Do you think that Abbie could progress in a more encouraging environment? I often wonder if she would do better in a concentrated home setting with regular family visits. In Abbie's situation, I think it would be kinder for her to be in a structured setting with regular home visits.
Absolutely.
Hell, I'll say it. If Asa somehow completely turned his personality around and devoted 75% of the attention he focuses on vlogging & comment sections instead on Abbie, and if he listened to what people like Brandy said and actually put her therapies into practice,
AND if he and his wife held reasonable expectations for Abbie,
their "schooling at home" idea would probably work.
The key is reasonable expectations.
At this point in her life most of the proverbial train has left the station. She'll never ride her bike to the store. She'll never pack herself a lunch. She'll never see that the dishwasher has completed its cycle and independently put away the clean dishes, or hear the buzzer of the washing machine & go switch the clothes to the dryer.
She could probably learn how to prepare very simple meals with prompting - something like making a sandwich if the ingredients are prepped for her & placed in their own designated spot in the refrigerator.
She could learn to put toys away at the end of the day, to make her bed in the mornings, any of a number of simple, habit-based tasks that are done at the same time every day.
If her sensory needs were met, she'd be calmer and less destructive.
But the entire structure of Asa & Priscilla's lives would have to change
drastically for that to happen in the home, not to mention personality changes just as drastic.
No more letting her use tantrums or avoidance to get out of doing things
ever. Not even once. And the extinction burst that would/will come with trying to stop the tantrums would be beyond epic, something I know for certain Priscilla could never tolerate.
Their lives would 100% consist of nothing but a schedule. Get up at the same time, perform the same routines at the same time every single day (for those tasks they'd want to become habit like picking up toys or making the bed), constant attention to sensory needs no matter how much Priscilla likes her white trash Southern Living decor and how embarrassed she is by Abbie playing with toddler toys, meals at the same time every day, strict bedtime routines every night....literally everything would have to change about how they live.
Food will get spilled and ruined. Dishes will get broken. That's what needs to happen if they want her to be able to do even the simplest kitchen task like making a sandwich, and it will take months or more.
Anything that happens in ABA and/or with her "teacher" must also happen outside of Abbie's time with those people. If Brandy uses a token system for breaks, they must use the same token system for breaks when she's not there EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME NO EXCEPTIONS.
If they'd BEEN doing that sort of stuff all along, since Abbie was a toddler, she'd probably be closer to Braylee's current level of functioning (echolalia aside). She could have probably been able to hold a simple "job" a day or two a week doing things like shredding or basic assembly - but let's never forget the vlog in the old house where Asa proudly proclaimed that Abbie would never hold a pointless job like that, how it was useless for her to do so, which now seems to be biting him in the ass.
A very specialized "home," with trained staff and established rules and routines and boundaries, would probably be better for her. The issue is finding one, waiting for an open spot in one, and paying for it. Maybe they've been lying about always wanting to keep her at home; maybe they've been researching and on waitlists for years now. But I'm more inclined to think that they(Asa) has always been more invested in keeping her around for filming & content and won't consider placing her in a structured environment until they physically cannot manage her anymore, and it's not like there are an abundance of places with tons of availability just waiting for them to stroll Abbie in with her suitcases.
Now I’m confused
. I remember in many of the vlogs Asa referring to her having IDD. So now all of a sudden she doesn’t have that diagnosis?? What the hell??
He's playing word games.
He knows damn well she has an intellectual disability.
She doesn't have a diagnosis of "IDD" because that's not actually a thing that would appear in her medical records.
He's always, until very recently, said Abbie has a "developmental delay." This is a diagnosis given to toddler/preschool aged children. You can't really diagnose an intellectual disability at a young age. When she was diagnosed with autism (IIRC, she was first diagnosed with PDD [pervasive developmental disorder] and then, after further testing, Infantile Autism - they all fall under the Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis currently) she was also given a developmental delay diagnosis. He's always stuck with that when discussing anything beyond autism & pica.
Delay sounds a lot nicer than disability. It implies that they'll "catch up," or that they're only somewhat behind their peers. Disability is permanent. That's why young children are given a developmental DELAY (or, occasionally, an intellectual DELAY) diagnosis. A lot of kids who get that diagnosis grow out of it as they attend school and therapies, and it can be refined into a more specific diagnosis when they're older. A developmental delay can go away, or it can turn into a learning disability, or a specific communication disability, etc. Not every 4 year old with a DD diagnosis actually has a permanent intellectual disability; they may have dyslexia or an auditory processing disorder, for example.
I think they either refused to get her developmental delay diagnosis medically re-evaluated, or if they were forced to (for insurance, Medicaid, etc reasons) they don't view it as a valid diagnosis.
If she "only" has a developmental delay dx, they can continue to live in their fantasy land of Abbie packing her lunch, hopping on her bike, and going to work choosing vintage t-shirts for her online shop. Asa can keep vlogging her, keep the humpers on tenterhooks waiting for Abbie to do all sorts of things independently.
It's just a delay, you see. A developmental delay.
Very recently, like within the last 6 months, he admitted in a vlog to the intellectual disability thing. That official diagnosis will be a part of their guardianship process when she turns 18, so if it's not in her medical records already, he knows it will have to be here in the next few months.
