Torture aka Behavior Therapy

I went to pick up some dry cleaning today and as I was pulling out of the parking lot I noticed this huge billboard advertising for a behavior therapy center. In bold letters across the bottom of advertisement it said "Treating Children with Autism".

It struck me as odd that a behavior therapy center would need or want to advertise like that in such a mainstream forum. Is autism really so common now that we're going to start seeing billboards marketing to parents? Or is it that there are not that many cases compared to the number of therapy centers around here so this place is trying to get their name out there? I'd like to assume the latter but I'm betting that it is probably because of the increased number of diagnoses out there that we may be seeing more and more of this.

Allison does behavior therapy in our home once a week. It is pretty intense. Her therapist is working with her on compliance issues for most of the session which causes a great deal of tantruming and screaming. It makes me feel terrible watching Alli go through that. I have questioned myself many times about if it is worth it or if it really works for her. I feel like I'm paying $55/hr for someone to come in and torture Allison. It is so bad that J can't stand being home when it is going on. The cats even hide.

However at the end of the day though, I'm going to say that I believe in it. I have seen Allison show her will and make progress with the therapist. I think behavior therapy is very important in the grand scheme of things. Truly if we could breakthrough to her with compliance issues just a little bit more it could really make such a huge difference. If she could/would follow directions or participate in certain tasks with us it would be amazing. So for now the weekly torture sessions will continue even if it makes me feel like a mean mommy.