Confused about ABA

[endoftether89]

has anyone done ABA or PBS for their child? I’m extremely confused about what ABA looks like in the uk - and I’ve come across several providers’ website using ABA and PBS interchangeably. Are they the same thing?

I’m aware of the conversations about how awful ABA is - but the examples given in these conversations don’t seem applicable to what’s described online about recent ABA in the U.K.

In our case I am looking at it because my 4.5 year old is aggressive, especially at school. We’ve tried everything else I can think of, and I’m very truly at my wit’s end. He’s not going to be able to access any sort of education setting if this continues.

I basically want someone to observe him and the behaviour, see what they think about the causes, and then suggest strategies for us to deal with it at home and for the school to implement too. Some of the websites I looked at were describing this as finding alternative behaviours for the impulse - this is exactly what I think would help him, replacing the hitting with something else, but so far we’ve not been able to get anything to stick. I’m desperate to figure this out.

If anyone has done ABA or PBS, especially if it was for hitting or aggression and it worked, I’d be grateful if you let me know who you used.

Hello,

I can’t help with any particular advice on aggression but we had an ABA program for our dc when they were primary school age and still use the techniques now.

Have you read any books on ABA as that might be useful? A book called ‘A Work In Progress” by Ron Leaf may be a good start.

What I’d definitely suggest is to try keeping an ‘ABC’ record - that is A Antecedent (what happened BEFORE the behaviour), B (what was the Behaviour) and C (what was the consequence of the behaviour) - did they get to leave the classroom?, did they get attention of a teacher etc?

Changing any behaviour is not quick (usually) and you/teaching staff really do have to be consistent.

It might be useful for you to speak to an ABA consultant for advice. If you look on the BCBA website you should be able to find ones near you and of course there will be various Facebook groups as well.

You might also want to consider some input from an OT as there could be some sensory issues at play.

Good Luck.