ASD diagnosed. how to find ABA therapy?

[BUTU]

My son is diagnosed with ASD. The clinical psychologist said it's on the severe side. I find that NHS does not provide intesive ABA (Applied behavior analysis) therapy, which is 30 to 40 hours a week. The speech and language therapy NHS provides is one hour a week and four weeks only. Do any of you know how to get ABA therapy under NHS or other method? Any reputable organisations provide it? Thanks!

[sickofsocalledexperts]

You need to apply for an EHCP first and make a case that ABA works for your child, which can mean paying privately. Charities Luke Caudwell, Giving Tree or The Playhouse foundation (Hampshire) may help. Good luck. I never did 40 hours but ABA was the only thing that helped my boy (severe end)

[Bananasinpyjamas1]

I think that there are qualified ABA therapists, those who have training, and also people out there who can supervise you. They need to have taken a Masters in ABA therapy I think.

However, I have started doing it myself for the last month on my son, aged 3 and diagnosed as severe. I have a background that is similar and am looking for someone to supervise me. It really helps!! You can find videos online and examples on Youtube (although beware of rubbish ones).

[sickofsocalledexperts]

Like Caudwell not Luke

[Bananasinpyjamas1]

P.s. I do think 30 plus hours is a bit much at first, it needs to be built up. So even if it as simple as getting your child to sit with you for 5 minutes on the carpet and play with a toy twice a day, then building up to asking them to sit with you at a table for 5-10 minutes, you will be easing them into what might be expected of them.

[BUTU]

@sickofsocalledexperts thanks a lot for the info! The EHCP seems take ages.

Do you know how much fund the authority or charity can provide? We cannot afford 30 - 40 hours a week to be honest. I will do an online training course myself instead.

[BUTU]

@Bananasinpyjamas1 I'm going to do online training as well. Any course do you recommend?

[AgnesDiPesto]

We did 15 hours a week ourselves and employed a supervisor 2 hours a week to train us and keep on track until we got ABA funded via a tribunal. I think Caldwell is £2-3000 which is enough to get initial training and some follow up support. Even that no. hours made a huge difference.

[JsOtherHalf]

www.peatni.org/what-is-simple-steps is worth looking at.

[BUTU]

@AgnesDiPesto "got ABA funded via a tribunal" How do you get ABA funded via a tribunal? Which kind of application process for the ABA funding? Thanks!

[BUTU]

@JsOtherHalf Thanks!

[Coffeemachine]

OP, tribunal does not fund it but orders the LA to fund it, I e. you need a EHCP first and then appeal to tribunal over it. It takes ages and can be very expensive (I have 2 friends who did it through remortgaging their homes). but the tribunal route is usually the only route to get it funded.

We only ever did 10-12 hours. I got trained up too. for some hours we had tutors. we funded the tutors and supervision through DLA and I started working a second job. but it worked for us that way. I wouldn't have been able to do a tribunal (neither practically nor financially). Just get something set up first and see how it works for your DS.

[sickofsocalledexperts]

This book is just out for those waiting for services, wanting to do activities at home eg games encouraging important gestures like pointing today.uconn.edu/2016/01/new-book-helps-parents-help-kids-at-risk-of-autism/

[SuzieZuniA]

Hello Butu,
where are you based?
The best way is to join FB group
www.facebook.com/ScotlandABA/
www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=abaa4all
or
www.facebook.com/groups/2351683885/.
Get BCBA to do VB Map and to set up a program.
Then get a therapist (usually BCBA gives you contacts)
who will run the programs with your child.
Good luck

[SuzieZuniA]

Caudwell children offer a funding - I think its £2000 to start you off.

[Notgivingin789]

The clinic "The children place" have ABA therapists there I believe.

[AgnesDiPesto]

Hi again. Yes we applied for a statement (now EHCP) and appealed the placement the council named (mainstream) for ABA. My son went to mainstream nursery part-time & we did ABA at home. We were able to show much better progress with his home programme than the Council's nursery provision so won at tribunal. I would say in ABA fees for a year, hiring an advocate (we did most of the paperwork ourselves just used an advocate to draft the appeal and do the hearing), a private EP report and the EP, ABA expert and advocate attending tribunal we spent under £10,000. Since then the Council has had to fund ABA 35 hours a week and has probably paid over £250,000 to date so it was worth it, even though we had to borrow some money initially. £10k was a lot of money to us, but even running a very small programme ourselves we were able to get the evidence we needed. Keeping our son in the councils provision was key so we could say he had tried it and it had failed, whereas what we were doing was succeeding.

[SuzieZuniA]

I'm so chuffed for you. Yes, it is lots of money, but what an achievement! AgnesDiPesto, would you give me a permission to copy and post this on //www.facebook.com/ScotlandABA/? I think that parents need to know of success stories and get inspired. What county was this? Thank you

[BUTU]

@AgnesDiPesto thanks a lot for sharing the story! You are brave to fight back!

We just started to write the EHCP. We are in Greenwich borough in London. There is a local independent association of disabled people. They offer advice on EHCP. Hope it all turns ok.

[BUTU]

@SuzieZuniA Thanks for your links. They are really useful.

Do you know normally (I know it's quite difficult to say what is normal), how much personal budget a preschool age ASD child can have? Will it be enough to cover 30-40 hours intensive intervention?

[amunt]

That's such a great result AgnesDiPesto. Would you mind me pm ing you when the times comes for any tips on best way to present evidence as I imagine they have lots of tricks to dismiss proof of progress.

[SuzieZuniA]

Hi BUTU, it depends. BCBA might charge you for the initial assessment about £200? I guess. Then subsequent visits might be about £30 and up? Therapist might charge anything from £10-20?
Great idea amunt. I'd be interested in that too, AgnesDiPesto.

[PandasRock]

I agree with Agnes, 30-40 hours is not obligatory.

We started out with 12-15 hours, using one tutor for some sessions, and doing he rest ourselves. Our consultant came every 8-10 weeks.

We did our home programme for a year, then reduced it to 8-10 hours while dd1 went to an ASD preschool (was shit, but we were trying to prove that only ABA worked) for a year.

It was hell (sending her to the preschool) but it worked. We appealed our Statement as it named the crappy preschool, and our LA settled before the Tribunal date as they had to concede that dd1 was learning and making progress on her home programme, whilst not making any progress at all at school.

That was 6 years ago, and dd1 has been at ABA school ever since, recently successfully transitioning to the secondary unit. Fingers crossed that it stays that way!

[BUTU]

@PandasRock Thanks for sharing. We will start with 12 hours as well.

[WellTidy]

We have set up an ABA programme for our 3yo DS too. It is working amazingly well. He does 6.5 hours a week at a mainstream pre school with a full time support worker, and he does 18-20 hours ABA at home. How old is your child? The Consultant we use thinks that is enough for our DS given his age, and how tired he is as a result of the intensive therapy.

[BUTU]

@WellTidy my son is 2y9m. we are going to do ABA at home as well. hope it works for my boy too.