Aba therapy

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Hi, could anyone recommend ABA Therapy in South Northumberland, Newcastle Upon Tyne area?
I'm cautious about choosing incorrectly and making situations worse. Its for a 5 year old with aggression, anger and not being able to control it. Which resulted in a suspension from school. We have to pull more help in now. Hes had OT etc.

Thanks.

Opinions of ABA vary and it has been likened to training a domestic pet by some.

ABA is not going to help aggression and anger. The kid needs help identifying and dealing with emotions. What have you done to address this so far? Any stories about emotions? Support in class?

He has had an OT course, Conductive Education course, an emotional regulation course. He has had lots of stories and discussions, pictures of emotions over the last couple of year by school and us. He has also been able to discuss his emotions and the way he feels and what sets him off for a long time. He is very articulate in that and can name all of the emotions and what happens in his body. Generally, so angry right now or frustrated. We do talk at length about them and give other suggestions of what could help. He has a quiet den at home, weighted blanket, soft music, calming toys.
He has a TA at school that is mainly with him (unless another SEN child is having big issues) he has access to a box with his calming items in, he can choose to leave when he wants, he has to do 5 or 10 minutes work then has choosing time to do something he wishes, he does most of his education with the 1 to 1 TA in a separate room. He does trampolining in the morning then calm weighted work, the lessons throughout the day with plenty breaks, choices and access to trampoline, weights etc through the day. He has a full plan for the day in place as per the OT Sensory Diet. SENCO have just had a meeting to ask him what else they can do to help him after the suspension.
He can go to the quiet room whenever he wishes to calm down, the teacher and TA also spot when he is becoming dysregulated and get him to the room (not all the time obviously as that would be impossible to spot all the time) He does say that the room isnt quiet enough but on discussion with the SENCO, it obviously would not always be possible to get him somewhere dark and silent as something else may be happening in class with another child as the room would be well out the way. He has said he just becomes so angry the only way to deal with that is to let it out in a scream or shout, they are happy for him to be angry just not the screaming and shouting so loud as it is scaring the other children. He just goes from 0 to 10 quickly and shouts, lashes out, which is generally over another child changing rules etc, things that cant really be helped.

Sounds like school are using lots of appropriate strategies. Have they tried STAR analysis ( setting trigger action result) to unpick any patterns or triggers.
Five point scale might help and there are lots of spin off versions and resources using faces from special interests such as Lego or Dr Who. Sounds like he might respond to this.
Could they look at other outlets instead of shouting out or screaming? Singing, counting, chanting something. Are there any favoured types of music or songs that might calm him or white noise? Have they worked on regulated breathing and clenching/ unclenching fists down by his sides?
I agree ABA is not the right approach.
Sometimes despite well trained staff using advised strategies consistently, a child may be unable to cope with the environment or the number of children in the room.

That really sounds like you and school are doing a great job with a challenging situation. It's wonderful that you have been able to support him to the point that he can articulate what triggers him. However, he's only 5, so I'd take it with a grain of salt! There will be annoying children everywhere who don't follow rules - likely more in special school than mainstream. So I think the issue may be more about his resilience and capacity to cope - and ways in which the classroom environment is perhaps eroding his capacity to cope with triggers when they arise. You haven't mentioned much about sensory stimuli around the classroom. Some EYFS classrooms are a chaotic riot of colours and stuff everywhere, with lots of kids, etc. Might this be a factor? It's all well and good to have a separate quiet room, but mainstream pedagogical advice now promotes simpler, less over-stimulating classrooms, but not all schools / teachers have caught up.

Probably not helpful in the immediate, but I think you might find that your son just grows out of some of this as his ability to regulate emotions improves.

ABA has been transformative for my son's challenging behaviour: without it, he'd likely be in residential care by now. It has taught him better ways to express his stress than with his fists. This firm seems good to me in your area. littletalks.co.uk/our-team/

How is he at home? If he is calmer at home, maybe school is just too overwhelming despite a host of interventions, as ultimately the main trigger - many other unpredictable, noisy children - can't be removed. Have you considered EOTAS, at least for a while, until his ability to self regulate matures, or his peers get older and start to behave in a calmer, more predictable way? Or a different school setting with smaller classes, e.g. a school with ASD unit? He might be able to learn different strategies to express his anger or change his behaviour, but if the environment stays the same, the internal stress might also stay the same and might even be turned inwardly against himself, causing all kinds of mental health issues.

Sorry i didn't get notifications for some posts. I took all the above on board and was already going to a presentation and decided to go with that lady for a consultation and advice, she deals with regulation of the nervous system and gets great reviews from acquaintances.

I will keep the ABA Therapy link above incase everything fails, just in case, but hopefully the nervous system regulation advice and guide should help.

He isn't calm at home, he is dysregulated after school, wants to pick fights, the weekends aren't enough for him to regulate. But overall he will be calmer at home, but things do set him off, which we do try and avoid, but sometimes its impossible.
Yeah i am starting to think along those lines and I am even wondering if a special school would even be helpful. A special school is visiting him at school to see if they can meet his needs, as part of the tribunal evidence. If they can then im thinking if the new regulation routine doesn't work, then i will unschool until the tribunal, fighting for the special school. If they say they can't then i will unschool and fight for EOTAS, forest school etc. Going to see how the next couple of month play out and then make the big decision in March.
The LA are saying he does not need a special school due to not enough evidence, so the next 3 months are gathering more evidence, got a couple of consultations and unfortunately him getting a list of suspensions. Then I will remove him as probably no other choice. Tribunal isn't for another year and I'm not leaving him to go through what he is now for another year.

One issue you may have with ABA is that you could find your child using ABA strategies at home with you but very different strategies in school with school staff, which would be confusing to say the least. Many LAs don’t recognise ABA so won’t authorise its use in schools.