Our Next Move

Casey and I are always looking towards what we will do next with Austin and all his treatments so currently we are in the process of getting Austin accepted into the organization, CARD, which is the Center for Autism and Related Disorders. Currently, Austin attends PAC (Preschool Autism Class) for 27 hours a week and (most recently) private speech therapy for 1.5 hours a week. But both Casey and myself have been feeling that Austin needs more. All the research out there shows that the best opportunity for recovery comes with intensive ABA for 40 hours/week. We could be doing better in this department so we decided to get the ball rolling on the approval process just this past week.

So here's a little history on CARD. It was established in 1990 by Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh. Dr. Granpeesheh studied autism treatment for 12 years under the direction of renowned autism treatment scientist Dr. Ivar Lovaas at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Lovaas discovered that intensive early intervention using Applied Behavioral Analysis treatment yielded a 47% recovery rate among children with autism who participated in his study. Building off these findings, Dr. Granpeesheh and her associates authored a treatment curriculum for children diagnosed with autism now known as the CARD Treatment Approach and opened the first CARD office in Los Angeles, California in 1990. She continued to train hundreds of therapists and supervisors on this methodology and has successfully treated and recovered thousands of children. Today, CARD has 17 offices in the United States, one office in Sydney, Australia and one office in Auckland, New Zealand. In addition, CARD provides parent/therapist training and consultation worldwide through their workshop-model services.

A CARD therapists will come to our home and provide individual 1-on-1 ABA therapy. Doesn't that sound GREAT! YES IT DOES! That's why we can't wait to get the in-take process complete and Austin approved and ready to go. Our plan is for Austin to continue with PAC and then we will add CARD during non-school hours to (hopefully) reach our target of 40 hours/week.

We'll keep everyone posted on the approval. We are looking at the earliest possible starting time of September. There is lots of "boxes to check" with insurance, evaluations, assessments, etc to be completed before we can begin. If you want to learn more about CARD check out their website here.