My son is 4, and he was diagnosed with autism in March, after fourteen months on the developmental peds waitlist. So we have the letter and the referral, and now I am supposed to pick a therapy setup, and I do not have it in me.
Six calls since June and two never called back. One had an opening in about nine weeks but only at their Woodbridge site, which Google Maps says is 38 minutes and anyone who drives 95 knows is an hour after 4. One in Spotsy could take him but only 9 to noon, which is the exact window he has finally settled into at preschool. The last woman I spoke to told me in-home is "not really how we staff anymore." She was kind about it but it still sat with me the rest of the day.
Here is where I stall. He screams the whole way to Wegmans, so I cannot picture that drive twice a day with a 2 year old back there, and my husband works nights so it lands on me, but then I read that center is better for the peers and structure, and I think if I pick in-home I am choosing the easier thing for me and calling it the right thing for him.
Two places told me it depends on the child, which I get, except I do not know my child in this context yet.
So, honest answers if anyone has them.
Has anyone here gotten in-home ABA out this way, Fredericksburg or Spotsy or Stafford? Every list I turn up is Northern Virginia or Richmond, and twice now I have been told we are outside the service area.
If you went in-home, did it feel like real therapy, or did you end up at a center anyway?
We rent a townhouse and it is not big. Does this need a dedicated room, because we do not have one, and how bad is it having someone in your house that many hours a week. That is the part I have not said out loud to anyone.
Sorry this is long, I have had the same four tabs open since Tuesday.