So disappointed with DS's TA and ABA ....

[appropriatelyemployed]

DS started a new school this year.

Very supportive head. Very involved. Great.

Recruited a TA who is a qualified teacher. Great.

She was very kindly and gentle and supportive and DS settled in really well. Great.

I instructed an ABA consultant to support DS's communication skills as we weren't getting much in terms of progress with a standard S&LT intervention.

I told her DS was fussing about it never being clear when he could take a break and I suggested she may want to look at that too.

Some of you may remember I posted about this ABA consultant going in to school and then reporting that DS was walking out of class and that the TA complained this had been going on for a while. In fact, it looked like she had used the session (which I was paying for) to unload about him.

She even mentioned DS had ripped up his book on one occasion. She never thought to mention this to me or the head and I was really annoyed to hear this second hand through the ABA consultant. DS says he asked her to promise not to tell me. I suspect she thought she was doing this for the best

Anyway, ABA intervention then ends up being about him walking out of the classroom. I'm a bit annoyed by this as if I'd known, I'd have asked him to stop. When I found out, I asked him to stop and he did.

Never mind I thought, it's cost +£300 but the TA must now feel a bit more secure with the ABA plan which is two pronged - rewards for staying in the class and a clear managed break system reliant on task completion.

DS is on board, head is on board. Off we go.

Two weeks go by. DS is getting stressy about breaks. Saying he's not having them. I go in to today and TA says she's only been implementing the 'walking out' system as it was too disruptive to do the managed break system.

So DS is quite right to say he hasn't had breaks and this TA has just chosen to do the bit of the system that suits her. But they are reliant on each other as if he doesn't get breaks, he is more likely to walk out.

I saw head. He agrees.

Then, I pick DS up today and she moans he is being 'contrary'. He wouldn't do PE. He wouldn't go in the class. I've just started working in London two days a week and I''ve barely seen him since Monday and he was all over the place this morning and I had warned her he was very tired. She was really dismissive.

I then discuss with her and the teacher (who is a NQT) the breaks. They seem to know nothing about my discussion with the head and the TA is very dominant saying 'we are doing the system, he's in the class, what's the problem'. I have to say - no you're not, you're doing a bit of it and that is not what ABA is about.

On top of this, I have just now taken home DS's specialist lap top because I've discovered she wasn't doing his working memory programme or his keyboard training (as requried by his statement) as 'it's always a battle to get him to do it'.

I sympathise, but., seriously, this woman is getting on my nerves now. She has started to be really disparaging about DS - 'sit up, we don't sit like that' etc in front of me. The ABA consultant had told her that yes DS has Hypermobility but he doesn't need to be lying on the table and advised her how to handle it but she is doing it her way

I just feel that the TA can't manage him as she doesn't know what to say when he says he won't do stuff and not she's transferrring her frustration on to him.

I've already been to the head and gently suggested she might need 'support' and training.

The ABA consultant agrees completely that the plan she suggested must be implemented but this is so draining and disappointing.....

Thanks zzzz. The ABA consultant has sent the monitoring sheets across which are detailed so that should reign her in!

I agree monitoring helps. Unless she fakes the data of course!
Also just writing down what the ABA person says so the TA has a list of phrases (positive ones) to use as preferred feedback

I notice this with the new ABA staff who are fresh out of uni, they quickly pick up the phrases more experienced staff use and mimic their style until they develop their own.

One of the criticisms of ABA is that it uses aversives (not true anymore) yet reality is that teachers use more aversives (negative comments, threats, bribes etc). The worst feedback DS ever gets is a 'thats not it' or a 'too slow' or 'try again'. Almost everything is positive reinforcement, including at times when a breakthrough occurs the wildly enthusiastic over the top kind

How much training has the TA had in ABA? And who gave it?

It is quite tricky for a newcomer to understand the nuances at first, imo. Eg especially if they're not comign from a background of psychology, as so much of successful ABA comes from understanding the function of behaviour - if you misunderstand that, the approach can be completely inappropriate and counter-productive.

Not saying that this is necessarily the case with your TA, but it sounds like she's taken ABA to mean it gives her carte blanche to tell ds him off! I also think to the uninitiated, the difference between 'discipline' and 'consistency' is a subtle one and not always understood properly. Also she needs to really appreciate that ABA is about teaching not just keeping someone in line.

Different scenario but after nearly 2 years of us doing ABA, my mum (who is around quite a lot) still doesn't get this, and she's pretty bright!

I wouldn't write it all off just yet, though I can see it's frustrating. I do agree she needs support and training. Is there agreement to fund any training?

If she digs her heels in and refuses to countenance this, I would try asking the HT if there is an alternative TA.

I bet really you just wanna shake her and tell her to just do as she's blimmin told.

In reality, you need to ask her to explain the barriers to her implementing the strategies/programme as agreed. Puting things back to people to explain/justify can really help clarify thinking.

Thanks. Today was no better.

DS came over to me in 'celebration assembly' with a face like thunder, telling me he'd been told off.

After assembly, head came over to chat and was really taken aback that DS was so peed off. Then TA comes over and I didn't believe a word she was saying. In front of the head, she said:

DS had been silly in PE so had got told off - she wasn't there but teacher had done it. DS said, he was made to sit at the side of the hall all lesson. Given that he wouldn't even get changed for PE yesterday and had made an effort today, not very helpful.

But then, she dealt with DS's real complaint - he'd been taken out to do maths in a small group and at the end TA had given everyone a house point but him. He said 'it's because she hates me' . She says to the head,'I give housepoints to people who behave properly'. So I ask whether DS was not behaving properly (GOd it's like getting blood out of a stone). She said, no he was rude and aggressive after the PE class and then he laughed at someone who got an answer wrong.

DS got really upset and said he was not aggressive and had laughed because he had thought it was funny and didn't realise it was rude. I suggested that it helped to set out the behaviour expected and she said she did and she told him but he kept laughing at people so she decided not to reward him.

DS got really tearful then and said 'I stopped when she asked, I didn't know it was rude, I only did it once, she's not telling the truth'

Anyway, I spoke to the head after and made my concerns clear about their relationship. He suggested a home/school book but it's not all about DS's perceptions being wrong and me being told what really happened. It's sometimes about this woman handling things badly.

He did apologise for her calling DS contrary and for things getting to the stage where he's sent home from school feeling like this.

No, there has been no training in ABA, or what it is about - just a visit and a report. I am speaking to the ABA consultant Monday and I am supposed to see the head, TA and teacher Monday afternoon.

zzzz - I can't do that, I really can't. I have just had a year of being called vexatious and branded behind my back.

I don't think this would change her behaviour. She's not clueless. She has decided how she wants to act and she is lying about things and that is really hard to get over.

She wouldn't accept it from me. She is so passive aggressive anyway. It has to come from someone else.

I don't know why we have been so unlucky with TAs. Both times we have ended up with people who don't understand Asperger's, take everything personally and are very defensive. I think they have both thought they are on a mission to save him and when he won't play ball, they get annoyed with him.

I think this highlights one of the reasons we were so keen on getting an ABA programme going as DS's support. It is because you parachute in the trained TA. In a way ABA was a bit of a side issue as what you were doing was increasing your chances of a quality TA.

This very often isn't received especially well by the HT OR the class teacher however, so I was SO hoping your way was going to work.

You've still got further than we ever did and I do hope you can iron this out somehow. I'm just gutted because I know that the demands you are making of this TA are NOT that blimmin great and should really be the 'introduction' to what can be achieved, and that at this stage in the intervention you are still at the stage where you could have probably figured out most of it yourself had you had the right information.

And I know too that you've been through quite something to get where you are and have started to get some resemblence of normality in your own life, just to be let down at the last bit. I'm in awe of your energy to keep going with this - but then, what real choice do we have?

Thanks Star for your kind words of support.

The saving grace is the head who was able to actually apologise for some of the issues I was raising. This is a very rare thing in education. He remained supportive too and I know he was not happy about the language being used.

I will speak to the ABA consultant and see what she suggests. More intensive intervention may assist and if the head goes with this, it may be easier to get the TA on board but it is difficult for him too as it is about her competence and attitude.

The home/school book will get us nowhere as she is hardly likely to write - 'I gave everyone in the class a house point but him' is she? You put it like that and it looks pathetic.

I just have to be sensitive or I'll lose him too! I am trying to be straight with him. He knows all about the vexatious stuff and I have told him it is really hard for me to handle stuff like this. I can only be open but I am losing patience!

Is the school an ABS school, mainstream or special ed? I ask because I am a TA in a non ABA special secondary school and there is a boy in another class with an ABA program and it is really hard to run the two schemes along side each other.

Also,
No, there has been no training in ABA, or what it is about - just a visit and a report. I am speaking to the ABA consultant Monday and I am supposed to see the head, TA and teacher Monday afternoon.

Wow, I appreciate this TA sounds like a pain but the entire staff at my school have had 8 hours of lecture/training (half an inset day and an after school session, with more planned) about ABA (all for this one student) and some still really don't get it. It's actually quite complicated, especially if you are used to a different method. There is no need for her to be so overbearingly negative or not even try.

Blue, there is no ABA programme here just some behavioural strategies.

Behavioural strategies are commonplace in mainstream schools (although often badly implemented) I.e golden time, stickers, threats to tell parents, reports to HT, listening trees, thinking chair etc etc.

Yes, I think there is a need for some training

Ok ABA "plan", ABA "intervention", ABA programme; for these purposes my point is still that the staff in our ABA-ing boy are doing a very watered down version of ABA and we have all had 8 hours of training. This TA has had no formal training.

I do agree. I am paying for the ABA and I have offered to pay for someone to come in and support and maybe it is worth them explaining what ABA is about.

I an do no more than that!