Does anyone get intensive ABA therapy paid for- either at home or at nursery? I am the American interloper here, poss moving to UK w/2.5yo ds who is speech-delayed and poss on the spectrum.

[Mamax4]

If I may compare, in the US, a young dc would be referred to "Early Intervention" and if determined "delayed", even without a formal dx, he might get free, several hrs a day therapy, which may be ST, OT, ABA, as appropriate. I see a lot of talk here about SALTs, but not much about ABA. Is it not practiced in the UK? For a nursery-aged child, where is ABA offered (if it is offered)? Thanks, as usual, ladies!

No. Generally ABA frightens many in our education system and if you ask for it social services do a child protection visit to warn you that they have concerns and threaten you into changing your mind.

Tribunal judges are trained by Birmingham Uni who have the government contract of training LA employees in a different approach so it is difficult to win it even like that.

??@ starlight

SS actually do a child protection visit? Exactly how heavy handed is this ABA? or better still WHY are they the SS so heavy handed about it. What reasons do they give that this is such a bad thing?

Have read whole thread but this has got my attention. And I dont know anything about ABA but looking at all future possibilities for DS

Coffee, SS do not routinely visit because you mention ABA. I know this happened to Starlight, but it is not a general policy. We have been doing ABA for 4 years now with dd1, and have never seen a hint of SS, or any other hcp come to think of it.

ABA is a method of teaching, based on behavioural management. It breaks each task down into tiny steps, and is completely tailored to each child curriculum wise.

Dd1 will, in September, start at her second ABA school - it is possible to get LAs to pay for it, although a long hard fight and you need to be organised. We never tried to get our home programme funded, and did put dd1 into preferred LA provision to prove she would fail there (was a very difficult thing to do)

Vinnie: a good SN school may well use some ABA principles. It is not just using rewards as most parents would use them though. It is about totally changing the way you view reward and reinforcement, and using these systematically in a structured way - often the tasks set are far smaller than you could think possible (eg when we started toilet training dd1, her first target was to touch the door of the toilet - not go in, not open it, just go and touch it, get reinforced, and build up her confidence. Then we moved onto turning the handle, then opening the door but not going in, then going in and coming out again and so on). The bit that was overlooked by dd1s then Teacch based school was that, even though she was not exhibiting any anxiety when they took her into the toilet (she was never successfully trained at that school, BTW) she was so overwhelmed, and worried she did not know what to do that she could not take in new instructions. We started the whole task at a level we knew she could master (we use errorless learning with dd1, to combat self esteem issues) and it wad never a problem at home - the whole thing was enjoyable (!) right from the start.

It is north doing some proper reading o. ABA, rather than just anecdotes like mine or explanations from parents who use it - it is a good system, which centres fully on the Chris (but not in a EYFS child-led play way), and which uses reinforcement and motivation to promote the learning. It has done wonders for dd1

No coff, sorry. I'm bitter about my experience. But it isn't unheard of to have your parenting challenged if you disagree with professionals and if you continue to be as argumentative as I was it can get out of hand. I was right but didn't always do things the best way, as I believed truth would prevail etc which it does not. I should have kept my mouth shut.

Thanks silverfrog for the explanation and no worries Starlight I know just how these people can be and how much they can twist things to their advantage when tackled

I just thought OMG do the ABA tutors lock the DCs in cupboards for not complying with a request or something? or has this country really got into SS big brother bully style tactics to insist they know better than you about your DCs (I could be closer to the mark from past experiences there)

I am probably going to look into all possibilities with an open mind. I would imagine that not everything will help everyone as each child is unique in their own issues. I do agree that there are certain stims/habits that need damping down (ie poo issues or violent issues) but when it comes to stimming as in touching walls or waving or whistleing whatever if I tried to lose this in my son I think he would have no sense of release whatsoever and I wouldnt get him outside unless they (ABA) have other suggestions that the child could channel into instead.

I haven't read all the replies. I am an ABA provider in the UK who has worked in the USA.

You are much, much better off in the USA. Unless you can self fund a program I would advise you not to move out of the USA for several years. A 2.5 year old can make so much progress in an intensive ABA program and those are easier to fund in the USA.