Has anyone had the experience of trying ABA whilst child in school special unit?

[Ronifromwales]

I have had wonderul reference of an ABA therapist who will be contacting me soon as I have been thinking of home schooling my son part time.

I've read a lot about ABA now and have seen that it can be so successful not only with Autism but other forms of learning and physical disability. I am a teacher and have stopped working and who knows this will give me the drive to stay focused but the main reason is helping my son. Also because I don't know what to do with him as I had always worked full time and had little time to go on any courses or join any support groups. The programme involves parents 100% which is what I'm looking for.

Does anyone have any experience in starting ABA after your child has been given a statement of special needs for full time education in a Special Resources Base?

Can the statement be changed and funding shared between state and home schooling? I just worry that if I do it without the support of the LEA they will then withdraw help for the next year.

I have just given up work and have to sort out other things before I can think about this but I'm just doing some field work at the moment to fish for advice.

Sorry, a correction, I have got a teaching degree that I was not using as I had been doing administrative work since 2002.

Ronifromwales

I would suggest you have a look at
Randomized, Controlled Trial of an Intervention for Toddlers With Autism: The Early Start Denver Model

Hi dolfrog, I've read it and this is another reason why I was so impresseed with it. Have you got personal experience with it?

Ronifromwales
Our family only have one of the potential contributing underlying causes of ASD, and living with such a disability we are not in favour of the use of rewards and enforcement, (this would appear to be blaming a child for having a disability when they are not able to meet a target, a form of disability discrimination if done in the adult world) we prefer learning and understanding which can take longer for those who share our disability.
So this Randomised Control Trial type of research demonstrates how effective these types of interventions can be as opposed to research carry out by a research team which include a member of the industry providing the intervention being investigated, as is the case with much of the so much of the often quoted ABE supportive research. So the more input from a wide range of professions as was the case in this research program, the better, but may be some important types of professional were still omitted.

We do ABA but DS is only 4. He goes part time to mainstream school (with ABA support) and has part time ABA - its not home education its a home programme and is called 'education otherwise than in school' which is a category of education under the Education Act

If you say you are home educating the LA will try and say you are financially responsible for providing the education. So you want to say you want a part-time unit place and part-time education otherwise (ABA programme)

There is a Yahoo ABA site which is worth posting on

I don't know anyone who has a unit place and does ABA.
Unless you have a very enlightened LA they will want your child to be in the Unit provision as it is most likely (but not necessarily) cheaper
I know children who do ABA after school and do part-time school / part time ABA at own expense

Its always worth talking to them about what you want but don't expect a good reaction. They see their unit provision as being able to provide for all the needs and you not needing anything extra / different. They usually think ABA has to be really expensive - which it is for many children, but for some the cost is not that different.

Most likely you will have to do ABA at your expense and then if you show progress you can appeal the statement at next annual review or request a reassessment (which would take 6 months) and ask for ABA on the Statement

But with the idea of personal budgets being floated then i theory parent choice is something LAs are going to have to get used to - except I doubt we will get the choice to spend funds that used to go to schools in the private sector

Trying to find out the costs eg look at the budgets and accounts on LA website of a unit place can give you some leverage.

I have found these views very insighful. I have to say that the school my son goes to has just sent us a letter to let us know that their newly purpose built facility is complete and will be connected to the school, so that the kids can feel more integrated. I was told that the speech therapist sees and assesses him every couple of weeks and leaves targets for the next visit. He has got 32 hours of 1 to 1 support and a care worker that is local and we know is good working with him. He loves her to bits and she misses him when he's not there. A newly qualified but enthusiatic lady who has been sent over to his school from another school for children with ASD, as part of his programme.

I think that the problem here has been that I have been very detached from it all, working full time and haven't spent as much with my son as I have wanted to. Having just given up work to do some special needs training and to get more involved in making sure his intervention is continued at home will hopefully give me the reassurance that I am doing whatever I can for him. I sincerely don't have hopes to get ABA in Cardiff as I have been told that they do it in Swansea for the lack of special unit provision, but Cardiff is a different kettle of fish...

I was offered an ABA assessment and to visit their unit in Swansea www.autismtherapy.co.uk and they have also informed me of a weeks intensive training. does anyone know whether the week alone is enough to give parents a kick start? I could probably break the piggy bank to fund that if I knew that it would be beneficial.