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.

Yes lottie there were 2 disappointed Queensmill families on there

I looked round that school, escorted by their OBE-for-services-to-autism head, and was mightily unimpressed

moondog - I think that the problem is that when the NAS endorses provision that is not good then it makes it even more difficult for a family to fight it if it's what the LEA named in the child's statement rather than that the NAS never backs up a provision that uses ABA.

Lottie, I don't care what the NAS think.
I am just pointing out that they do endorse schools run on behavioural lines and that may be useful information to many.

So many of these charities and pressure groups have a very nebulous remit.
They seem to exist to 'raise awareness' and 'support' and 'guide' but it is all very fuzzy and ill defined.
Sickof, do they really get £88 million a year?!
Jesus!!!
With that amount they should be working miracles.

The £88mil comes with conditions.....

But my point was it's not about what we think of the NAS but rather that when a school is accredited by them it becomes harder to argue that that school doesn't meet your child's needs at tribunal.

I really hope that with the proposed changes to statementing it does not become more difficult to get ABA into a child's statement.

I get your point Lottie. I am trying to help by pointing you in the direction of schools that use ABA that the NAS does endorse. I know that endorsement by these big 'brands' counts.

The unfortunate truth is that very few people understand what ABA is. (Also important to remember that what most people are discussing on MN is EIBI- Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention-which is only one application of behavioural principles. there being many more.)

Once it is seen in action people see it for what it is-highly organised, data driven, fast paced intervention, delivered by well trained people which is truly child centred because ABA is never delivered without a sizable amount of time thinking about, identifying and using whatever makes that child 'tick'.

These are the all important reinforcers and could be anything-access to an iPod, tickles, swings, pieces of ribbon to flick, cupes of cheese, whatever.

The point is the child is never expected to do anything 'because I say so'. He is put into a situation where his co-operation with a desirable aim (eg sitting at a table, responding to a one step instruction) results in him gaining access to his reinforce. In this way, we make a deal with him. We don't trick or force or push or dominate.
Crucially, the reinforce is then faded. This is essential and a central tenet of ABA. Noone wants a 30 year old to wait at a traffic light because he gets a Smartie. However, when we start work with children whose behaviours are so maladaptive and prevent them living a full life, we have to start somewhere and identifying and using a reinforce is our entry point and not the end result.

Nice summary Moondog.

I think people see reinforcers as somehow a false or artificial means of motivating a child, but they forget that the autism can mean children like my boy have no "social desire to please" or adherence to social "norms"

So, for instance, my daughter will do her homework just because it is the "done thing" or because she wants to get the reward of a good mark or pleasing her teacher. Or, as was the case with me at school, she is internally motivated to succeed.

Whereas my boy nowadays will often be working so he can get an extra trampoline bounce, or a play on the I pad.

And actually increasingly he does now work "just because" or for praise, so his tutors have done well over the years at "fading the reinforcers".

Exactly!
Our aim is that the child eventually is indeed intrinsically reinforced by the task itself and has no need for external reinforcers, or a lesser need. As an analogy, I love my job. I find it intrinsically reinforcing. I never have the Monday morning blues (truly!) I am sitting here thinking about all the things I am going to be doing tomorrow with a great teacher. I still want that paycheque though!

I was observing a child in their midteens today who is autistic. A very talented teacher and assistant could recognize his hitherto untapped potential and really decided to go all out on working on his literacy and language comprehension skills using ABA resources and strategies. He needed so much external reinforcement to begin with. The bag of sweets (his chosen reinforcer) was never out of sight. Fast forward about 8 motnths of very hard work. He is reading, writing, using a simple dictionary. His vast repertoire of avoidance behaviours has been reduced to nearly zero and he now does the things we want him to do 'just because'. The listening, writing, thinking, sitting quietly, moving from one place to another and so on are all carried out because he enjoys doing them-finds them intrinsically reinforcing.

In turn, he plays a much fuller part in life and in turn, others find him more reinforcing to engage with. Honestly, I could have wept with joy when I went in to the class to see him and watched him at work whilst the wonderful people who work with him beamed with delight.

Very little feels better than this.

Forgot to add that this boy wasn't reading until now.
Oh and I wasn't working today as I said.
Even I am not so reinforced by ABA as to work on a Sunday.

It's true that most people don't know what ABA is. I must say that although I'm generally cynical about LEA staff, there was a particular LEA Ed Psych who was assigned to my dd. At first he made snide comments about ABA and demanded answers from me in a confrontational way about why we were doing it. Eventually he ended up writing a report that said ABA was helping her make progress in the mainstream school she was in then (even though she is always going to be far from high functioning). He totally changed his tune in annual reviews. It made me think, well there are some people who are prepared to alter their view when they see how it works.

But also, it's always about best outcome for the individual child (and not a cure as some think). There are a lot of thing my daughter still will not do 'just because' even though she had many years of ABA. But she is much more compliant to sit and take instruction. She will always need a lot of 1:1 but it is possible to work with her where without ABA I don't think anyone would have been able to.

Unprofessional and unethical to dismiss something that 1.) you know nothing about and 2.) has a huge evidence base (greater than any other intervention).
The website NHS Evidence alone had 564 references to ABA as a favourable data driven evidence based practice in 2011. I know-I counted them all.

When I began to learn about ABA I had to face many uncomfortable truths about my own practice after years of working as an s/lt. So much of what I did, while well meaning, had no evidence, no data to support it, and was utterly ineffectual. It was very painful to realise that what I was offering just wasn't good enough.
But, I'm a grown woman and quickly realises that my own pride was less important than measurable outcomes for the people the taxpayer trusts and pays me to assist.

Lottie thats what I feel about DS too. He has had 4 years of ABA and still very much needs an approach with that intensity and which is adult led. But it provides a way of teaching -a window of opportunity - which wasn't there before ABA and would be lost if we switched to anything child-led or to mainstream without ABA. Our EP was / is supportive too. I think because he saw (what initially I didn't - I was still hoping DS would be one of the children who graduate off ABA in 2-3 years) that DS will always need alot of 1:1 but that with ABA he was exceeding all expectations. DS would have been one of the children who was written off as incapable of learning. We still get this with mainstream teachers we have to teach him at home to show them he can learn and then (eventually) they realise he can. All they see is a child who is distractible and ignoring them because they don't know how to get his attention or know how to check if he's taking it in. Its really interesting to have a child doing ABA in mainstream (although super frustrating) as we know far better than the teachers how to take a topic, break it down, write an appropriate target and teach it. Even months after having DS in their class we have yet to come across a teacher who can do it. Yet if they spent even a few hours at the start of the year to learn some ABA methods they would be able to write targets and programmes not just for him but for lots of other children who need something a bit different. It would transform their teaching. Sadly all class teachers are timetabled up to the max they just see anytime we ask them to spend learning about ABA as time away from the class which they don't have.

Can CT training be written into the statement?

It is in the Statement! They can never be released from class to do any! School even have a LSA funded this term (against our wishes) so DS has 2:1 support 6 hours a week (LSA + ABA). The idea supposed to be teacher would be 'freed up' to actually spend some time getting to know DS, planning, discussing, setting targets etc, even speaking to him occasionally. You guessed it 6 hours being used for other children in class (which I dont mind except it makes our provision look more expensive than it is when cost is already an issue). LSA can't control the class so no way teacher can do any 1:1 or small groups with DS as she can never come away from the other children and spend time with him. No its down to me to write the curriculum myself. I just can't believe I've wasted 2 years expecting / nagging the school to do it. I should just have taken it on months ago.

'Ffs' doesn't even come close.

Agnes, I understand how you feel! We have the home ABA/VB programme in our statement but still continue to arrange and fund it 100% ourselves.