Friday, June 26, 2009

Max's IBI Therapy.

Max has a full therapy schedule - it ranges from 14 to 18 hours every week, and will be increasing in the near future. The biggest component of his therapy is IBI (Intensive Behaviour Therapy), but he also receives Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Music Therapy, all at blueballoon.

While I have a fairly good understanding of what IBI therapy consists of, I had never actually seen Max in an IBI session until this week. Brian, Max's main Behaviour Therapist, was kind enough to record part of Wednesday's session for me. The sessions typically run for 2 to 2.5 hours, so this is just a snapshot.


This video captures Brian working with Max, using several reinforcers (a stretchy snake, vibrating elephant, and wolf). I am really glad that we have started taping sessions, as I think it will be a good tool to track Max's progress. I only wish we had taped sessions when Max first started working with Brian in January (though I'm guessing it would have been hard to watch them as Max struggled with compliance for the first while).

What blows me away about this video is Brian's intensity level. Can you imagine keeping this up for over 2 hours? Plus, this is Max on a good day. Some days, for whatever reason, he isn't nearly as agreeable as you see him here. But just because Max doesn't feel like working, doesn't mean that he wins the battle, it just means Brian gets to work all that much harder. So, big ups to Brian and the rest of Max's IBI team! I'm looking forward to sharing more video of Max in the future (hopefully by then he'll be able to say "Mommy" when he is shown a picture of me).

5 comments:

  1. It's AWESOME that they have non-food reinforcers for Max! And yes, Brian seems like a totally wicked guy.

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  2. I know! I was blown away by that. I think we have Valinda (one of Max's Senior Therapists Extraordinaire) to thank for that.

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  3. Max is so gorgeous. This is great. Our therapist is out of breath and has a nice glow after she is done with Khaled :) Its hard work man.

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  4. just wanted to say what an inspiration you and max are! it's amazing to see a child progress and it gives me (a childless (but pregnant) woman knowing no one with autism) a chance to see a beautiful boy with autism and see him as a kid first, a child with autism second. thank you!

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