The “Why”

Thanks for visiting!!!

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11 Holy Bible NIV version

I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself and my family as well as give you some insight on what I hope to provide through this page and my blog. My name is Kimberly Waldrop. I am the creator of First Coffee Then ABA. The name is how I use the Premack Principle every day in my life. I must have coffee first and then I can practice ABA. For those who may know me personally, you know that I can’t function without my coffee I am a wife to a wonderful and supportive husband!! I am also a Mama to 3 amazing kids. I began my journey with ABA after my 2nd child, Riley, was 18 months old. Riley was born 3 weeks early. Riley had colic from about 2 weeks until about 18 months to 2 years old…no joke!! He cried all day and night….or at least that is what it felt like. However, he was typically developing until 18 months old. At 18 months old, it was like someone turned the lights off. He stopped babbling and talking. He stopped making eye contact. As a special education teacher, my heart sank into my stomach because I knew what this meant…..Autism. I was so scared and unsure what to do. I mean being a teacher of student with Autism doesn’t prepare you for what it is like to be a parent of a child with Autism. I had no idea what to expect. Riley began to not only cry, but he would have screaming tantrums for hours. He would hit, bite, scratch, and kick us. I will never forget the feeling I had of complete helplessness the first day that I had to use my restraint training on my own child!!! I remember restraining him and crying!! I cried for hours after that and felt so guilty even though I knew I was doing the right thing to keep him and myself safe. I began doing research and trying to find out what to do and where to go and who to talk to. My head was spinning, and I felt so helpless!!! Finally, I called the Marcus Center, a local developmental pediatrician, and a local psychiatrist. All of them had at least 1 year waiting lists. Thankfully, the developmental pediatricians office recommended calling Babies Can’t Wait to help in the interim, and they told me they would also put me on the cancellation list. So, when I got off the phone with the dr office, I immediately called the Babies Can’t Wait office to start the process. It took about 2 months to get support from them, but they did go into the daycare and work with Riley and the staff there. Thank God there was an amazing lady at the daycare who loved Riley and would take him when he had major meltdowns. Otherwise, he would have been kicked out of so many daycares. My sweet, beautiful boy was struggling!! I wanted so bad to make it better, but I didn’t know how!! We felt like prisoners in our house because we were scared to go anywhere because of the looks we would get when he would start to scream, cry, hit and kick us in public!! Finally, about 6 months into this journey, I got on my knees and prayed for God to show me how to help my sweet baby!! And, He did!!! He guided me to ABA. I really don’t even remember exactly how it happened, but I found information on how to implement ABA and how to work on behavior. I found out that functional communication training was so important for reducing the meltdowns. So, I did as much research as I could and taught myself how to teach my child PECS, sign language, and how to implement the different ABA teaching methods. Everyday when I would get home from work, I would work for hours with him. I told my husband and the rest of the family that he did not get anything unless he asked with a picture of sign language. No longer were the days of screaming to get what he wanted. We worked and worked and many times we cried, but after about 2 months, I could see a big difference in Riley!! I was so excited the first time he asked for a cookie without prompting using sign language!! It was such a victory!! From there, we continued to see progress in Riley. After 7 months of waiting for an appointment, we finally got a call from the developmental pediatrician that there was a cancellation and could we come in. The answer was a resounding “yes”. So, the journey for a diagnosis began. The developmental pediatrician saw us and completed some testing. He told us that he suspected Autism, but he did want us to investigate Riley’s hearing. We went to a specialist at Emory and had his hearing tested. And of course, he failed!! So one more obstacle to overcome. After further evaluation, it was determined that Riley needed tubes in his ears. So, about a month later, he had surgery to have tubes placed in his ears. After recovery, he had a follow up hearing test…..he passed!! We were so excited to know that our sweet boy could hear!! So, we went back to the developmental pediatrician, and he finished his evaluation and determined that Riley did have Autism. We were devastated and relieved all at one time. After the initial feelings of devastation wore off, we developed a plan and began working to help Riley make progress. We enrolled Riley is special needs preschool and were blessed with an amazing teacher!! Riley had ups and downs, but slowly his speech began to return and the number of meltdowns reduced significantly. Then, the transition to Kindergarten…..he had a tough year with lots of meltdowns, but thankfully again, he was blessed with an amazing teacher and paraprofessional!! At the end of his Kindergarten year, we were faced with the decision to send him to the next grade or retain him. After much contemplation and discussion, we determined that giving Riley one more year in Kindergarten to close the gap was the best decision. And, boy was it!!! We watched our sweet boy begin to flourish in all areas of development!!! We were blessed!!! Our sweet boy could finally tell us when he hurt or when he needed something!! He was on grade level in all areas except for reading comprehension, social skills, and writing/fine motor skills! We were thrilled and felt extremely blessed!! My sweet Riley is now finishing his 5th grade year and thriving!!! He is on a consult only services. He has meaningful peer relationships!! These are things that I was unsure would ever happen. Riley also has found something that he is passionate about. He loves gaming, running (XC and track), robotics, and coding!! He is also my only child who has his whole future planned out!! He will attend GA Tech or NYU to obtain a degree in video game development. He plans to work for GameStop in high school and if he attends NYU, he plans to work at the Nintendo Store in New York City. Once he graduates, he plans to move to Japan (hence why we visited there this year; see picture below) and work for Nintendo. I know he is my child and I might be a little biased, but Riley is one of the smartest and most amazing kids in the world!!! While we still have our difficult times with social skills, peer relationships, and emotion regulation, we are so very blessed that we have had so many amazing educators and therapists come into Riley’s life!!! Good quality education and therapy make all the difference!!! It was during Riley’s Kindergarten years that my paths crossed with an amazing BCBA-D. See I was a special education teacher in the same school as Riley. I taught students with severe Autism in a an adaptive curriculum setting. The BCBA-D came into my classroom to work with one of my students and provide assistance. After working with him for a little while, he asked me if I had ever considered becoming a BCBA. I told him not really, but that I would love to learn more. At that time, he told me more about it and encouraged me to enroll in a program to obtain my certification. I did a lot of research and talked with my husband, and we decided that I would give it a go. So, fast forward 4 years and one brain surgery later, and I was a BCBA!!! I have had the privilege to work with amazing educators, BCBAs and RBTs over the last few years!! The reason I have started this page and my blog are because I want to Pay it Forward!! I have been so blessed, and we live in an area where therapy is not easy to come by for families. My desire is to provide supports, resources, advice, and hope to other families who are facing a journey similar to ours!! I also hope to provide resources, support and advice to others in field or looking into the field of behavior analysis as our field needs more practitioners who are all in and committed to changing the lives of the children and families that they come in contact with!! My prayer is that this page will be a blessing to you and/or your family!!! With Love, Kimberly W.