ABA therapy

[Mumoftwinsandanother]

Hi all, I'm very new to this. My just turned 3 year old is in the process of getting an ASD diagnosis. He is verbal but only communicates his own needs, will not reply to questions. I suspect I will not see the community paediatrician until next year and I do not know how long the wait will be from there until DX.

I am in the fortunate position of having money to put into this to get him the best help. The thing is, i need to know how to spend it wisely. I am currently doing private SLT. I will get a couple of NHS SALT sessions over the next few months as well. He gets 15 free hours care at pre-school but no one to one or any special help as no diagnosis yet and he is not at all disruptive. He doesn't seem to be benefiting from pre-school at all as goes completely non-verbal there. I could go for a private diagnosis but not sure whether hurrying on the diagnosis is going to help us at all (we and the pre school are pretty sure).

I keep hearing that early intervention is important. What do people generally think about ABA therapy? I was thinking about the intensive early intervention programmes where two tutors do 35 hours a week with DS. It makes sense when I read it (although the hours sounds long). I also spoke to ABA-easy steps in Acton today. They have just opened a clinic for ABA therapy, you atten the centre for either 15 hours Or 35 hours per week(school hours) for 1 to 1 therapy (with a supervisor). Suspect this will be equivalent to the national debt of a small country but would happily spend anything to improve outcomes. If I do go ahead and do it, how do I know which provider to choose. Thanks in advance

'but would happily spend anything to improve outcomes.'

If you do go ahead then don't choose a provider that will happily take anything to improve outcomes.

Because ABA isn't standard in the UK, there is an awful lot of exploitation of parents by people either not qualified properly or who are, but charge a fortune because they can but who are also charging so many others a small fortune that they aren't ever available to answer your detailed questions or willing to without a fee.

As far as outcomes go, in general, a properly designed programme by a Consultant who has enough availability to oversee the detail, and who has experience and in particular covered the ethical aspects of ABA required in order to qualify for a BCBA, is far beyond what most other provisions can deliver.

This is because there is the constant aim for the fastest and most efficient way that your child can learn, which means the child has to be motivated and happy for the overwhelming majority of the time.

You don't need to do 35 hours. Like anything the more hours you give to practising something, the better you'll get at it. However, there are diminishing returns if you are fatigued. 10 hours a week will still be effective, but it will take you 3.5 weeks to achieve what you could have in a week, possibly.

hth

It does thank you for your message. I sort of expected that the provision would vary widely but difficult to know how to sort the wheat from the chaff. Has anyone had any luck with a particular provider or know if any particular consultants are rated above others. Thanks

I would choose someone local (or who works with families local to you), who is well networked with other consultants (so they have access themselves to alternative possibilities if there is a glitch in your child's programme that they weren't expecting), who asks for no fees upfront, nor a contract that ties you in for a certain period of time.

Your freedom to move on from them ensures a level of accountability and the fact that they work locally means they may already know of tutors with availability.

I would expect a consultant to have some knowledge of recent research and the more modern terms for some aspects of ABA such as PRT and ESDM, as this shows that they aren't stale and getting work based on an out of date reputation.

Aba has been great for us but for us it didn't stop at early intervention. He has been on ABA programme since 3 and is now 8. He's made lots of progress and his behaviour is much calmer now. I see him needing an ABA approach for the long term. He is supported by ABA staff in mainstream primary and it's a very different programme than we started with - it's grown and adapted as he has. But when you are thinking about funding be aware it may be a long term need. We had limited funds and did a small 10-15 hour programme ourselves and then after 6 months hired one tutor for 6 hours a week. We had weekly supervision (8 hours month) and quarterly consultation. We put money into building a case for tribunal to get the council to fund it (private ed psych report, ABA report + them attend as witnesses). We won 35 hours ABA 48 weeks and have had that for 5+ years. we also used our limited budget to train nursery staff to use ABA approaches (not all nurseries are happy to do this). He just went 3x2 hours a week because it was of limited use. Once we won proper ABA support the nursery / school time became much more productive. he will need ABA support or ABA school at secondary and probably supported living or employment. It's been a difficult road getting schools / council etc to support it. he has many skills he wouldn't have had without ABA and our lives are much easier and less stressful as he can join in more ordinary activities. but it is a big commitment in many ways, not just financial and maybe not for the short term.

ABA has been really good for us. I was put off by some providers who told me it had to be 40 hrs per week, and I regret having listened as it meant we started later (thankfully not that much later). We didn't have that much fund to chose to hire consultant and a tutor only few hrs per week to start and I did a lot of sessions myself, in addition to taking every teaching opportunities that presented themselves. Take time to choose your consultant; I am glad we had a consultant that was VB specialist (verbal behaviour). One thing, because I cared more about progress than taking data in the first year, and that I was doing a lot myself, I wasn't so strict with data recording, which I regretted bitterly during a tribunal. So I would ensure this is done well, as it will be your absolute proof that ABA is working should you ever need to prove it (in addition to being important to move the program forward).