Today we met the new BT who’s supposed to be with William at the daycare to replace Alexandra who quits a week ago. I got home around 6:00 PM and I heard the music, which is very unusual; turns out it was from Jeanie’s phone, William’s new BT. Jody said William was singing along when she played the Trolls song.
Jeanie seems to be a very nice young lady and really is interested in finding about what’s William doing and likes.
Monday evening, we had ABA session with Arron and PC with Jody. Last week Jody mentioned that William seems to like the books a lot so she suggested that we should go to the library; so we planned for that to happen today.
Around 6:00 PM we Jody, Arron, William and I went to the New Hope library (in separate cars) which only 7 minutes from our house. We practiced holding hand while walking on the walk way. Once in the library we asked William to pick out the book, he picked a random one without looking at it; and then refused to pick any other book. He did sit down for 3 minutes while Arron reading the book to him. Then he stood up, walked around; at some point running and talking very loud.
I opened the library membership and we got to check out 2 books today: A pop-up book Red Car Blue Car and The Best Birthday Party. I read these book to him late at night and he seemed to like it: he didn’t ask for Baby Jesus or Zoo Animals which have been his favorite books for months.
He does seem to like listening to book reading; I think going to the library is a fantastic idea. I’ll try to take him to the library on the weekends when they have story telling time.
Tuesday, 5:30 PM – 7:45 PM, ABA session with Ms. Jody from TasKids. William loves to play with the sand that she brought. He has been playing with it for a month now and still not bored yet.
TasKids sent in the schedule for this month April 2018 with Arron covers Mon, Wed, Fri from 5:30 – 7:45; and Jody covers Tues & Thur. from 5:30 – 7:45 as well. Jody also handles Parent Training on Mondays and Fridays (mostly to make up for the weeks that we did not have PC sessions).
At the daycare, Alexandra (I have not met her yet) covers Tues, Wed and Fri from 3-5 PM; and Jody covers only Thursday (3:15 – 5:15).
So now there are 4 staffs from TasKids in William’s case.
Supervisor: Anh Huy Nguyen.
Behavorial Technician: Jody, Arron & ALexandra.
Huy, is a young man, he’s with TasKids for 3 years but he’s been in the field for 6 years. He’s a very organized man. He put the schedule for home sessions in front of the binder so that we can easily know who will come on which day. He thinks ABEST had too many goals for William so he reduced that to a few. BT will still set 15 minutes for potty; and William has to sit for 1 minute. BT will show William the timer on their phone set to 1 minute. Then after that William needs to wash his hands.
Arron was supposed to start 2 weeks earlier but he was sick. He’s a very young man; I think there’s something wrong with his legs that he does’t walk normal. He always comes to our house with only the notebook in his hands: no toys at all. Other staffs always come with toys to use as re-enforcer but he doesn’t. I think that’s the reason why William keeps asking “I want Mama” and runs to the kitchen during his sessions because William is bored.
Jody, we first met her when she was with ABEST; she brought sand/sand tray, puzzles and other toys. William always loves sand so it’s naturally that he keeps asking for sand in her sessions. She uses it as the re-enforcer to ask him to solve the puzzle and read books. She brought 25 pieces puzzle which she knows is hard for William to solve; “The purpose is for William to ask for help, not to solve the puzzle.” – Jody explains.
Alexandra, covers at the day care only, called in sick the 2nd day (last week); and then this week. But then TasKids texted me saying that she felt much better so she could come this week! I have not met her but I heard from daycare staffs that Alexandra is more involved with William than Jody. She will also covers the morning sessions when William is at the day care full day.
I feel like TasKids don’t have enough staffs that they send us those are not in good health, besides Jody & Huy (I have no idea what sickness they have. ).
Communications with TasKids has been text messages; looks like it’s the method they prefer because I only got 1 phone call from Tailyn at the beginning, then after that they’re all text messages whenever there’s a schedule or staff change; which is fine with me.
TasKids did not even ask me to sign any paper works at all, which surprised me because with ABEST we had to at least sign the Client Services Agreement which lists all the things that we, as a client, should or should not do.
Another thing, ABEST policy does not allow BT to contact directly with us; TasKids on the other hand allows that, I got text messages from Jody and Alexandra when they wanted to cancel the sessions.
It’s not good or bad, it’s just my experiences with 2 different companies, and I just wanted to write it down.
Tuesday 2:00 PM. Today was the first day for the supervisor Huy and BT Jody from TasKids to come to day care so after I dropped William off and sent him to his tiny bed in his classroom, I waited for the supervisor Huy and BT Jody in my car. And guess who the BT was? It was Jody who used to work for ABEST! She came to our house a few times to supervise when we were with ABEST. What a lovely surprise!
I was so happy with a comfort feeling that William will be in good hands with someone that he’s familiar with. I was afraid that with new BT, William might not get along well but that feeling soon went away when I saw Jody. It turns out Arron is sick; and Holly is no longer with the company so Ms. Jody will be with him everyday at the daycare and at home too!
Today Monday 3/19/2018 William had first session with TasKids staffs after about 3 weeks with no sessions at home.
The supervisor Huy Dang and BT Aaron were scheduled to be at our home from 5:45 – 7:45 but Aaron was sicked so he cancelled. The supervisor Huy Dang came and stayed for about 1 hour and then left.
William came close to Mr. Huy and sat next to him. Huy was so surprised because this is the first time they met but William acted like they’re close.
Today, Friday, is the last day William has the session at the day care with ABEST; Ms. Tracy is the BT today. Today concludes 9 months of receiving services from ABEST. I’d say we’re very pleased with the services that ABEST provided; I’m really sad that all the good staffs left and that we have no choice to find a new vendor.
Saying good bye to the people that we love is always hard. I waited on Thursday at the day care to see Ms. Han to say good bye to her; I prepared to express our appreciation to her but when I saw her, just the thought of not seeing her again brought tears to my eyes so all I could say was “Thank You Em” while giving her a hug and then I turned around to get back into my car. I sat there an watched her walking thru the side door of the school to get into William’s classroom. Ms. Han replied “I like William a lot!”.
I wish that we have some pictures of William and all ABEST staffs but with school policy of no photos/videos, we don’t have any pictures at all. Monday 3/12/2018 Ms. Nhu will come to pick up the binder; and that will be the last person from ABEST that we see.
Now that ABEST doesn’t have staffs for William at home; we’re looking for the new vendor. I searched Google , picked 2 from the list and called them; left them (CARD) a voice message, few days past with no return calls from them.
Tues 3/6/2018. Called Cal Optima to check on the status; the lady said it’s in PENDING status, which means it’s not being reviewed yet; and that I should call back in a few days to check. I already told ABEST that the last day of their service is Fri 3/9; looks like it takes a while for CalOptima to process our switching vendor request; which means the approval for TasKids to start service might not arrive next week. So William might not have any ABA services at all (home or day care) until TasKids receives the authorization from Cal Optima.
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.
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!