Tangible Difference Company Blog
Written by Michael Conteh Wednesday, 09 December 2009 06:36
Blog 12-16-09 Do You Really Get What You Pay For?
This has been a long year for me, and I finally got the chance to get away to Las Vegas for a mini-vacation with a couple of colleagues. We have been planning it for months, and last Friday night was supposed to be the special night where we do all the fancy things. We were going to eat at a fancy restaurant, go to a hip nightclub, and all the works.
When Friday night arrives, we go to the restaurant, but it's smaller than it looks in the ad.
No problem...
We wait 20 minutes to be seated, and when we get in there are PLENTY of empty tables.
No problem...
Our waiter ignores us for another 10 minutes, and gets drink orders for a table that was seated after us.
Sigh. No problem...
We order all of this expensive food, and he gets the order wrong.
Grrrr. Problem, but trying to hold it all in...
The food and drink sucks! I mean really, really sucks. We barely finish anything.
Problem!
Sometimes you have great expectations for things, but end up heavily disappointed with the reality. Parents pay good money for companies, products, and people to help their child. When dealing with interventions for special needs children, be very aware of what people are trying to sell you. First of all, I want to say that I will not specifically call out certain interventions to be bogus, because that's not what this blog is about. However, I do know that some of them do not deliver even half of what they promise. Secondly, I know ALL therapies are pricey to a certain point, but here are some general things to consider when choosing interventions:
Where's the beef?
Make sure you look at the research behind whatever intervention you choose. How long has it been around? Where did it originate? What is the sample size? And, perhaps most importantly, who is doing the research? In this day and age, if you can't find good internet search results on a subject, I would be very skeptical. The intervention needs to be able to explain itself objectively, without pulling your heartstrings as its main selling tool. My undergraduate degree is in Media Production, and during my ethics class my professor pointed out one thing:
"Testimonials are built to be misleading, everyone in the advertisement is going to say that they 100% love this product. Where are the testimonials that say 'this product is terrible?' If I see more testimonials than proof, then that's not the product for me."
Keep Score
If you are doing an intervention that does not have much research data to back it up, you'd better be taking data on how it's affecting your child. Keeping score is the only way to see if the intervention is working. Every day, take down a few notes to look for patterns. You should see SOMETHING happening within a couple of weeks, or I would seriously question the method.
Do we look familiar?
Be careful for fad therapies, or therapies that just don't make too much sense. Now, I fully understand that there are some things in life that are hard to explain - like how you always know when someone in the car next to you is looking at you, or why people think watching celebrities dance is interesting - but there is something called parsimony that is generally a good thing to keep in mind. Parsimony says that the simplest explanation is most likely the accurate explanation.
If you have to pour penguin milk on your child while wearing a kilt and singing "I Would Walk 500 Miles" by The Proclaimers, then maybe that intervention isn't very sound. As parents, you usually have a good idea of what is beneficial for your child, and if your spidey-senses tingle, consider trying a more stable intervention method.
The Proclaimers
I, of course, am not of fan of interventions that prey on people's hopes, fears, and faith. There are times when a child is on so many different interventions that it's hard to tell what's working and what's not. I am not against multiple interventions either, just make sure you know which one is doing the job. Sometimes we can stop or slow the progress of a WORKING intervention to chase ones that don't work.
Just remember: just because something is pricey doesn't mean that it's good. Seriously, that "fancy Vegas restaurant" food was bad; I would have enjoyed fast food more! How can you mess up coconut shrimp? By the way, the buffet at the Bellagio is the best I've had on The Strip. If you can find better, let me know.
