Happy thread - ABA

[MangoMonster]

Just wanted to update you on DS progress for those considering ABA.

It's been 3 weeks (around 50 hours) and DS is loving the tutors and the extra attention!

He is listening much more, understands many more words, has learnt 2 signs, can complete a couple of puzzles and is beginning to understand non verbal imitation. He's also stimming less.

He's initiating purposeful games with us and is waving when say good bye to people!

He's also playing with toys much more and is looking around his environment to see what he can explore!

I'm so happy, so wish I'd started sooner. I'm not saying it's a miracle cure for Asd or anything like that but it's certainly helping DS's delayed development faster than I thought possible.

Happy Friday everyone :)

Dietcoke, complience with adult demands is not in the early years foundation stage which focuses on child initiated learning.

Our programme has a sensory and compliance aspect as part of ABA? I'm confused. Don't you need compliance in order to learn?

Not according to the whol child initiated learning agenda where children should follow their own play based interest. Apparently, all one has to do is change the activities on offer every couple of days and children will get a balanced education simple by following their own agenda. Adult imposition or direction stifles their development according to this and you should not insist a child does anything they want to.

It's called the national curriculum but is rarely recognised as the national curriculum for NT children.

My ds would flap for ages an his own in preschool so they gave him a bell and hey presto, he was playing with the musical instruments. When I saw this I thought he looked more like he had leprosy.

This Child-initiated learning is what is at the heart of the "establishment's" objections to ABA. They are so one-track minded, that the minute a directive comes down that all should be "child-centred" learning, they are unable to be flexible but just obey it blindly. Child-centred learning is of course uniquely unsuited to an autistic child, who will pursue his "own agenda" quite happily for years if left to his own devices - in my boy's case, child-centred learning would have meant banging two items together for the whole of his primary school career. So, if they provided him with science materials, he'd bang them together. If they provided him with the dressing up box, he'd bang two shoes together. If they worked on maps in geography, he'd bang the books and maps against each other. And they would have called that "child-centred learning". He needed an adult to pull him out of his self-stimming world, in order to be able to learn anything at all. Child-centred learning just doesn't work for autistic kids, unless they are totally high-functioning (ie close to normal).

The fad for 'child centred learning' is without doubt the most damaging development in the field of education for many children, in particular those who are having difficulty learning.

Sickof sums it up succinctly, as always.

If you are interested in reading about this very worrying issue, then I cannot recommend this very readable book highly enough.

It is the equivalent of having a lit stick of dynamite pushed into your nether regions.
Many many teachers, even those who have never heard of ABA will openly concede that the concept of the Early Years Foundation Skills curriculum is quite literally the start of the end for many kids.

Now I understand! You threw me starlight! Lol, i obviously wasn't very awake this morning. I think it takes a few hours for my humorous side to kick in of a morning!

Thanks for the link moondog will take a look, could be very relevant to DS.

sickofsocalled, In that case, DS would be a champion thrower of any item he could get his hands on. I was told he was exploring naturally, no, he just played with everything as if it was a ball, which suited him fine as balls are his favourite :).

Some more great news today! DS(2) has mastered matching objects and seems to be mastering non verbal imitation! Such a break through, beginning to realise it's all about motivation and compliance with DS, he can do far more than I think and he's fairly good at learning new things, he just didn't see the point before. That's why I am starting to love ABA/VB :)

Very Glad to hear it that you are making good progress...... Some things you describe about your ds could very well be used to describe our ds so I really can't wait to get started with our ds now... :-) got some books arriving soon, and i have got the next two weeks off to look after him, so maybe I can make a start on our own.

Dev we saw a significant improvement before we started the programme from using ABA techniques at home after doing some reading.

I've been thinking about 'mainstream' education. In Scotland there is an assumption in favour of 'mainstream' for the majority of children with additional learning support needs. If you're lucky (at preschool level) that consists of 45 mins once a week structured/TEACHH stuff and the rest of the time the chaos OPs have described above.

Part of me wonders if the rise in HFA/borderline dxs is to do with the way children are taught.

We have moved DS to a Montessori nursery. There are only educational activities. DS takes one activity off the shelf, goes as far as he can with it and then tidies up and puts it away. He found it hard at first. He was used to stimming on the floor in a corner with toy tractors all morning! The sessions follow a pattern: outdoor play, indoor work, snack (make your own and then wash up afterwards!) more work, circle time. I can't recommend it highly enough. It manages to be both structured and predictable and child centred at the same time. Because children work on their own activities (or in twos or threes at most) the bright ones can leap ahead and the slower ones can also go at their own pace without getting disheartened.

Anyway sorry that post is a bit of a hijack. Great news that your DS is covering ground with the ABA programme Mango.

oodles with montessori, would they teach a child how to play appropriately? Curious as we have one very close by. I thought it was all child centred and they just let them explore in their own way?

Maria Montessori said that first a child has to get to grips with reality before they can appreciate fantasy. Watching my NT DC2 I see that her play is really just mimicking reality, eg laying out a teddy bear's picnic, filling their cups with toilet paper 'tea', making soup, serving up soup.

For us I just went for a visit and was blown away by how calm and ordered it all was. During our 30 min visit DS was able to have a few short interactions/conversations with other children. At his disordered/free play preschool he might spend much of the morning hiding in the book corner pretending to listen to stories, not actually engaging with anyone. (I used to go in as a helper and was able to observe him).

Then when DS first started I had a bit of a wobble, but read [http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_7_11?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=montessori+a+modern+approach&sprefix=montessori+ Montessori: A Modern Approach] to get my head round the principles. You can get it from the library.

My DS also has massive motor planning difficulties so the structured activities are just what he needs. He has a tendency to start playing/working purposefully and then slide into repetetive non activity. The teachers are good at spotting that and moving him on to the next task.

I would say definitely go and have a look.

Montessori was a great woman.