ABA

[Skye90]

ABA Therapy

Has anyone tried it and what were the outcomes?

Currently awaiting confirmed ASD diagnosis for 2.9 year old DD who is also non verbal

Have tried 2 speech therapists who weren’t helpful and NHS speech therapist hardly sees her

my dads colleague has recommended an ABA therapist

reading horror stories about it not sure if it’s the right thing

Best thing I ever did for dd and really the only therapy that had demonstrable positive outcome.

I'm doing ABA with my DS (at home, sometimes with a tutor who comes into our home) and it's been great. He was non-verbal at 2.5 and is now super chatty at 3.5. Still a lot of echolalia, but his original language is growing. He's also taking an interest in a wider range of play activities and starting to catch up on some of his milestones. Still has a way to go, but the pace at which he's catching up is getting faster - it's a very exciting time right now!

ABA doesn't have to be bad and it's changed massively over the decades - at its core it's simply embedding learning in situations that are highly motivating for the child. Yesterday I was teaching my DS how to draw the tail and ears on Dear Zoo animals (he has an ABA learning target for mark making/fine motor). He LOVED it and is STILL talking about it! The benefit of ABA for us has been getting a tailored programme of learning targets to help him catch up in areas where he needs support, with suggested activities for doing this. It either gets blended into daily activities, or takes an hour or so a day of focused play.

ABA horror stories come from experiences where the child is drilled for hours a day and/or forced to do things that distress them (forced eye contact, forcing them to stop stimming, punishing them for not complying, not respecting their autonomy). You won't find it difficult to find an ABA consultant who has a much more enlightened, neurodiversity affirming approach to supporting ASD kids' learning, and you yourself can be trained to be the tutor so you can be in control of the environment your child learns in.

Had we not done ABA, the grand total of statutory/nursery support he has received has been a big fat zero, so we would have wasted the most important years of his life in terms of development sitting on waiting lists for very intermittent, mediocre help. I don't regret a minute of it.

@Scratchybaby Thank you for this - I’m so glad your little one is now talking and made progress. I would give my right hand for my DD to say mummy or daddy even yes or no. I just want to hear her voice…

We have an appointment next Monday, Im praying it works as I feel it’s our last hope.

@Skye90 I know exactly what you mean! I'm one parent who doesn't mind their DC constantly jabbering morning til night. I waited so long, I love hearing his beautiful little voice more than anything, even when it's really loud 😍

Hang in there - just because it hasn't happened yet it doesn't mean it never will! My DS had a few words by 2.9 but not many, and certainly not mummy and daddy. The floodgates really opened at around his 3rd birthday.

@Scratchybaby It seems to be around the age of 3 they start talking. Can I ask Does your DS have confirmed ASD?

He doesn't yet, but it's on the cards. But this targeted approach to learning is useful for children with delays due to a range of reasons (because it focuses on learning rather than extinguishing autistic behaviours, which old ABA I'm sure did), so I'm happy stick with this approach for now.

Just caught up with this, so apologies it's an old(er) topic.

Applied Behavioural Analysis is MASSIVELY misunderstood. If you look at some activists online, they say its torture, abuse, demanding autistic people to fit into neurotypical models of behaviour etc. This is simply NOT the case. ABA therapists don't abuse children, they work WITH them to figure out why behaviours are happening and help move them to a place where they can get what they need without less helpful behaviours.

For example, aggression, self-injury etc are all not adaptive in the longer-term. Yet some will claim that these are simple expressions of what a child needs. Activists will routinely say that society should adapt to meet autistic people's needs and whilst I agree to a degree, we know that this is unlikely. I never understood why people would be against autistic people learning skills so that they can fit into a world that is not built for them. The alternative is constantly being misunderstood, demonised and disconnected from society.

ABA gently moves people to change their behaviour. It doesn't torture people, embarrass, force people to do things they don't want to do. It also DOES focus on how you can upskill people to be more effective - it's a myth that you take away a communication behaviour without replacing it.

The fact is we ALL use ABA in our everyday lives with each other. If you punch someone in the face, you may go to prison. If you say something rude or obnoxious to someone, they will likely not want to be around you anymore. You may get into a fight with someone to (unintentionally) get them to back-off so you don't get criticised or act passive and vulnerable, so people give you a break. If you have ever given someone a gift for doing something for you, you are using ABA principles. Children do this to us. If they cry in the supermarket and they get a treat to keep them quiet, they will do it again next time. If we talk for our child, they learn that keeping quiet gets their needs met by others. EVERYTHING we do that engages another person uses ABA techniques. Consequences that make a behaviour more likely to happen or make people less likely to do things that aren't helpful.

In short, in the UK at least practitioners are trained to work WITH a person, not do ABA TO THEM.

@Burgoo i couldn't agree more with you're post. It gets demonised online (and I can't argue with personal experiences from decades ago) but I don't recognise anything that is thrown at ABA in the work I and his tutor are doing with my DS. It's very slightly tilting where the motivators are to encourage behaviours that will help them grow and develop and learn how to communicate to get their needs met. We've had a great experience with it so far.