ABA - advice and info

[r3dh3d]

DD1 doesn't have a formal diagnosis of ASD as yet. She has a bunch of other issues and (she's only 2) they are taking the line that it's not her biggest problem at the moment.

Having said that, one of her problems seems to be in the big of the brain that processes Social stuff, so SALT etc. are working on eye contact, turn taking, attention, copying, object exchange (with a view to PECs) etc. So a lot of what they are doing is for ASD even if that's not the diagnosis.

She currently has a SN nanny with general SN experience, but whose visa runs out in a couple of months. So we're recruiting for another. We've had a CV from someone who appears quite keen but whose experience is very heavily with ASD. She's ABA trained and that's where all her experience is. She's currently working in an ABA school. So she will definitely take an ABA approach to DD1.

Thing is - I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing cos DD1 isn't precisely ASD and I'd got the feeling ABA wouldn't suit all ASD kids anyway.

Can someone give me an idiot's guide to what ABA is, what problems it works on and what it needs in place to be succesful, so I can take a view whether her experience is truly right for us?

Thanks!

Thanks Socci - I knew you'd got ABA experience and I was thinking "I hope Socci comes on" but didn't like to title the thread "Socci please answer this cos I don't think you've anything better to do"!

We would have a problem with reinforcement because she has practically none. I guess things that light up are reinforcers, but we've not found anything portable that makes enough impact. Food used to be a reinforcer but one of her Epilepsy drugs suppresses appetite and she's on huge amounts of that now.

The functional play problem rings a lot of bells. DD1 can't play at all - but I don't know if she stims either, precisely; she is oral compulsive but that may just be the stage she is stuck at. Mostly she just wanders about aimlessly. It does worry me because the whole learn-through-play thing is missing; obviously she'll never live independantly, but if she can't copy and she can't play and she can't communicate - I don't see much prospect for learning any life skills at all.

I suppose the advantage of our situation and this candidate would be that if it requires dedication to work, having an ABA trained Nanny working with her one to one, all day, 5 days a week - if it's going to work at all, it should work then, no? Obviously we have to do it too - but we can learn on the job, so to speak.

Thanks again!