ABA and PDA?

[MsNg]

I'm not a very frequent poster but have had to namechange as I've been outed. The ed psych has prescribed ABA for DS and she did explain it to me but the meeting was so high-stress as it was about statement contents I've forgotten everything she said.

School are saying that it's not working and the ABA is setting DS off into violence. DS has a lot of autistic behaviours but he's also very manipulative, constantly trying to take charge of everyone and will do ANYTHING to get out of doing as he's asked so I'm starting to think in terms of Pathological Demand Avoidance.

Could someone tell me what ABA is and how it's done? I'd like to form some kind of opinion about whether it's the ABA that's not a good idea for DS or whether the school aren't doing it properly (fairly likely) as they're about to ask me to agree to have it removed from the statement.

I agree with that, I know how to treat him now and what he can cope with. It's exhausting managing him constantly, but the alternative is far worse.

Look at PEACH website and Ambitious about Autism ABA competency framework. ABA is a science you have to study it and know how to apply it. A programme should be supervised by someone with an approved ABA qualification eg BCBA. Is the EP a qualified behaviour analyst? How many years of experience does the EP have overseeing ABA programmes? How often does the EP supervise the programme (my DS gets 12 hours of supervision as month)? How much training have the TAs had in ABA? Our staff all do 2 weeks academic training which they have to pass followed by on the job training with other staff then they start work with a child but have ongoing training and frequent supervision. They can also telephone the supervisor for advice during or after any session. There are monthly team meetings with everyone who works with the child. If you are going to stop it I would make it very clear you are doing so not because ABA will not work but because this is not good quality ABA.

Have to be very quick but books:

Schramm, as hothead recommended. Also Mary Lynch Barbera Verbal Behaviour

Catherine Maurice has written a couple of books too here but they're rather schmaltzy and traditional Lovaas ABA which - as Dev said - is not really the norm now.

FWIW my ds has HFA but at the age of 3-4 had hugely controlling behaviour (like yours, he was totally non-compliant and avoided doing anything asked of him - I did wonder about PDA at one point). Verbal Behaviour approach turned everything around. It taught him the skills he was lacking in how to communicate and interact effectively and appropriately, so that his need to control everything (which manifested in tantrums, repetitive behaviour, routines, etc) was massively reduced, virtually eliminated.

I really do suspect that your lack of progress with it has been because you don't have a 'proper' programme set up, with a qualified consultant/tutors. It is a very skilled profession, and good tutors have to have great talent in instantly understanding behaviour and finding instant, creative ways to use the environment to teach the child, without the child realising that 'teaching' is going on. It is not something that anyone can just do without proper training or understanding.

Also look at the rewards they are using as they are probably those that suited the last child they worked with and not your DS specifically. Rewards are very poorly understood generally methinks and are incredibly individual. It may take a trained consultant (rather than school TA's) to help you unravel his motivators.

DS is TOTALLY unmotivated by many of the standard things an untrained person would use & always has been. Reward charts, stickers, even sweets make him think at best "why?" or "meh" and at worst even antagonise him.

His current school finally understanding what motivated DS (nothing in their standard toolkit) led to a real breakthrough for everyone concerned. Even now I'm suprised when I break stuff down and analyse what DS is finding rewarding, espeially as it naturally changes over time according to his age, current obsessions, maturity level and any new recently skills aquired. Motivators are scaffolded too sometimes.

ABA should suit everyone as the whole point is that a programme is totally indiviualised and specific to the child concerned - I'd therefore expect it to be able to help PDA children far more effectively than more generic teaching methods. I wonder if the current setting has truly understood this, as the natural inclination of all of us is to "do what we've always done" & no 2 kids are the same iykwim.

Boc I think you've hit the nail on the head re motivation. This is at the heart of teaching (any as well as asd) children. Ime it takes the 'nt' world an incredibly long time to realise that the things that motivate nt children are usually totally meaningless for asd children. It is such a common mistake, too, to think that a motivator/reinforcer is a 'bribe'. Yes it would be if you said to an nt child he/she gets a reward for eg sitting nicely, but a totally different thing from teaching something that you want to increase by rewarding that behaviour.

Also a common mistake for the nt world/schools to blame the problems on ABA, rather than the difficulties arising from the asd itself. Fgs if the child didn't have asd such different teaching methods wouldn't be necessary! Do they really think it is the ABA that is causing eg aggression, non-compliance, inappropriate behaviour etc, or the autism, ffs?

God I just wish schools like yours OP, could just come and spend a day watching a proper, skilled ABA session.

(In fact, if you're anywhere near SE London you would be welcome to come and do just that.)