Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
SN children

Here are some suggested organisations that offer expert advice on special needs.

Original poster

Day care advise needed for ABA

18 replies

salondon · 06/08/2013 13:07

I have posted this before. I am in need of some Politically correct statements from you all please. Wink

My Sept 2009 born autistic non verbal daughter, goes to a day care 2 mornings a week. 8AM-1PM. She used to go all 5 mornings, but we reduced that in Feb 2013. She gets ABA at home and day care. The day care manager is pushing me to increase her back to 5 mornings a week. His logic is that she was learning pre-ABA also.

We cant / dont want to do that for 4 main reasons:

  • Her peer interaction inst great. She still needs 1-1 work at home
  • The 10hrs/week that she gets at day care is good enough as of now(our ABA consultant agrees). 6 out of those 10 hrs are ABA
  • Left to her own devices(which is what the manager wants), she stims.
  • We have full time child care at home solely because we want to run a dedicated ABA program. We cannot afford to pay more day care fees.

I think he wants her to do more non-ABA hours for two reasons

  • He feels threatened that it will look bad on them. My daughter has made some progress on ABA. She did none on their 15 mins/day-3-times-a-week-speech-therapy-by-nursery-staff approach
  • He wants more hours from us so he can get more fees. They are very low in numbers and I know he keeps trying to drum up business. Its a LEYF day care, so its not like its private. But I am sure low numbers look bad on him.Hmm

I really need him on my side. We are working through the statement with the LEA and I need the nursery to co-operate. She will stay here (unless kicked out) atleast till August 2014 possibly even end of 2014. We will potentially increase her hours if we get some funding from the LEA for 2013-2014.

If I am brutally honest, I want the following from the manager

  • Stay out of my daughter's way. Let the ABA tutor do her thing
  • Access to my daughter's peers who are abundant in the day care

I know this sounds selfish. However, having the tutor there is essentially good for the day care staff. They have one less (autistic!) kid to worry about.

How do I ask the manager to stay out of my hair?Blush Please dont judge me, I am not exploiting them.

OP posts:
PolterGoose · 06/08/2013 14:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
salondon · 06/08/2013 15:53

Polter, yes you got it right - "the manager is a bit of an interfering busybody knowitall who thinks he knows best"

I need the day care to co-operate for statement. I am asking for ABA on the statement and want that the tutors who I hire should go in. Unless the day care agree, its difficult to get that in place.

She has a rubbish IEP. Its taken them 8 weeks to type them up and she has already moved on to newer goals on ABA.

OP posts:
AgnesDiPesto · 06/08/2013 21:15

Just refuse on the advice of your consultant
Our statement says the % of time spent in 1:1 and nursery (now school) setting is at the discretion of the ABA consultant.
Its a hierarchy - a child learns to learn in 1:1, then in small group, then in large group and this is a process your child has to work through.
Its not a reflection on the nursery (although your crap nursery provision sounds identical to what ours was), its a reflection of her skill level and where the time needs to be targeted.
Over time the % of group time will increase and the 1:1 reduce, once she has gained the skills to benefit from being in the group / can learn in a group.
Currently she is most likely at the stage where her learning is done in 1:1 and the 10 hours are just to generalise the skills learnt to a different environment / peers, not new learning.
10 hours a week is plenty.
TBH I would just do the 6 ABA hours.
You can always say if and when the LA help you out with the ABA costs you may be able to afford for her to go more (with more ABA support) to keep Mgr on side Wink

Original poster
salondon · 07/08/2013 11:17

Agnes, I really hope I can say all that politely and firmly to the manager when I see him

OP posts:
zumbaleena · 07/08/2013 16:05

keep us updated!

Original poster
salondon · 09/08/2013 17:07

My tutor spoke to the manager when she was there. He seems to be very nice but keeps banging on about how my daughter needs 'free/unsupervised' time. When the tutor explained how they are training her to copy peers and play with them he kept nodding his head.

Claimed that they use makaton but the staff wasnt seen using signing at all.

The usual, lip service stuff.

I am meeting them next week. I dont have many expectations of them. The special education support teacher is on holiday all summer.

The manager is very set in his ways.

OP posts:
AgnesDiPesto · 09/08/2013 19:27

Fine so ask the Manager to video examples of what he thinks is going well and would like to see your daughter do more of. Then you can use it as evidence she is being left to stim and isolate when ABA are not there.

StarlightMcKenzie · 09/08/2013 19:41

Agree that it sounds like a good idea to give her free rim and request any literature/evidence that backs up his claim that this is what she needs.

Ask the manager what outcomes he expects for her from being left alone? And how they will ensure the outcomes are achieved,

Ask questions referring to thisprofessional knowledge and then ask for references.

Original poster
salondon · 12/08/2013 21:00

Ah! Great advice. See I knew I'll get some good stuff from you ladies here. I am meeting them tomorrow and will ask them to record the outcomes. Thanks!!

OP posts:
Original poster
salondon · 14/08/2013 09:56

Update:

Met the manager yesterday.

  • He doesnt think that one of the ABA tutors is giving much independence to my daughter and would prefer the other one comes in. I can do that
  • He is happy to hire my tutors as nursery staff and cover that on the "delegated SEN formula funding" budget, however, I have to send her in for 25hrs/week(pro rata), because statement says so. That is ~35hrs/week for 38 weeks a year.
  • 1:8 ratio according to him is good enough for my daughter. I reminded him that that's not what the Education Psycologists think

He seemed desperate to have more business.

I can see a tribunal coming

OP posts:
StarlightMcKenzie · 14/08/2013 18:56

He wants to hire her as a general member of staff to fulfil staff ratios of 1:8?

Original poster
salondon · 15/08/2013 09:59

No Star, He thinks that the staff ratio of 1:8 is good enough for my non-verbal, passive Autistic daughter - 25hrs/week

OP posts:
zumbaleena · 15/08/2013 10:02

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

StarlightMcKenzie · 15/08/2013 10:46

I'm confused. How can he hire your tutor for 25 hours 1:1 but then insist on a 1:8 ratio?

zumbaleena · 15/08/2013 10:54

Seriously....star u r correct!

Original poster
salondon · 15/08/2013 12:27

ah, I understand.. Let me clarify. Say for example, the funds he gets are £100/week. and the tutor charges, £10/week. He would pay her the £100 and I would top up the rest of the hours

He would do that IF(He said that in a round about way), I increased the hours to 25hrs/week

OP posts:
AgnesDiPesto · 15/08/2013 20:55

Keep him on side string him along until you get the best statement you can (as he's supportive of ABA) then move to another nursery???

Original poster
salondon · 16/08/2013 15:48

Agnes, My daughter is at the nursery till Sept 2014. Then she moves to reception. I have been trying to get hold of the reception SENCO but they wont talk to me till Oct 2013. I want to be sure he wont be as much of a pain as the current manager is.

I spoke to Fiona this morning. We will ask them to finalise this statement(with a comment that its rubbish and that we will appeal it).

The manager doesnt care ABA or not. He just wants more hours from us. So for another year, I will ask them to pro-rata the 25/week that they are offering and take it from there.

If we can get a fairly good statement for the Infact school years atleast, we should be okay

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page