aba/vb education at home and my sons journey from mainstream to special needs school

[jenny-ann]

Hi all... Im new to this forum and have read a few bits and pieces, taken a look at the section on alternative interventions and thought I would share my experience over the last 4 years .

Very briefly of course...

My son was diagnosed with kanners classic autism at 3yrs old, he was non verbal, did not respond to his name at all, was incontinent, up half the night, had loads of wierd behaviours like sweeping things off of surfaces, throwing cups, plates etc on the cermaic floor/out of the window, had no play at all. would line cars/trains up, gaze at the wheels on the toys.

At assessement the had the language of an 8 month old baby.

 

he is now 8. Happy birthday today !!!!

 

He is very verbal, continent, has real playskills, his imagination is great when playing with lego/playmobil. he is independant in familiar situation, hes making himslef a sandwich as we speak.

He has real delays with social understanding though, he still does not understand subjectivity, empathy or consideration of others. He does understand that other people have emotions and the basics of why they feel sad/happy/angry.. but complex emtional responses in others and himself are still delayed. But Im sure he will get there eventually.

 

After diagnosis i heard of ABA. Having been told by the peadiatrician that he would probabaly never talk, understand who I was etc I was as Im sure you can relate to, devastated. I also thought that I couldnt accept this was his fate.

 

So I entered a steep learnign curve, found people who were willing to train as tutors, found two marvelous people who were educated in this field and we got going. He had up to 35 hours a week of home education, I had to provide all the educational resources. I went to tribunal in 2008 and kinda won....they gave me a transitional plan in his statement, the school were very supportive and we carried on with ABA trained LSA's in his mainstream school.

All was well til legistical things went to pot, like money ran out, er we couldnt find tutors who would work part time, the enivorment at school altered in year 2 and he just couldnt cope. he now at a special needs school and woking on socailand conversational skills. aceademically hes kinda held back by this developmental need , but this I feel is a proirity for him at the moment, he can catch up if he needs to later on.

 

I would highly recommend this approach ...its not, if you are well informed about his type of education, punishing, its fun and the program taught my son to leanr language, cognitive skills like thinking , and reasoning and addressed all his developmental delays.

i would do it again, even though because of the rarity of tutors etc this type of home ed is very hard work for the family.

[Kathryn]

Welcome to the forum and belated happy birthday to your son.

 

Thanks for sharing your story with us. Good to hear that your son is now making progress and happy after what must have been a tough battle.

 

K x

[jenny-ann]

Welcome to the forum and belated happy birthday to your son.

 

Thanks for sharing your story with us. Good to hear that your son is now making progress and happy after what must have been a tough battle.

 

K x

 

 

 

Hi Kathryn,

Youre very welcome, it was a tough battle for sure, but I was very lucky to be able to afford to do it, as it is a very expensive option. in my view far too expensive, thankfully there are websites and books out there which parents can use to DIY. Though if you can afford the 'experts' it obviously a better way.

I now volunteer for a family helping with their little lad and hes doing well. Its not for everyone.

[baddad]

Hi Jenny Ann -

 

I'm really glad that your son has achieved so much, but the problem I have with claims about ABA is that many children starting at the same point as your son go on to achieve the same things without ABA (including my own son) and equally there are many who are subjected to ABA who 'fail to respond to treatment' - the very negative implication often proposed then that either the parents are 'doing it wrong' or the child deliberately opposing/manipulating the intervention. These aspects of ABA are, IMO, very damaging, for child and parents alike. There are other issues surrounding it like 'normalisation' and it's association with groups like DAN who effectively preach eugenics/eradication rather than acceptance of neurological difference and biodiversity. Obviously, you will have invested a huge amount of time and money on this programme, so from a psychological perspective it's entirely natural that you would view any advances made as direct results of that investment, but the reality is for every child with autism in a mainstream school who has accessed ABA there will be others who haven't. Yonks ago I commented on this whole problem of projection in a post about 'chip therapy':

 

http://www.asd-forum.org.uk/forum/index.php?/topic/26383-met-my-first-dan-style-parent/page__view__findpost__p__305067

 

I do appreciate you are new to the forum, and hope you won't feel personally challenged by the points I am making. I am also really happy to hear that your son is making such good progress. In terms of 'balance' though, there are definitely two sides to the ABA coin, and I do think it's equally important to highlight the flipside.

 

L&P

 

BD

[mortisha69]

Hi Jenny Ann -

 

I'm really glad that your son has achieved so much, but the problem I have with claims about ABA is that many children starting at the same point as your son go on to achieve the same things without ABA (including my own son) and equally there are many who are subjected to ABA who 'fail to respond to treatment' - the very negative implication often proposed then that either the parents are 'doing it wrong' or the child deliberately opposing/manipulating the intervention. These aspects of ABA are, IMO, very damaging, for child and parents alike. There are other issues surrounding it like 'normalisation' and it's association with groups like DAN who effectively preach eugenics/eradication rather than acceptance of neurological difference and biodiversity. Obviously, you will have invested a huge amount of time and money on this programme, so from a psychological perspective it's entirely natural that you would view any advances made as direct results of that investment, but the reality is for every child with autism in a mainstream school who has accessed ABA there will be others who haven't. Yonks ago I commented on this whole problem of projection in a post about 'chip therapy':

 

http://www.asd-forum...post__p__305067

 

I do appreciate you are new to the forum, and hope you won't feel personally challenged by the points I am making. I am also really happy to hear that your son is making such good progress. In terms of 'balance' though, there are definitely two sides to the ABA coin, and I do think it's equally important to highlight the flipside.

 

L&P

 

BD

 

I completely and totally agree... I also would like to point out, (from experience, I am a mum of a young boy on the spectrum and I currently work in a local mainstream infant school specifically as a one to one support with children on the Spectrum)... just as every child is different, so is every child on the spectrum and "their autism" presents itself differently... In my experience there is no "One" therapy that "works" and in fact it is a mix of therapies and ideas that "works" in reality. I use everything from elements of ABA (with enforcers only, never "punishments"), TEEACH, PECS, Makaton, visual aids- prompts and a variety of other "techniques and ideas" including just common sense and experience...

my son and the many children I have worked with over the years are a testament to that...

[Sally44]

It is hard to prove that anything works unless you are going to do twin studies, and even then there are differences in the family dynamic and also the environment.

 

However, children with an ASD do not learn skills automatically [by skills I mean those are fall under the umbrella of an ASD]. Otherwise they would pick up skills from their family, including siblings, and would learn social interaction by being on the school playground.

 

Therefore I think that any 1:1 intervention or small group work that is targetting a specific skill or behaviour is more likely to be the cause of any 'improvement' regardless of what approach is being used.

 

And I understand the feelings around any intervention that teaches 'normalisation', but that is exactly what being in society demands across the whole spectrum of behaviours. And I would be happy for my child to be taught a way to do things that helped him blend in rather than stand out. With the exception that he was happy doing it that way and it wasn't causing him anxiety.

 

And more importantly, for those self aware children that is exactly what they want - to appear like everyone else.

[baddad]

 

 

However, children with an ASD do not learn skills automatically [by skills I mean those are fall under the umbrella of an ASD]. Otherwise they would pick up skills from their family, including siblings, and would learn social interaction by being on the school playground.

 

Therefore I think that any 1:1 intervention or small group work that is targetting a specific skill or behaviour is more likely to be the cause of any 'improvement' regardless of what approach is being used.

 

And I understand the feelings around any intervention that teaches 'normalisation', but that is exactly what being in society demands across the whole spectrum of behaviours. And I would be happy for my child to be taught a way to do things that helped him blend in rather than stand out. With the exception that he was happy doing it that way and it wasn't causing him anxiety.

 

And more importantly, for those self aware children that is exactly what they want - to appear like everyone else.

 

They do: they learn very quickly, for example, that bad behaviour is often rewarded, or that repeatedly getting out of bed eventually leads to being allowed to stay up. Or that refusing to eat can lead to biscuit and yoggit diets etc etc. By the time they reach ten or eleven they can have learnt very well, in the right environment, that autism can be a very good excuse for all sorts of things. These are skills they pick up directly from their families, often leading the field for their siblings, who learn to emulate them...

 

Obviously, in terms of social skills, it is a longer, harder and slower road for many autistic people, and of course extra 1 - 1 to help them develop those skills and learn new skills is a positive thing, but ABA goes way beyond 'extra help' and has all sorts of potentially damaging implications (i.e. value judgements made about those who 'don't respond' and/or their families) that also go way beyond 'extra help'. Sadly, however (IMO), a great deal of 'extra help' is actually channelled into the wrong areas - into the kind of denial of or normalisation of negative behaviours based on limiting assumptions and sweeping generalisations about the 'nature' of autism.

 

L&P

 

BD

[Pancakemaker]

Welcome and happy birthday to your lovely boy,sounds like he's come a long way. <'>