he’s learning from school or from ABA sessions at home, which is 5 days a week from 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM (Mon-Fri).

Now he likes to sing Happy Birthday, ABC  and Twinkle Little star songs.  He knows to request for “More Time” when he wants to play with toys that he likes.  He uses the word “Open” a lot when requests to open the door or candy packets.  He learns to say in a complete sentence “I want iPad”.  And he’s toilet training at home.

And importantly he responds to his name by looking up; which he never did before.

Another Session with Ms. Annie

Posted on by MICHELLE N
William and Ms. Annie

Tues afternoon.  This week ABEST sent Ms. Annie to come for William for the whole week; reason being RCOC changed their requirement for ABA Service staffs so Ms. Han and Mr. Quang are no longer eligible to teach William.

Ms. Nhi (in dress) is supervising. She’s due on Sept for a baby boy.

 

William & Ms. Annie. William likes to sit on the floor so Ms. Annie uses it as an enforcer.

RCOC Gave us extension

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Now that we have Medi-Cal, our RCOC Service Coordinator  Kim Than told me that we need to get Medi-Cal pays for ABA services.  Also, She wants us to send her a letter from Tim’s HR saying that we will remove William out of Tim’s policy with Anthem Blue Cross.  So we did.

Usually she has meeting with Behavioral Specialist on Fridays; so today she emailed me saying that they approved the contract extension between RCOC and ABEST so that William can continue to receiving ABA services while waiting for Medi-cal to approve.  And the new contract ends 10/31/2017, which means we have 2 months to get approval from Medi-Cal.

Now I can rest my mind without worrying about making sure William still can continue receiving ABA services until the next 2 months.

Medi-Cal Approved

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Got the approval letter from Medi-Cal.  One day later got the BIC card.  Tried to contact our Medi-cal case manager Juliana Mendosa several times on Friday and Monday but all I got is the voice mail.

Updates:

Tues 7/25: Juliana returned my call; I told her about our current situation with William’s ABA services; and asked her if there’s a way to expedite the transfer of Medi-cal to CalOptima.  She said yes and scheduled to meet with the personnel from reimbursement department tomorrow at 9 AM.

Wed 7/26 @9 AM: Juliana called and set up a 3 way meeting so that the personnel from reimbursement department can ask me questions.  She only asked me 1 question “Have William been using ABA services?”

– With Medi-cal?  I was not sure so I asked.

– Yes – She responded.

– No, our ABA services agency said that our case must be transferred to Cal-Optima first before then can doing anything.

– OK, I’ll expedite the case, you can check with Cal-Optima tomorrow to see if you’re in Cal-Optima network; It should be in their system tomorrow.

That’s it.

Thursday 7/27/2017: I called Cal-Optima (714 246 8500) to check if our case is in Cal-Optima system yet or not.  After asking about our Medi-Cal number, name, DOB, they transferred me to another department because they said my son is disabled and that department would be able to assist us.  I left a voice message with my name, phone number and Medical-Number.

2 hours later I got a phone call (Vietnamese speaker) , asking what I need help with.  I told her that I’d like to select group United Care and add my son’s doctor in the plan.  I also asked her what does it take to get approval for ABA services.  She gave me the Behavorial Health department number to contact.

So I called the number (855 877 3885) asking about how to to obtain approval for ABA services; I told the lady that we already have the ABA Services agency so she tried to look up ABEST name but could not find it; I gave her Nhu’s last name and first name, she could not find it either.  She asked if I know any of the therapist name so I told her Nhi’s name; but she wanted to know Nhi’s last name which I don’t know.  She told me to call back when I have enough information.  (She refused to look up by MIS number).

So I called Nhu from ABEST, asked her for Nhi’s last name.  And then called the number again.

A different person answered the phone; and she said that they don’t work directly with parents; ABA agency must contact them!

I’ve been making quite a few phone calls for the last few days; I’m so frustrated!  ABEST told me to call Cal-Optima and Cal-Optima told me that they don’t work with parents; I really have no idea what to do!  Frustration!

So I called Nhu, told her exactly what Cal-Optima told me, gave her the phone number that I called earlier so that she could call them.  She said “That’s weird”, that with all the self-referring clients that she has, the parents always have to talk to the Insurance providers first to get a case manager assigned before she can talk to them.

Half hour later Nhu called back; she said she was assigned a case manager and given the case manager’s email to contact.  Hopefully the case manager will contact her soon.

What a relief! finally it’s going somewhere.  But I’m truly tired; mentally and physically tired!

Monday July 31, 2017: Mrs. Nhu came to our house for consultation; she said she still has not heard anything from the case manager.

 

 

 

A Busy Day!

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Now this is the last week before HealthNet insurance to be expired so I need to call Anthem to see if the new policy covers ABA services and how should we transition from HealthNet to Anthem.  So I called Anthem; the rep said William is “not active”.  I told her it’s not active until July 1st but she said it’d not matter; she advised me to ask Tim’s Human Resource office to find out if William is included in Tim’s policy.  I asked if Tim’s status is active but she refused to disclose.

Next person I called is Ms. Julian Medosa from Medi-cal office.  I sent in Medi-cal application about 3 weeks ago but still haven’t heard from anyone.  Got the voice mail so I left a message but got cut off before I could finish talking and leave my phone #.  5 minutes later I called again, and this time I tried to be very brief, was able to tell William name, case number and my phone number before I got cut off again.  I guess they only allow a few seconds for voice message.

Now it’s 3 PM, still haven’t heard from Ms. Medosa!

And the day care reimbursement; I still have not received a dime yet!  From our last conversation with SC Kim Than last week, she said she’d send the contract to 24Hr HomeCare, LLC on last Fri so I emailed them.   Karen Khou (Senior Program Services Coordinator ) told me she got the contract but still have not received “the other part of the contract” and that she will contact Ms. Kim for that.  In the mean time she attached the time sheet log so that I can start recording.

First Session with AExceLearning Center

Posted on by MICHELLE N
Ms.. Nhi & Nhu with William

Thursday evening at 5:45 PM at our house.

William had his first ABA session with AExceLearning center’s staffs for 2 hours.  Ms. Nhi (supervisor) and Nhu (administrative manager) came to work out a permanent schedule for William.  Then Nhu spent the rest of the time to make acquaintance with William while Ms. Nhi taking notes. At first W showed signs of not wanting to be near them like push them away or ran into the bed room and closed the door.  But eventually he stayed in the living room and sitting next to Ms. Nhu.  At some point he cried because Ms. Nhu would not give him the iPad before hearing he said “B”.  I came to comfort him, wiped out his tears; that calmed him down a bit and he started to say “B”.   Good boy!

Ms. Nhu also tried to teach him to do the sign “More” and “All Done” to express what he wants.

At the end of the session, Ms. Nhi said W has lots of potentials and skills.  That’s my boy, we’re proud of you, son!

More
All Done

What a Happy Day!

Posted on by Moonie
William was so happy to see me waiting for him after class at Mitchell

Yesterday i was feeling so down because I could not find any ABA Services providers that meet William’s schedule.  After class at Mitchell school and his nap at the daycare, he’s only available for 2 hours after 3:30 PM.

A week ago I called Morning Star ABA services, talked to a lady named Amanda and sent her our insurance info.  She said she would call back but did not received any thing from her so I emailed her asking for status.  She said with William’s schedule it’s hard to find available staffs.   Then yesterday I called several providers from the list that HealthNet rep sent me:  Bloom Behavorial Health Inc said they have a 3 months waiting list, some providers didn’t answers (Behavior Support Svc, Creative Solution for Hope) . Finally I reached down to the bottom of the list: AExceLearning Behaviorial Education Support and Training.  A nice lady named To Nhu Le answered, and it turned out she’s Vietnamese.  So later in the day she sent me more info about her agency and requested that I sent her our insurance and the report from RCOC.

He loves this stamp

Today I sent what To Nhu Le from AExceLearning Behaviorial Education Support and Training requested, and soon she replied that she already verified William qualification with HealthNet and that we don’t have to pay co-pay or deductibles; and that she sent in the authorization request and waiting for the answer from HealthNet.

In the mean time, I also emailed Mrs. Annette Glass from Healthnet (who sent me the providers list in the first place) and telling her that the provider AExceLearning Behaviorial Education Support and Training has staffs available for William’s schedule and that they were waiting for authorization approval.

Few minutes later, got an email from Mrs. Annette, she said she talked to To Nhu Le and authorized 8 hour assessment effective today!  I’m so happy that things turn out pretty good.  I’d never expect that Mrs. Annette would act so fast!

Not just that, around noon our service co-odinator Kim Than called, saying that we got approved for Day Care.  Even though the amount is not much but it’s better than nothing.  She also encouraged me to call the RESPITE agency to schedule for at least 1 time; which will help in the process of requesting Medical for William.  Once William get approved for Medical then RCOC will cover all the RESPITE fees so we don’t have to pay anything.

This really relieves the financial burden that I’ve been feeling ever since William was diagnosed with Autism.  If we have Medical we’d not have to worry about the lack of money to pay for Insurance co-pay and deductibles for doctor visits (and my boy is sick so often!).