ABA experts - help with finance question please

[deadwitchproject]

I'm all over the place in terms of budgeting atm. I'm trying to get a realistic idea of how much money I can beg/borrow/steal have in order to start a programme.

Would £1K pm cover 15 hours a week? 10 hours? Or am I just deluded?

Thanks.

Hello,

Have you looked at the Caudwell charity to see if you qualify for any help? They give out grants of £2000 towards ABA.

Tutors usually cost between £10-15ph depending on experience and location. And you would probably be looking at around 3 hours of BCBA consultant input per month which will be at least £50ph so I think your budget would get you at least 10 hours per week.

Also have you considered doing any tutoring yourself? Not only does it save money but I found it really useful.

Good luck.

Thanks boobybum (great name!) that's a really helpful breakdown. I'm in London so I have a horrible feeling it will probably end up more expensive.

I know if I tutor it will be cheaper but I really don't think I have a) the energy b) the willpower to do the tough love bit that's required. I'm worn out just surviving day-to-day at present.

I think Caudwell require a formal diagnosis so will definitely contact them once the boys have this.

Apologies if teaching my gran to suck eggs

1. DLA if you don't have it already (use the Cerebra guide to help fill the forms accurately)
2. short breaks respite funding via your LA (hurry up as it's being cut)
3. nursery education grant- if your area does childminder NEG, you might find one wanting SEN training
4. (long shot) early years college trainee or wannabe psychology student wanting work experience placement- you'd probably have to team up with a playgroup for this
5. (even longer shot) EHCP personal budget. If trying this don't call it ABA. Call it SLT provision and concentrate on it being eg PECS/ Hanen /Denver model (you training the £12/h staff to deliver it using ABA techniques isn't their problem)

You could do 2 hours/ week yourself. It's worth it because it means you learn the skills- and you then automatically start using them to reduce your own exhaustion.

Imagine the hours wasted when everyday tasks (eg bath time) go badly.

I don't think you have to have a formal diagnosis for the Caldwell grant, I'm sure we had it before dx

Thanks I'll double check that Oso

Great advice Mair, I'll take it on board. How much did your ABA programme work out to per month? (if you don't mind saying - you can PM me)

Hello deadwitch,

I'll tell you how much we spent a month as I was in the same position as you in terms of working out budgets and wondering how much others were spending!

Our hours changed according to what we could afford but the last 3 months we were running a 27 hour programme, with a 3 hours workshop led by my consultant...it came to £1,864.

Tutor1:£16ph (she's a lead tutor)

Tutor2:£15(she was paid 13 for a long time but her other family decided to increase her pay so I had to too).
Consultant: £120ph.

However, my last consultant was charging £60ph so do "shop around", I've also learnt that you can negotiate on how often and how many hours you need.

You can also have a supervisor who can come and do the workshops to alternate with the consultant so it saves you money (they usually aren't more than £50ph).

We have used Caudwell and short break money (£900) towards it all.

I sympathise with your worry as it's such a financial strain(I was permanently glued to my calculator trying to work out what we could save on), but try and do the hours you can and use that as evidence to request money from LA.

We didn't do a 'programme' as such with ds1 (since I was in denial about the ASD and thought it was how everyone parented)

Alhough admittedly I'd done a psychology degree, worked with adults with LD, and had some basic teaching skills. I got a Montessori curriculum from the library and also a 'teach your dc with SN' book.

Bizarrely I was still thinking this was normal and what everyone did ) but used systematic reinforcement, shaping, backward chaining, extinction etc in daily life to teach ds1 what the other dc must've been picking up incidentally.

In my defence he was verbal and made eye contact, and the HV said he was fine

Mair that's not bizarre at all. Your instincts and education kicked in and you knew just what would work for your DS.

Sammy that's brilliant, thank you SO much. That's exactly what I need. I have twins so it's been suggested that 15 hours each per week is a good place to start - obvs I would follow on with ABA in my parenting.

So I guess I need to somehow budget for £2K + per month. I think. It's better to know how high the mountain is being setting off on the climb

By all means plan for the bigger budget. But don't let finances delay getting started. You might well find that 15h between them -rather than 15h each - works just as well (if not better). Do a shoutout for moondog. In her region, cheapo mass-produced ABA is the bogstandard intervention in the ordinary, local, underfunded LA special schools. And the results are still amazing.

before setting off on the climb

15 hours between them would be amazing if it works!

Coooee Moondog! Would love hear your expertise too. Please allow me to bribe you with and

Deadwitch, I've read an article in the Times on twin boys who had ASD and both did ABA. I don't know how to do links. I've pasted their Twitter link below. They also have a Facebook page.
mobile.twitter.com/twinswithautism

Amazing progress! See THIS is why I'm such a fan of ABA.
I really hope it works for my boys once I get my programme up and running

You may have come across these already. There's another Facebook page ABA4ALL which has lots of info on ABA. There's also a Yahoo group ABA-UK. Then there's vbcommunity.org.uk where you can advertise for tutors and tutors list their availability.

We are in the process of sorting our ABA programme. Lottery win will be nice (must buy tickets!)

I hope ABA works for all our DCs

I've joined the yahoo group but not posted yet. I'm having a lot of trouble reading the messages as the page keeps pinging up to the top in between each message. Before that my whole yahoo account spontaneously deactivated
Are you on it? PM me if you like. I'm not on facebook but I've heard of ABA4ALL so will definitely check it out (as long as I don't have to join facebook).

Here's the link for the Facebook page. Don't think you need to join Facebook

m.facebook.com/ABAforallchildren?refsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FABAforallchildren

I'm on the yahoo group but not a poster. There are lots of knowledgable and experienced posters on it.

I will PM you as I've been looking into ABA providers (once I work out how to PM from my phone)

That's brilliant, thank you!