ABA Therapy

[user1488651967]

Hi,

So I want to start ABA therapy for my 3 year old but don’t know where to begin. Can someone recommend some good therapists in the North London area?

Thanks

Hi OP,

I would do some further research into ABA before starting. It is really unpopular in the autism community and can often be very traumatic. I've worked with autistic people for the last 6 years and I can almost always tell which young people go to ABA schools because they are the most traumatised, highly anxious young people I've ever met.

A lot of the behaviour that ABA targets can be supported in other, more holistic ways that aren't as rigid or potentially traumatising as ABA.

Happy to chat more about it if you want to. I understand that it's really difficult to know what to do after your child is diagnosed and there's a lot of pressure to do the right thing and to give them the best start in life. However, I would always warn people against ABA because I've never seen a positive outcome in my 6 years working with autistic people and there is too much negative feedback from autistic people themselves for me to respect it as an effective therapy.

Apologies if this comes off as judgemental. Like I said, I'm happy to chat more about it if you want, but if you don't want to, I would recommend you read more about what autistic people think about this therapy.

Best of luck for the future and finding the right support for your child.

Hi! I can’t I’m afraid as I’m not in North London. There is an ABA school there though called Tree House which might be able to help?
My daughter has had ABA therapy since she was 2.5 and it has been life changing. She has developed her play skills, social skills, language comprehension and found a way to communicate with us. If you find the right people it can be amazing. It has been for us anyway. My daughter loved her home program and was so happy when her tutors arrived. She now goes to an ABA school and loves it.

Please don't do ABA therapy

Some interesting thoughts on ABA here: autisticuk.org/does-aba-harm-autistic-people/

Hi @user1488651967

My son is nearly 3 and has been doing ABA for a couple months and I've been thrilled with his explosion in learning! In contrast to everyone posting the usual 'don't do ABA' posts:

• my son doesn't have an autism diagnosis at this point and I'm still not sure what's behind his speech delay (who knows when we'll get to see the community paediatrician), but I went with ABA because of the positive stories I've read about ABA learning techniques helping children learn new skills more effectively, and very specifically speech and communications skills, regardless of whether autism was the causal factor

• whether or not my son ever does get an autism diagnosis, his ABA learning programme does not focus on training him like a robot, forcing him to comply, or punishing him if or when he stims (I'm not sure he does - there are only a few behaviours that are repetitive and could arguably be a stim but I'm not sure). The levels of 'compliance' involved are no stricter than you might use to teach a young child to say please and thank you

• behaviours that COULD indicate autism (some sensory seeking, an obsession / AMAZING talent for puzzles) is not being 'controlled' at all in his ABA activities. They in fact don't even come up as they aren't relevant to his learning goals. I love my little genius' ability to do puzzles way beyond his age, and he can play them whenever he wants because his ABA activities only take an hour or two a day, scattered across the day, embedded in other daily activities

• his learning programme DOES create games out of learning language - so filling in words in songs, playing Simon Says, creating games out of learning the steps and language involved in preparing breakfast, and matching games (for those who think this is awful, abusive Nazi behaviour, we use the Gruffalo matching card game that is created, marketed and sold for children his age - this isn't out of the norm)

• while he's still a ways behind in his speech and understanding of language, the speed of progress he's made in just these few short months has made me very hopeful that he will be caught up by the time it's time to go to school. It's like we found the key to unlock his understanding of language. He is now enthusiastically imitating and practicing new words I teach him, and he is SMILING when he does these activities. He is never punished in relation to any ABA activity, never forced to engage for longer than he wants to, and does these activities at home, not at a clinic. And yet it's still ABA.

I say all this because the people who warn you off ABA have ONE version of it in mind. The intense, institutionalised version they describe appears not to be relevant to you. They mention ABA schools, yet you are looking for a private tutor. I'm not out to defend the institutionalised approach to ABA (mainly in the US because it is covered by health insurance there), but I am getting more and more angry that this ONE version of it is being used to close down ALL application of ABA techniques that can have real benefits for young children with or without an autism diagnosis. And it makes it even harder for parents to get what is actually great support that can enable and empower their child to thrive. I have had people snootily tell me they don't want to engage with ABA out of principle, but what they are turning their nose up at is simply what I've described above.

It's a bit like saying "my cousin's history teacher in the 70s taught students racist, colonialist garbage, and beat students with a cane to deal with bad behaviour, and therefore I am against all teacher-led learning. Teacher-led learning causes trauma, and teacher-led learning uses abusive techniques, and because it was used in that way, teacher-led learning can never be used for good".

As to your original question, you need to find a consultant first, to set up a programme of learning based on your child's capabilities and learning goals. They tailor the learning activities and regularly update them according to progress and what most motivates your child to learn. So my advice would be that if you want to go down this road, to chat to a number of consultants first and gather all the info you can (you can find a number of organisations online run by, or employing ABA Consultants), ask all the questions you need, tell them what you want for your child and in my experience they will give you pretty honest answers about what they would recommend and give you space to make your decision without pressing you or trying to make a hard sell.

I spoke to 4 or 5 consultants before choosing one - only one recommended an intense programme because that was their bread and butter service, but the rest recommended a range of flexible, play-based, relatively light touch approaches - and I made my decision based on those conversations. It was only after that that I began looking for a tutor (I did most of the activities myself for some time), and your consultant can give you lots of good advice on how to do this.

Thank you so much @Scratchybaby this was sooo useful! Can I ask how many hours a week you therapy they did with him? After research the recommendation is saying 15 hours a week but we are finding that would be too expensive for
us!

@user1488651967 he's meant to be doing 14 hrs per week (though I haven't really managed this many hours yet!). This again is something a consultant can help you with. If this is something you're interested in, consider finding a consultant the first step and everything flows from there. They will talk you through potential approaches, costs, etc etc.

I ended up emailing/Zoom calling quite a few and ended up going with a consultant at a company called Dimensions (there are others, like Small Steps, Open Avenues, Beam, etc). Half because I liked the relatively low-intensity, play based approach she suggested in our initial Zoom call, and half because of a simple gut reaction that my son would like her. Using this approach has gone well so far!

The programme my son is doing is based on something called the Early Start Denver Model - it focuses on encouraging communication, joint attention activities, and expanding the range of play activities your child takes part in (and enjoys!). The rationale being that a broader range of play activities presents a broader range of language and learning opportunities. When I first started my consultant recommended reading An Early Start for your Child With Autism (www.<a class="break-all" href="https://amazon.co.uk/Early-Start-Your-Child-Autism/dp/160918470X)?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-special-educational-needs-4355504-ABA-Therapy" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">amazon.co.uk/Early-Start-Your-Child-Autism/dp/160918470X) and I found it so useful. Gives you a great introduction to how all this might work for you and there are lots of example activities you can try out immediately with your son.

Thank you I am going to order this book looks really good! We have found a consultant we are just waiting for him to send over the plan. We are finding that the consultant also provides tutors for £35 which is quite pricey so we are thinking of doing 6 hours a week with the tutor and another 6 hours ourselves. Do you think this is a good ideas?

Also I have checked online and there are independent tutors who do it for cheaper but we’re not sure what route to take.

How did you decide on a tutor ? Did you go for an independent one or one that was part of the company who provided the ABA programme.

Thanks

@Scratchybaby

@user1488651967 this is where I would hesitate to give any more specific advice or judgements, only because I can only relay my own experience. The company I went with didn't provide tutors as part of our programme and I expect each company may do things a little differently.

Personally, I only went with a tutor when I realised I couldn't manage it all on my own - mainly the data collection side of things - alongside a full time job. The activities themselves weren't difficult but the organisation and monitoring involved was just more than I could manage. I eventually found a really lovely person with lots of early years experience (though no ABA) who was interested in being trained up and we negotiated an hourly rate between us (i.e. she works independently from the company). I found the costs can vary quite a bit, with Psych students looking for experience at one end, and trained, experienced practitioners at the other (this may be why the rate you've been quoted is on the higher end but I don't want to assume anything, without direct experience!).

Again, like everything else, I chose the tutor based on a combo of her skills and experience and my gut instinct that my son would like her. Because they're so young, so much of this is actually about getting people who understand children this age and are going to make learning fun for them. The skills required to deliver the therapy as a tutor aren't actually that complex, but having the right personality and connection with your son will be what makes it worth the money or not.

Sorry that's not a clear cut answer. I don't want to give you any half-baked advice that turns out to be incorrect! At the end of the day keep your son's happiness with the learning as your primary goal and don't be afraid or surprised if you need to make tweaks along the way and you'll eventually find a groove that works for you.

Hi
my son is non verbal and autistic. Are there any suggestions of aba consultants from parents who have good experience. Thanks

@Lolly2803 my is 15, just diagnosed and looking for some peer group /therapy to help with managing social groups, and recommendations will be appreciated

ARGH! You need to vet your ABA providers like ANY provider.

My son's ABA therapy at age 3 provider REMARKABLE results. Life Changing. all of the therapists involved had MASTERS degrees and loved their work.

We ended up having to use a different provider for various reasons and the results were not the same. Eventually they provided a new therapist that was AWFUL and I fired them and ended treatment.

ABA is not all bad. Not at all. If you get an agency hiring people minimum wage with little experience it will probably be horrible.

@cremebrulait I’m not sure what relevance that has to my original comment.

Some of the parents I know spent thousands of pounds a year on ABA, but it still resulted in their children making very little ‘progress’ but being traumatised by the ‘therapy’.

A master’s degree means nothing if it’s a master’s degree in harmful practice. I have an MA in Disability Studies and everything I learned pointed in the direction of ABA being a harmful practice and not therapeutic.

Maybe your son is doing well because he has a good relationship with the practitioner.

It’s so important to listen to autistic voices about autism therapy and support, and autistic voices consistently say that ABA is harmful and traumatising.

Hello, I was looking into ABA and I came across this post. May I ask for advice please? My 3 year old girl is violent, she seems to think its totally fine to hurt us. Have been telling her off for a very long time, at least a year and half Id say. What should I be doing to get her to stop hurting us, throwing, hitting, spitting sometimes even. Often seems to think its funny, often its just out of anger and frustration. Her older sister is PDA and cant handle the amount of times she has had toys thrown at her, hits, hair pulls.