Anyone wanting to know what ABA is like..

[sickofsocalledexperts]

I have written two very personal accounts of what ABA was like for my autistic boy - helping him to talk and behave well, where other methods like TEACCH and traditional speech therapy had failed. Mumsnet towers have allowed me to publish them on my sickofsocalledexperts blog.

If you want to know a bit about ABA from a mum's point of view then do have a look via the blogs tab at the top of mumsnet.

I am really rubbish at doing those link things, but if anyone can help me to do a here thing, so people can click straight to the articles??

Also, it's the second post on my blog as am crap at that too!

I would like to contribute to any book - we really need to get the message out that SN schools/TEACCH are failing so many of our children. I often wonder how many LEA people even know that the TEACCH program (so old that it even still has handicapped in its title !) has no director since GM resigned. He probably could not sleep at night !

What a great point Willow - wish I had thought to tell all the people patronising me and spouting guff about TEACCH that it's actually so old, it has the word "handicapped " in its title! It's a scandal, no-one would dream of using that word nowadays! I didn't know about the CEO of TEACCH resigning, is there a link you could direct me to?

Writing the articles needn't be hard, and I used to be in the writing world so can offer editing services if people want them?

I bet you that between us on mumsnet we have quite a good "grassroots" petition building up on how autism / special needs education needs a rethink. This book/collection of essays could be our petition document.

It isn't TEACCH that is the alternative to ABA in our LA. It is the 'eclectic/holistic' approach, which is sold as better as it can better be tailored to the needs of the individual LA.

It isn't an attack on TEACCH that is needed, it is on the lack of efficacy.

I doubt that I will be going to tribunal over ABA this time (although I might), but I have insisted that they specify EBP in the statement and would just love to go to tribunal for that if it doesn't appear. What possible justification could there be for refusing it?

I suspect that SENDIST wouldn't allow the appeal to proceed though, which would show up their true colours for sure.

I don't follow it day by day but have not heard of any new appointment

www.med.unc.edu/www/news/2010/february/gary-mesibov-to-step-down-as-director-of-unc2019s-teacch-program

smallwhite cat - thanks for reading it ! I wish also that we could somehow get word into the speech and language therapist (SALT) population (with the sole and honourable exception of Moondog, of course!) By default, the SALTs seem to rule the roost on autism in LA land, and if only they would just open their minds to ABA! My second article is all about how ABA got my boy talking, where traditional speech therapy had failed. In fact, I think the techniques they used could easily be used by mums/dads, if an ABA program isn't a possiblity for anyone.

What would you suggest as a useful starting point for total beginners with ABA? We have two DS with a dx so forty hours a week is totally beyond us but I would like to try some of the techniques at home to see how things progress.

Kerbob - you do not need to do 40 hours, my DS benefited when he was 3, 4, 5 from just 3 hours a day. If you read my second article, the techniques the ABA tutors used to kick off his learning are written out in great detail, and you could maybe try them yourself (if relevant to your DC)

I do think the more hours you can do the better but I'm
another one whose DS made huge gains during his first year of ABA, at 12 hours a week. I think even one session a week would really help, especially if you were able to then incorporate techniques into your parenting

sickof, I know there is ABA UK and Treehouse and a few local ABA groups etc. but do you know of any national, ABA parent network that is not attached to any provider/charity already?

Do you think there is any scope for one if not?

A few questions for you ABA-savvy parents...I notice you say you need ABA interventions 'before it is too late to learn'. My son is 15 and doesn't have classic autism (some sort of undiagnosed syndrome with SLD and autistic behaviours). He must have an extremely low IQ but has not been tested as far as I know.

1. Is it too late for ABA?

2. He is not motivated by much really. His behaviour is consistently exacerbated by 'punishments' such as removing things he likes, and it is generally improved by distraction and ignoring the behaviour. From your blog, ABA is about tackling the behaviour full-on and making consequences to challenging behaviour. Is this possible if the child is not motivated by anything as a 'reward'?

Bake, the problem with ABA is it isn't 'ONE' thing, but it can be sold as such. People can be a bit rigid in their delivery sometimes.

ABA as it is sold in EIBI form probably won't be appropriate now, but a qualified behavioural analysist should be able to help you devise a programme of strategies.

The whole 'reward' thing is surrounded by so many misconceptions. I hear over and over again that children don't find 'anything' rewarding, but the problem is usually that the parents/teachers just can't see the wood for the trees and have totally got the wrong end of the stick about what is rewarding for that child and what that child understands by the reward.

You can always assume that, whatever the child is doing RIGHT NOW is the most rewarding thing for them to access themselves. That is where you start.

'and it is generally improved by distraction and ignoring the behaviour.'

Also, the programme is based on WHATEVER gets the child to change his behaviour. If distraction is what works to teach new skills then that IS the reward.

Bake - you can use behavioural principles in all parts of life: with young kids, older kids, even husbands (eg my husband knows if he does x, he will get a bad result in as much as he'll have a moody wife all weekend, so behavioiurally he avoids doing x. That is learned behaviour!). And Starlight is right about rewards with my boy it is now something simple like "first dinner, then bath" - ie he has to eat dinner first, before he gets to the bliss of bathtime.

Starlight - interesting what you say about a parent network. At the EABG conference there was a whole presentation (which I've got a slight involvement with on a voluntary basis) about setting up a UK Association of Behaviour Analysis, which would probably also include a parent forum, It would become the professional body for behavioural analysts of all kinds (not just autism), a central point for all research, and an industry lobbying body. I think it's much needed over here - to give the profession of behaviour analysts some gravitas. I'm hoping it will happen soon, and give accreditation for tutors, plus start to show the LA that this isn't some fly-by-night profession.

The comparison made is with OTs - LAs hang on their every word, cos they are seen as "professionals" yet, imho, often what they're recommending boils down to "a bit of nice bouncing around, with some unresearched theories behind it as to its effect on brain function". Ok, that's me flamed by all the OTs out there!

But you know what I mean - no-one would ever question an OT's credentials to treat an autistic kid, yet OT as a science has WAY WAY less research behind it to demonstrate any effectiveness at all as an intervention for autism.

We need the acronym BA to have the same status and cred as OT, or SALT.

How does an ordinary single Mum get herself on an "ABA awareness" or basic intro course? In 3 years only the OT has had any constructive suggestions for interventions and that's outside the NHS/school system.

DS will either be in care on home educated in the next 12 months unless I can get a shimby on & move so I'd really appreciate an answer to this one.

The best ABA course I have been on was the PECS course run by pyramid.

I went on it even though my ds was verbal and we had no intention of giving him picture cards.

I do wonder if part of the probelm for LA's and teachers is that there is a lack of places for them to go for a basic introduction to ABA and its principles, or a lack of obvious places (clearly I've managed it........)

bochead, PEACH sometimes run workshops, as do a couple of other providers. these are at minimal cost, although still expensive if you are on a limited budget.

Try joining the yahoo group ABA-UK - often workshops are notified on there.

the Pyramind PECS course is pure ABA - a good intro to some of the principles, but again it is a few days out, and costs.

the way most people get into it is to contact a consultant direct, and get them to come to the house to advise/train up/instruct in the principles. Yet more cost!

But to find anything on the nhs would be rarer than hen's teeth, I'm afraid.

Bochead, I am pretty sure Treehouse and Rainbow ABA schools in London both run courses if you google them. Also, you could read my two articles all about how I started ABA? Go to the blogs tab at the top of this page, then click on "tips on how to set up a blog" then click on "mumsnet blogs", and mine is the "sickofsocalledexperts" blog, with two articles to print out and read. Not saying I know everything , but they are very much in plain English by just a mum. I think in many ways learning about ABA just opened my eyes up ab out how to manage a child better. There is so much guff talked nowadays, ABA goes back to common sense first principles.

Thanks - give me the principles of summat & I can run with it. An intro course is what I need as my reading has taken me as far as it can without meeting a practioner "in the flesh".

Will look that course up once DS is in bed.

www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk/page/what_we_do/training/training_programme/intro_autism.cfm

Anyone done this and found it helpful?

Stupid advice from me, just click on willow's second post in this thread and you go straight to my articles. They are not by an expert, but they are by a mum with 5 years experience running an ABA program, and they are free and easily read from home!

I haven't done it, but it is part of the Treehouse (one of the original ABA schools in the UK) group - if you can attend, seize the chance and go for it.

I have done a number of those mentioned (not Treehouse), and I have to say that PECS is the best for teaching the principles, USING the principles and embedding the knowledge in a concrete way.

I used to do ABA with autistic children. It was incredibly effective and flexible. I worked with PECS for a while, and they're very good imo.