Aside from TEACHH...

[salondon]

...do the LEAs don't want to try anything else? What if parents want sonrise/floor time/RDI etc? Given my recent experiences with schools I am wondering if it's the cost of ABA that puts them off or they just don't want to try something they don't know much about.

Because if it's the latter, they can always be 'forced' by the judge to get trained. If its the former, then I could discuss picking some costs myself.

I know the real answer lies with the schools but i have no clue when they are lying and when they are not

PS: this isn't a discussion about whether the interventions I have mentioned are proven to work or not. They are just an example

They won't do sonrise or floortime or RDI either. Floortime and RDI do have an evidence base but people prefer ABA because the evidence is individual and much less disputable and isn't a 'brand' which offers flexibility.

Cost sometimes comes into it, but not as an overall value, - the issue is more that money goes to outside providers instead of internal ones. Internal staff are on annual salaries so they still have to be paid and anything outside of that is 'extra' even if it were cheaper than the hourly cost of the internal providers they are already committed to pay iyswim.

It is also about control. They can control provision and costs if they are internal. The paymasters can control the behaviour of those they employ. They can also progress in their career better when they have staff to manage, rather than sending the money outside and having their employees removed from their line-management.

Funnily enough, they nearly always say they support and deliver PECS, with claims that PECS is either TEACHH or visual support.

The fact is that PECS is ABA, though to be fair by the time it has been watered down through internal training Chinese whispers it is more like actual Chinese.

Yes I have been told we do ABA because we do pecs. Pick and mix eh!

So how did teachh become internal? Someone external must have trained them, right?

TEACHH is a myth in the UK. It does have an out of date evidence base and was once forward thinking and innovative and gave children a chance where they hadn't before.

But now and here in the UK we usually get an adapted version which basically tries to get the child as dependent on inanimate objections to keep the child as occupied as possible in order to reduce the need for a paid adult. Lack of learning is subsequently blamed on the lack of capability of the child.

There is no TEACHH in most UK schools. The name and history is used to justify poor quality containment.

Thanks Star! That workstation in the corner of the class made me nauseous. I felt so bad for any child who would be sat there for most part of the lessons. How isolating!