ABA TV documentary - 5 Nov, 9pm, BBC Four

[sickofsocalledexperts]

Just to let anyone interested in ABA know that there is a BBC Four documentary coming up - Tuesday 5 Nov at 9pm. It is called Autism: Challenging Behaviour.

It features partucularly Treetops school, for the at least one mumsnetter on here who I think might be considering that school.

Nb - hope I am not contravening MN rules, but I have no vested interest in the programme, except being a big ABA fan and pleased that the message is finally getting out.

Patience's boy was at Queensmill, which purports to be one of this country's flagship autism schools. Makes me very angry.

Starlight - how do I find the twitter feed?

It has made me seriously consider ABA as a career path.

I have worked extensively with children being diagnosed as callous-unemotional and I think it would work well for them too.

sickof, you and I both have experience of so-called flagship ASD education though . you know how bloody awful it can be.

Really Inclusionist?

Don't know you from Adam really but from your posts I'd expect you to be analytical enough to be excellent and ethical.

Do you not think ABA is ethical?

ABA is ethical. Some ABA practitioners are not. This IMO is because of the culture and context in which parents are often forced to kind of 'go underground' to get it, funding what they can afford without support or proper regulation.

But it is very powerful as an education tool and you need to constantly review your practice to ensure the behaviours you are targeting are for the child's benefit, not your own or anyone else's iyswim.

FWIW my Ds did quite a bit of ABA for a couple if years. I now do 5 hours a week formally with him AND my NT dd. They both love it. I do more though spontaneously and incorporate it into my parenting.

I thought it was fairly balanced, apart from the sheer number of clips of 'old' ABA. Might have had something in my eye when the wee boy ate the sausage .

I was quite surprised that the point kept being made about 'allowing' children to demonstrate their behaviours yet no-one really pointed out how these behaviours stop people learning and engaging. And the comment about 'adapting the world rather than the child' (paraphrase) was so shocking in its niaevity. Yeah, the world's sooooooooooooo like that.

I find that the anti ABAers tend to clam up when I tell them about my son punching himself full in the head. Would they have "respected" that part of his autism, his right to self-harm. Guff!

Newbluecoat - who are you, am intrigued!

we both had children (at separate times) at a highly respected ASD pre-school which sadly is no longer...

Aha! Hiyah!

Still sat here on my own crying my eyes out after watching that documentary, why oh why is this not offered more widely and as parents we should beable to judge if it is an "ethical" therapy. Got told aba was so cruel by senco and uneffective by ed psych at the start of the year so got put off. Changing my mind now and feel lied to.

Toni27 - I too got lied to about ABA. It is not too late

another one lied to about ABA.

the work we did at home (very informal) was some of the most rewarding.

It's never too late. Some interventions will have more success if put in to place very early, but that doesn't mean they won't have any success if put in to place later on.

I'm in Scotland so the debate doesn't even occur - if you want ABA you do it yourself, privately. There's only been one child funded for it in the whole country (and that was for a private programme iirc).

I think there's a lot of propaganda out there - if all your Senco and EP know about it is the clips of the 'early' ABA which were shown in the programme, then it's small wonder they would hold those views. (or they may be lying...). Certainly our ABA consultant is always extremely respectful of my child.

Oh I know who you are!!!

who, me?

yes, certain things keep dragging me back. not often you can have an ABA discussion in the mainstream environment (no doubt we'll be talking at the school gates tomorrow, but then, we're all fully signed up already )

Main Board Discussion

Really cannot imagine how anyone could think it is ethical to consign a child to being tube fed for the rest of his life, with all the discomfort that must entail...when a few months of steady perseverance would utterly transform his life.

Blind, blind prejudice and bloody-mindedness. It's scandalous really. And achingly tragic. And how ironic that dispensing powerful medication is preferable to patiently working to change behaviour.

'Love and accept the little kiddies' too often equals babysitting them until they are adults and someone else's problem. Writing them off. And how degrading and cruel is that?!

Yes googly. The real scandal is that so many "educators" in this county just babysit autistic kids. Prejudice dressed up in the clothes of concern.

I found programme interesting but would have liked to see some more natural ABA - not just DTT at a table. Would have been good to show how a child can gain skills and rewards like food can be faded out to delayed rewards like a game on the iPad and also to have seen it used in a group / mainstream school / leisure activity. Really pleased the programme was made but made ABA look quite formal and 'drill' like and while certainly it started out like that with DS he's come a long way and its much more natural and play based now. The ABA looked very fast and intense and DS sessions look much more relaxed than that.

Read the other thread as well. Some of twitter stuff bit scary. Can't help thinking if you did the exact same tv programme but replaced the children with autism with a NT child who was refusing all food, head butting parent, choosing to do unproductive activities that interfered with any learning all day etc etc then the ABA methods used wouldn't be considered abusive or denying the soul of the child, they would just be considered good parenting and essential to a good outcome for the child / a functioning society.

I cannot get over the boy needing a feeding tube. Or the casual way the teacher said it. He looked so ill. All that child led stuff totally failed DS too. It relied on him being able to make choices he simply wasn't equipped or motivated to make. Then shrugging their shoulders when he learnt nothing and made no progress saying oh well thats just the autism.

BTW Was it just me but was the SS teacher in the sensory room cuddling the (rather large older boy) on the beanbag sucking her thumb to mirror him sucking his thumb? What was that? Intensive interaction?

Felt the SS came out of it really badly.

Also made me realise how far DS has come, a very similar story to the boy eating the sausages .

I agree Agnes. None of the ABA presented there looked anything like what ds did, but tbf if they had shown ds' ABA no one untrained would see it as anything but playing, and what is 'controversial' enough about that to make a programme?

It's good it is finally out there even though IMO not representative.