Son Rise/ Montessori/ Mainstream/ ASD Unit??

[bananasinpyjamas]

Recently posted re potty training and had brilliant response so am going to ask about opinions of the Son Rise approach.
My dilemma is that I am one of the lucky ones and feel I have some choice about what approach I take and what opportunities I provide for my ds.
My ds is 3.5yrs (not yet potty trained which some of you may know ). He has been going to montessori nursery since Sept which I am very very happy with, small class sizes, low stim, lots of task based toys, all children are valued etc..
We have just had his iep and he could access the ASD unit which is based in a school local to where we live in Sept. This can be accessed 5 days a week for one school year. There are 6 kids in the class and 3 (yes 3) teachers. Am getting more info about this but think it uses a variety of approaches PECS, Teacch, etc.. (not too jenned up on these yet) but ultimately more behavioural than what we are used to or the Son Rise.
I also am interested in Son Rise. I like the attitude and the idea of joining with the childs world before you ask them to join ours. To follow this completely would involve training, funding (ha ha) and a dedicated set of volunteers. This all sounds a bit daunting and am not sure if the results generally are better than what children achieve by the more accepted approaches used in schools.
Would be interested in any thoughts about all this and any stories where these approaches have been put in to practise.. or new approaches I havn't heard of.

[bananasinpyjamas]

Cheers Socci. I have heard of ABA and always had mixed views on it. Anything that makes a difference is well worth looking in to.
Gonna ask a load of questions now!!Did you manage the program at home and how many hours a week did you do? What sort of goals did you work to and what support did you have to implement it?
When I looked at ABA thje research did suggest very good results but one of the critisma was that the things learnt weren't always transferable to other situations? How have you found this? Logically ABA makes sense to me as it can tie in with the style of learning a lot of ASD kids seem to understand and benefit from.
I have had an initial look at funding for alternative apoproaches to the mainstream and as far as I can make out my LEA will not fund anything because their are services in this area. However I do know of families round here who have challenged this and managed to get funding for a set number of hours.
Is your dd still using the approach? Has she started at school and if so how has this fitted in with the work you have already done?
Sorry for the 20 questions but I am very interested in all this

[PeachyIsNowAChristmasFruit]

The happiest my DS1 was (he is HFA) was when he was at the Montessori nursery, it just suited him. he wasn't dx at that point but flourished there, and I only wish it was something we culd access now at infant (yr2) level as nothing else I have experienced has matched up to it.

I have a few books on Montessori (did it as my Access project at college) and so much from the system is ideal for ASD kids, indeed the system was initially developed with children we would now call SN. So my recommendation personally would be to keep him where he is, he's due another change soon enough when he satrts school.

[bananasinpyjamas]

Cheers peachy christmas fruit!
Fortunately the montessori near us can be attended till 14 years. He can stay in his nursery class till 6yrs. Tempting but if he needs extra support in class school cannot fund this so it would be up to me. Its been OK so far cos I only have to top up the nursery vouchers but from Sept will have to pay full fees which I'm happy to do cos can use DLA but a worker on top of this would be expensive.
Am glad to hear someone else has tried montessori cos I've been so impressed with their approach and relaxed and valued way of teaching. My ds is very happy their and has made progress with becoming interested in the other children and enjoying the activities.
His teacher was telling me that another boy in class was excited and saying that ds looked at him. Not much for some but when your child chooses to spend a lot of time avoiding eye contact, to know he has chosen to look is fantastic!!

[Jimjams2]

Growing Minds uses Son Rise AND VB/ABA

[Jimjams2]

Just read this a bit more, (sorry only super skim read last night). I think GM would say that as he's already interested in other children they wouldn't provide full time son-rise (although maybe they would take elements). I understood what they were saying to be that son-rise is great if your child is very unreachable and very in their own world, but once you've broken through that you need something different for them to progress.

We run a part time program (Growing Minds- emphasis on ABA/VB) at home- my son attends special school full time. You can always mix and match.....

[Homsa]

Hi BIP, I'm going to say again that I was pondering very similar questions a few months ago, not surprising as our DS are a similar age!

I decided if I was going to read up in detail on all the different approaches, I still wouldn't have made a decision by the time DS was due to start school, so we went for the approach which was shown to be the most effective according to the studies that we read, and that was ABA. Our programme has been running for 5 weeks now and we're delighted with it. DS loves his tutors, is more confident to try new things, and very keen to participate. His language is coming on in leaps and bounds.

Son Rise didn't make any sense for us as DS was already very much in our world (agree with JimJams here!); he had good play skills and a bit of language before we started. I felt he needed intensive 1:1 teaching, lots of repetition, and to be "blasted with language", as our consultant put it. My personal view has always been that DS needs to be challenged (in as kind and patient a way as possible) rather than accomodated, which I feel is what a lot of other programmes do.

We decided to turn the provision offered by the LEA, which was 7.5 hours of SN nursery per week. My main reason for taking him out of there was that I had no idea what they were working towards with him (despite repeated requests for more information), so couldn't work on the same things at home. Now, all I have to do is look into our ABA folder and I know exactly where he is at the moment. I don't think generalisation will be a problem at all.

I would also say, if your DS is happy at his nursery, and you feel he's learning, then I'd leave him there. Being able to learn from normally developing peers is a big bonus, which he probably wouldn't have in the SN unit?
(my DS was also happy at his MS nursery, but not really learning much, so we've taken him out for the time being, but will soon send him again with one of our tutors accompanying him as a shadow)

[mamadadawahwah]

If you want your ABA program funded, beware you will have to actually have it in place before you ask for funding, probably the same with Son rise.

We use VB ABA and I can't fault it. It makes absolute sense, so much so, that our SLP has asked us for more information because she thinks our approach is by far better than hers ?? (which i suppose doesn't sound too good from where she is coming from)

ABA doesn't have to cost the earth. Generalising skills is mandatory and as a parent it would be wise that you pair your self up with your child to be one of his therapists so that when therapy does start, he doesn't look for you as an escape hatch so to speak.

We have switched providers 3 times until we finally found one that was more parent friendly and interested in teaching us, as the parents. We are the supervisors of our child's program and in my opinion, that is the best way to go.

I have severe misgivings about son rise, just my personal slant. They have never allowed a research team to come and do a study, its hugely expensive requiring a lot of therapists and in my estimation, is kind of namby pamby where the data taking is concerned.

We run our ABA program on less than 7,000 pounds per year and source our therapists from the local uni. Mostly education students and a trainee music therapist. Works really well. You would be amazed at the level of commitment there is out there, in young people, and education and psych students are really interested in ABA and want to learn it so they can use it in their future careers. We view our volunteers as very valuable but we also know we are giving them a golden opportunity in working with our boy.

[Davros]

I haven't read this properly but just want to say that the "children on ABA can't generalise" is an old chestnut used by those prejudiced against it for whatever reason. My DS has generalised hundreds of skills, never mind language. All children with ASD will have a problem generalising some skills/knowledge whatever method is used to teach them, that's not the method its the ASD. But ABA is the method that has the most proof of effectiveness, that doesn't mean cure or recovery, but reaching potential in an organised and loggical as well as fun way. If you look through the SN archive you'll find lots about Sonrise and ABA.

[bananasinpyjamas]

Thanks for all comments. Really interesting and useful. What is VB. Not sure if I know that one. ABA does seem to be winning out at the moment. I perhaps need to see it in action. I know there is the PEACH website. Do you think this is the best parent info support group out there for ABA (apart from mumsnet of course!!). Are there providers out there then who will implement the ABA program alongside parents?? Feel very ignorant about this but am learning.... specially from your comments.