ABA moms! Please help! LSA vs ABA shadow

[AAmommy]

I am trying to put together a list of why the child should have ABA shadow in school vs LSA? I put together couple points myself, but was wondering if anyone had a list or some more ideas. I am up for a battle and need as many arguments as possible!! I am planning to share this document with others as well, as it might help some other families in the future. Thanks a lot!

[salondon]

I dont think they are exclusive. LSA is a learning support assistant and ABA is a teaching approach. An LSA can use ABA techniques to teach a child.

[AgnesDiPesto]

I agree you can use either; the key is someone who is interested in and open to ABA (not steeped in other approaches and reluctant to do anything differently), has intellectual ability to understand the science of it and do the data collection and who gets appropriate level supervision and training. You also want an LSA to go to team meetings / ongoing training etc.
When we costed out the amount of training and supervision we found the cost of using ABA provider tutors and LSA not that different.
Your ABA provider should be able to advise on level of training needed, supervision, oversight, involvement in team meetings etc
The provider hourly cost included all the training etc as that was all done in house.
Using LSA meant lower hourly cost but extra hours on top of the therapy hours, plus extra supervisor / training time.
Other advantages ABA is work across settings which aids generalisation, work with other children during the week so gain more varied experience (may see things on other programmes can apply to your child), work in holidays and after school (crucial if asking for more hours / weeks than school term). Usually need train more than one LSA for cover and because ABA too intensive really to work with one child all day everyday (not good for generalising either)
Disadvantages is if ABA is sick / unavailable can't expect school to step in. In this situation where ABA can't provide cover DS doesn't go to school. If school was providing LSA then school have to make provision for cover.

[AAmommy]

Thank you all for all your comments and info. It is very helpful!!!! Manishkmehta, I would really appreciate if you could try to find those for me!!!
In terms of training LSA, I already have a team of very good and experienced ABA therapists working with my child for quite a while. Even if I train LSA, that person will not be even close to my current therapists.
The undesire to allow ABA and use LSA instead in our case might only be political, but not financial. Unfortunately ....

[AgnesDiPesto]

It's most likely about control. In my experience LAs hate not being in control (not least because they can't pressure independent staff to say and do what they want). But for a tribunal it will be about money if your option is as cheap or only slightly more (for more robust programme) then tribunal won't be interested in politics.
It is worth getting something in writing about training, I find lots of SEN officers genuinely think a few one off one day courses is all you need for our kids.

[AAmommy]

Thank you AgnesDiPesto. This is a great idea to try to estimate the cost of training!!! I am just trying to resolve all this before tribunal, but obviously will go to Tribnal if I have to. That's the reason I am trying to provide them sufficient information before we come to tribunal point...

[GwennieHall]

For autistic children in particular ABA is the only evidence based intervention rooted in psychological learning theory. Any other generic approach using a support assistant can be no better than the quality of the thought processes and level of training that lies behind the methodology.

LSA based support programmes invariably use a generic pick-and-mix approach that is likely to be poorly conceived and designed to manage the child through the day rather than seriously engineer behavioural change. Much of it is life-wasting and intended to maintain peace and order in the classroom while attempting to teach skills without any grasp of how children learn.