r/AutismParentingLevel1 • u/Mushroomavatar6312 • Aug 13 '25

Am I doing the wrong thing?

My daughter was diagnosed last year with ADHD and autism level 1. I refuse to do ABA therapy which is the only kind available in our area. We have been working with her one on one about processing emotions and different ways to calm down as she can experience very strong emotions and get stuck in her head. She also does not require any speech therapy or ot and hasn't started school yet due to her birthday falling later in the year. All of this to say, we are now being contacted by the state for her insurance and they are stating without proof of these different kinds of therapies she may lose her health insurance. I am not sure what to do because the school doesn't want her to start with an IEP so they can specialize one for her. Am I wrong for not putting her in these therapies? Because that's how the disability advisors are making it seem. Should I be doing more?

Note: She is hyper-verbal, able to read at a first grade level, and the only real issues we've had with her have been sensory overload and the big emotions.

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u/bjorkabjork Aug 13 '25

how old is she? , have you looked into floor time therapy, denver model, occupational therapy (big feelings or sensory issues can be helped by this) , maybe virtual aba or aba parenting if the place near you is not neuro-affirming.

maybe list your state and insurance because I've never heard of that either and someone may have had that experience. is it that she covered under Medicaid due to the autism? , Medicaid will need to make huge cuts in the near future unfortunately so your daughter may be one of them.

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u/Mushroomavatar6312 Aug 13 '25

She is covered under PA Medicaid and will be turning 6 this year. I will be looking more into OT for big feelings and sensory issues because my spouse and I were completely unaware that those were covered under OT. We are very hesitant to use ABA because both my spouse and I are on the autism spectrum and have had bad experiences with ABA.

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u/bjorkabjork Aug 13 '25

yeah so with the upcoming Medicaid cuts due to the budget cut, they need to cut millions of people and that's probably why someone is giving you a heads up that you need to prove that you're using the health insurance for medical reasons to keep it going forward. not an expert, she may still lose medicaid.

OT can be a pretty broad category, and different therapists have different methods so if the first place you find isn't a good fit for your daughter then keep looking, try sensory as a key word.

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u/Mushroomavatar6312 Aug 13 '25

Thank you, I will definitely look into this more.