ABA therapy, have you tried it for your child with ASD? Need advice ASAP please x

[Toni27]

Hi our son is 3, 4 in march. He was diagnosed with asd in dec 2012. He can talk, as in he can name objects and ask for things he wants. He repeats dialogues from tv almost constantly. He does not really respond to what others are saying to him, normally does not acknowledge he is being spoken to.
I asked his senco about trying Aba therapy on Monday as we want to do everything we can to try and help him ASAP. She completely advised against this as she said it is very intense therapy, we will be living from a workstation for the rest of our sons life and also she doesn't believe any change would be good for our son. She said we would have to undo all the work everyone has done for our son - putting in visuals at nursery, getting him to sit down for an adult led activity for up to one minute at nursery.
However, I have had to collect my son from nursery today as his behaviour was too challenging for them today, he was being very unfocused, pulling out every single drawer of toys that he could, not doing as he was told, pouring sand over the other childrens heads, head butting the walls when he was told not to behave in this way.
I love our little boy so much and truly believe that with the right help he will be okay, if he could only get his understanding of language and his speech there would be a vast improvement in his life.
I'm scared that by seeking any private help outside of the "system" might have a negative affect on him getting a statement that we want, we are putting him into mainstream primary school and hoping to get one to one support at all times for him.
If you have experienced aba therapy PLEASE can you tell me your experience, good or bad. We will be prepared to go behind our senco's back and pay for our son to have aba therapy if we truly believe it is his best chance of learning to interact properly and with language. How often did your child have therapy, as in how many hours a week? Was it just at home or did they need to go not your child's nursery or school as well? Did it make a massive difference to your child?
I just can't help thinking that there must be more we can do for our son to help him. Thanks xx

hi Toni,
I don't know anything about your area, but recommend joining the ABA UK yahoo group (search on yahoo groups), as it is a list where tutors/consultants/parents can share info. To join you have to email the list coordinator. Good luck

Will do thanks xx

We do need more sencos like you

Another vote for ABA being a very successful (and child friendly way) to educate an ASD child. I really wonder though what on earth your senco thinks she is on about anyway! She sounds as if she has not even learned the anti ABA script properly as most people would associate a workstation with the TEACCH program not ABA and would think of sitting down for an adult led activity as being something more typical of an ABA program.

willow, that is fairly normal. We were told that ABA would mean ds couldn't get a bus independently without someone tapping him on the shoulder to trigger this. Not only was this Autism Advisory Teacher talking rubbish, but how on earth did she think this was different than using a pocket book full of pictures, which was the approach she was advocating!?

I'm sorry to barge in, but my dd2 is 5.7yrs, am I too late to start aba? We've spent years trying to get her walking and talking which she can now do but really need to tackle the social skills and communication. Thanks

Hi my area is Bristol area, had to delete my last post of our area cos I put it quite specifically, and worry someone involved in the "system" with our son might have read it and guessed it was me. We are going to try aba after all your lovely comments, but try to keep it on the quiet as we have been advised against it by the senco lady which makes me question how much she knows what she's on about and she might try to stop us. X

Mumgoingcrazy -ABA can help at any age

Toni, if I had my time again with such ignorance, I would keep quiet too. In fact I did on round two in new area.

DS attended an independent nursery. We asked if we could supply the 1:1 ourselves, and gave their qualifications (degree educated in child-related subjects) and pay for it on top. Offered examples of the targets we were hoping to achieve, let them off producing their own learning journal etc. Gave their SENCO last word on anything she was unhappy with. Made it clear that tutors are answerable to the nursery head.

Nursery manager agreed to trial it for 3 weeks, and then arranged all of her new parents visiting times around when our tutors were in, to show the social skills groups etc. she was offering.

Never was ABA mentioned, but never was the tutors work kept a secret. Staff were free to ask questions and see the targets and progress reports the tutors produced. The HT loved the tutors, and why shouldn't she?

The SENCO was a 'bit' threatened, but we tried hard to keep her involved and it was okay.

One day us ABAers will be seen as "early adopters" rather than deluded nutters. Just like the first people to buy an Apple computer, rather than microsoft or amstrad, are laughing now. Or so I hope!

That's what is so strange. We're pretty risk adverse and are more like never-adopters usually, and yet we're treated as if we follow blindly cowboy sales people.

ABA isn't for everyone, MN is a bit of a self-selecting sample in that way however we have found it invaluable - and mumgoingcrazy we didn't start it till DS was 6. The point is that you are your child's advocate and you are the lead in his care and development. Do you honestly think that SENCO is going to remember your family in 2 years when your child is up at primary school?

Look into ABA, make an informed decision if it will work for you as a family, but don't keep it secret. ABA - all therapies to be honest - work best when there's a partnership approach. We only use the lightest touch ABA but - after a long battle admittedly - school are now fully on board and when there's an issue they call me in, ask my advice or opinion on how to handle it, and the approach I suggest is always based on ABA. OK, I don't rub that in their faces much but that's how it is now.

One of the hardest things about this journey can be realising you know much, much more than teachers, SENCOs and other professionals. Even acknowledging ABA exists and can help your family means you now know more than that SENCO IYSWIM. She may find that threatening. But that's her issue. As I said, in 2 years time your child will be a distant memory for her. You do what's best and right and don't worry about anyone else's opinions. ('Cept ours of course, but that's because we know everything [bwink])

'but don't keep it secret'

If I tell you that every state nursery within commutable distance or our new address recieved an email from our LA telling them that we were searching for somewhere to integrate our child with an ABA tutor and that ABA was barbaric and the LA advised strongly that they only allow us in WITHOUT tutors, then you would perhaps understand why I considered it best not to ever use the name.

(and every state and independent nursery close to the address we left)

Although I shared the principles, the targets, the strategies and the aims. Impossible not to if you want to work with the nursery, which of course you do otherwise why put them in there.

I don't think you should underestimate the fear that ABA can put into people who don't understand it and who's jobs depend on it not being the solution it promises to be, were it to become mainstream and integrated into the education system.

Why does it put so much fear into people? X

cos' of the money/expenses involved

ABA does not have to cost any more than any other intervention. The fear is more about the fact that the status quo that people have established comfortable lives within, will need a radical shake up ,and evidence-based practice holds people to account and highlights inefficiencies that makes people very uncomfortable.

ABA is also bloody hard work! Not for the child, but for the people working with that child. It involves often painstaking work, with constantly changing targets and constantly changing methods of motivation and reinforcement and scrupulous data-keeping and monitoring of progress.

If you currently work with SN children and have an 'ah, bless' attitude to them (with associated very low expectations) it would be a pretty seismic and unwelcome change to suddenly be told to work intensively with a child and break down skills (sometimes into the teeniest parts) in order to teach them skills which may often seem unimportant unless you're looking at the big picture. Not to mention having to PROVE that a child is making progress by some objective criteria rather than the woolly shite you've been used to.

There is an endemic philosophy in most SN education whereby the child must be accepted as they are, and that it's cruel to try and 'change' the disability. ABA challenges that in the most uncomfortable way for all those used to babysitting' such kids. Those who give not a thought to the adults these children will become...by then the cute kiddies will be someone else's problem. To me the ultimate cruelty lies in effectively institutionalising children when they are grown by not equipping them with such life and communication skills as they are able to learn

Great post Googly. Totally agree that there is a culture of caring rather than teaching at present. Aba threatens that - meaning those currently in our SEN schools might have to study a bit, and be held accountable.

Yep, a fully qualified ABA person has - what? 7- 8 years of intensive study and training and just 'looks' at a classroom in a different way. I can't say too much for fear of outing but some teachers find that stimulating, others find it very, very challenging. I have had the 'don't forget my teachers are very highly trained' line trotted out more than once - which I'm sure they are, in all sorts of things. My ABA consultant is very highly trained in just one thing and for some reason that can grate. Teachers aren't known for liking to be taught!

(Sorry, should say most teachers there. Not all.)

Here is my opinion (I have been running an ABA programme for seven months now). You don't have to be going "behind anyone's back", he is YOUR child and ABA is the only evidence-based approach to teaching ASD children. The SENCO is telling you entirely incorrect information, which is very sad. You don't need to ask anyone's permission, just get on and get an ABA programme arranged, for as many hours as you can possibly afford, as soon as you possibly can.

Excellent post Googly.
You have summed the situation up exactly.
As for theteachers being 'very well trained' line, this is an complete joke.
Most SN teachers have no extra training and even mainstream teachers (throguh no fault of their own it must be stressed) have pitifully little instruction in evidence based practice and how to actually teach basic literacy,numeracy and communication to struggling children. (Remember, most kids learn in spite of how they are taught, not because of it.)

Of the scores of fantastic teachers I work with, implementing behavioural principles in many different classrooms, the overwhelming response is not only one of joy and excitement at seeing how a child can blossom and really learn but of anger nad resentment, because nonoe of these basic things were ever taught to them when they were training.

This is a very useful and interesting blog to foloow from one of the leading researchers in the field of autism and intellectual impairment.

He's a top bloke too.

So true Moondog. What really irks me is when mainstream schools reject a fully-trained ABA tutor for an LSA role, often in favour of a school gates mum with no training at all (except maybe a stint as a dinner lady). Sheer prejudice.

I vividly remember being told, by one of the most highly esteemed autism headteachers in the UK, that the only qualifications she asked for from staff in her (famous) autism school was "that they love the children".

Just imagine if a headteacher said the same about teachers in a "normal" school.

It makes me very angry: autistic children need education, not just babysitting.

Well, we have to work harder at improving the image of ABA as Prof. Hastings points out so eloquently in his blog.

But you are right-the guff I have heard spoken by professionals who genuinely believe that thier vision of a 'social model' of care (ie allow people to become steadily more and more dependent and unable to integrate in society and avail theemselves of its myriad opportunities)makes them the only viable option nauseates me.

The sanctimonious smug and patronising attitude and lack of accountability, masquarading as a 'service'.

Thankfull in my neck of the woods there aren't too many of these.

How are you by the way Sick?
Will you be joining us for EABG and the launch of the UK Society for Behaviour Analysts?
After all, you were one of the founders.

Yes I will be there Moondog. Maybe we will finally meet in person? X