ABA in the day care

[salondon]

I run a 15hr/wk home ABA program and a 6hr/wk day care program. In the day care, I initially just told them this is a 1-1 support. Now that I have the official diagnosis, I gave them info on what ABA is and that the 1-1 support will do ABA going fwd.

Last week, the manager wasnt there when I went in, so I left 4 copies of An introduciton to ABA with the SENCO(who is leaving in 2 weeks time. Has been nice all along). Today I called the manager(who will be the new SENCO) and intially he acted as if he didnt know what I was talking about. When I re-stated the whole conversation I had with the current SENCO, he said "oh yeah, she mentioned it". Is he trying to be difficult?

They are pushing me to increase her nursery hours and want the 1-1 to only do some 1-1 and let her free play the rest of the time.

I offered a phone call with my ABA consultant, but the manager wants the consultant to attend the TAF meeting. I am not getting a very good feeling... Thoughts?

Should I email the LEA Education Psycologist and official inform her that I am running an ABA program(I have mentioned to her before that I am looking into aba and she went very pale).

Any advise please? Can't think of a way forward

Keep cool, stand your ground. This is a free country and you are allowed to educate your child using ABA - however, at the point you want the LA to pay, they may may fight you. Go armed with Professor Hastings latest meta analysis research, be polite and persuasive. If that doesnt work, hire the excellent advocate Fiona Slomovic to fire off a few legal letters. Expect a bit of a battle, same as i had, but hopefully not a war.

I think it is good btw that they are inviting the consultant to meetings - they are (usually) v impressive professionals, and people see that, rather than the cultish ogres they have imagined!

Thanks SickOf. I think the manager feels threatened that a child in their care is making progress with the parents' tutor.

The child needs 'specialist' provision to enable inclusion (developmentally, not just physically). You are prepared to pay for it so they don't have to.

I did what you did. I never mentioned ABA. Not once.

The placement always timed parent open evenings when our ABA tutor was running a mini-social skills group, as an example of what their setting could offer.

The SENCO was a bit nervous but we just kept giving her the updated targets and we also told the nursery that they didn't need to keep any paperwork as we'd ensure everything was mapped against the EYFS curriculum and give them a copy every half term.

Settings love it when you can REDUCE their work rather than give them more.

Starlight, I also thought they will be welcoming. And initially they were. But once the tutor went in(she has only gone 3 times as of now), the manager was putting pressure on her to let my child play independently(which she isn't ready for yet - her independent play is vrey repetitive). I didn't mention ABA initially because I wanted them to like the tutor. However, I don't think the manager is defensive about ABA (yet). he just doesn't think an outsider should be coming in.

To be honest, I think he isnt happy that my child only goes in there for 2 mornings which is a reduction from the 5 she did. And in those 2 mornings, the 1-1 is there, so the nursery gets no credit. I am going to see them tomorrow at drop-off and will see what he says.

Believe me, ds' nursery took all the credit regardless

Hope your meeting goes well.

Perhaps you need to butter them up. Tell them how wonderful it is that you have found a truly inclusive setting that doesn't pretend to know everything about every SN but who is willing to allow specialists in. Would the SENCO/Manager/other nursery nurse be interested in shadowing your tutor for a session to show them how it all works, and your tutor can step back for 20mins and let them 'have a go' to add to the nursery settings overall skillset etc.

Would they like anything from you to be able to demonstrate how wonderful they have been for Ofsted?

Would they like you to write to Ofsted yourself?

blah blah blah.

Starlight - They had an ofsted inspection this year and that was before we were even thinking about ABA. Both DH & I wrote separate +ve notes about the nursery, SENCO and the mgr. And it was all honest stuff. So hopefully the mgr will see it all in +ve light

He might just be embarrassed not to have done anything about it yet, and be stalling till he finally gets round to speed-reading the book. I wouldn't read too much into one dodgy conversation. Not yet, anyway.

They'll be puzzled that you don't want your free 15 hours. Most people take their hand off for it. And tbh, they tend to lose money on 6h placements. Is there a way of transferring a bit more of your home programme to their setting? For example, if the home target is 'walk outside holding hands', could your dd register in the morning and use their pavement to practice walking nicely with her ABA tutor.

We didn't take up ANY of ds' 15 hours as we didn't want to alert the LA as to where we were.

Mareeya- she goes two mornings of 5 hrs each. Her day care spreads the 15hrs over the year such that 11hr/week are free. So we are using them.

Out of the 5hr session, ABA happens for 3hrs. Both mornings.

Update: I didn't get to meet the manager this morning. DH does the drop-off on Monday. He will bring up the topic.

I will also ask my supervisor and consultant to attend the TAF(which isnt till end of June, so we should have had 6 weeks of ABA in the day care by then).

Aha. Do they just want your cash for full-time then?

I think so Mareeya. She changed to 2mornings/wk only 2 months ago.