Thank you for all of your good thoughts and prayers! Gavin will begin services with our top choice agency, Building Blocks, in the next few weeks. Next week they will come out and do, yet another, assessment with Gavin to figure out his skill level. From there we will work with them to develop an intensive plan that works with our day to day needs.
Right now they are able to offer him 10 hours a week of therapy. The hope is over time as other kids age out of the program they will be able to offer him a total of 20 hours. In addition to those hours he will continue to get three hours from Early Intervention which include basic development, speech, and occupational therapy. Thirteen hours a week is some part-time job for our little trooper!
We chose this agency because we like their approach the best out of the other seven agencies we were exploring through the process. Building Blocks utilizes an approach called the Early Start Denver Model. Some individuals will argue that this model is not as successful because there is not currently enough research out there to support it's results. This type of therapy encompasses both Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) along with developmental and social-based orientation that are a routine techniques associated with floor-time. Floor-time is more commonly used in Early Intervention (EI) practices. We have witnessed Gavin having success with the floor-time approach in EI, that we weren't bothered by the fact that there isn't as much research out there to support this method. We feel comfortable with his current success that the the mixed teachings will best support his learning style.
