ABA where do I begin?

[adrianna22]

Hi, I want to tray out ABA for DS 4. I cannot afford the sessions anyway.. Bit we're wondering if I can do it myself.

I also wanted to know, excuse my ignorance, but is ABA just all about a child sitting on a chair and doing a lot of repetitive tasks.

I would like to go on a workshop or if anyone has a video link, to see what ABA is actually like.

Thanks

Contact PEACH and go to one of their training days for parents. If you are anywhere near London contact Ambitious About Autism and go to one of their two-day courses at Treehouse School. Look at the Northern Irish PEAT website ( www.peatni.org/aba/ ) and consider joining their Simple Steps programme (excellent support for parents who are doing this approach themselves).

ABA is an underlying science, used in many fields, including autism education. it is not "about" anything in particular.

usually an ABA program is designed by an ABA consultant reviewed every few weeks and you have tutors to deliver the therapy.

I was like you in the beginning, I chose to pay for a consultant who trained me and my husband and I found that very valuable, it helped me to be a better parent, pointed out what I was doing wrong and helped my son on every level. Eventually we went on to find a tutor as well.
Now, for your question about sitting at the table all of the time, it is not like that but I think that will depend on the consultant recommendations. From my own experience, our consultant is specialised in VB (verbal behaviour) and the natural environment is very important and focus a lot on improving the child's communication through his natural motivations (a usually good one to start with is food). It sounds complicated but I found this easy to integrate into our life and it is now second nature to me. I hesitated before giving it a go for financial reason but that was and still is the best money I have ever spent.
The is a university in the US that have online videos of sessions (table session, not NET) which I found usefull. it is the PATAN autism initiative. Google videos.
All the best.

Look at Caldwell charity for initial funding for ABA. We got trained by a supervisor and did it ourselves. Whether it's table or natural depends on level child is at. DS started with very formal at table programme but it was quickly made more natural. He needed it to be very clear and structured at the beginning. Even now when we try and loosen structure he struggles. A good ABA supervisor or consultant will only put in as much structure as is needed.