I am a speech/language pathologist who has specialized in working with kids with ASD for over 10 years. My experience is that speech therapy for kids who are receiving ABA therapy is that (1) the SLP needs to be part of the team of people doing ABA, and (2) that the SLP works primarily in the generalization phase of ABA treatment. Once language skills are mastered with one staff person, the SLP can offer leadership and guidance in generalization. If, on the other hand, the speech therapist is working on his or her own, their efforts are less likely to be beneficial and can even be detrimental.
What curriculum are you using for your child? Is there a psychologist supervising your child's program?
In our case, we did not choose, as we had no DX.
T had speech and OT (for fine motor) only. She got dxd at 6. Most of her symptoms on the order of personality traits, unless she is under stress.
I think it depends on the SLP, what their experience and training are, what they see in your child, and what they believe in. Some are literally oriented to articulation training only.
I had my ABA therapist do a write-up for the speech therapist so that they were always working on similar skills. They obviously had different approaches, but if the subject matter was the same, my son picked up the skill and generalized it much quicker. I'd keep both therapies if you can afford it (money and TIME wise).
[QUOTE=tkny12]However, in the speech sessions Ryan has a really hard time focusing and often the sessions are pretty unproductive. Im now thinking that perhaps I should focus more of my attention on the ABA for language acquisition as this is really what seems to be working for him. [/QUOTE]
Choose ABA. That's what I did. Some periodical assesments from SLP may give you guidance .... just to know where you are. In our case speech therapy is still less effective and less instructive than ABA.
The first year we did both even though out VB/ABA program seemed more powerful at getting sounds out of her I liked having a someone else with a novel approach to working on her articulation and working with her..after a year we stopped ST for awhile when it was too boring for Sarah and then the we found a ST that has devoted her whole life in the autism field..wrote some books and was a professior in Ohio teaching speech path. in the field of autism so I we gave her a try. She knew all about autism and hyperlexia so I was thrilled..she was an older lady with many different ways to get Sarah to express herself..her speciality was writing social strips and cutting them out and letting Sarah make her own social stories..
She also introduced the "CARL" books by Alexandra Day about a big black dog~beautiful illustrations & actions going on with NO words..it really helped Sarah in expressing herself and noticing details of what others where doing~and the "WH" questions:)
We gave her up around the end of last summer because kindergarten was approaching and we all needed a break:) I would do both therapies if it is helping and if it isnt maybe try another person more experienced in autism..if that dont seem any better than keep with ABA:) Good luck:)
Hi all- My son Ryan is currently getting ABA and speech therapy as part of his home program (he gets speech at school as well but very limited). We started about 2 months ago and his language is really beginning to take off. However, as i analyze his language skills, it seems as though most of the language hes acquired has been through ABA.
His speech therapist is very good and has been working on the joint attention and language issues in more of a fun format- game playing, taking turns, etc. Ryan is very delayed in social interactions so I was orginally happy that she was taking this approach with him, because he really needs to develop these skills. However, in the speech sessions Ryan has a really hard time focusing and often the sessions are pretty unproductive. Im now thinking that perhaps I should focus more of my attention on the ABA for language acquisition as this is really what seems to be working for him. At the same time, Im hesitant to give up the speech therapy altogether since language (especially abstract) is still a significant deficit.
For those of you that were doing ABA and speech simultaneously, what did your child work on with the speech therapist that they did not via ABA, and what gains did they make that they could not from the discrete trial approach?
Well I will try to answer your questions the best I can......we are doing both and I feel that they overlap a lot too, often times I felt like they were working on the same things.
In ABA she will work on things like identifying a cat for example in a group of 3 picture cards, then after he masters picking it out consistently by pointing she tries to get him to say the word cat or to at least attempt it. She gives him rewards for trying, any sound she will praise.
In speech therapy, she plays with him more, by playing with Memory game cards and asking what is that? Is it a da-da-da-dooooogggg, etc., sounding it out, where as the ABA therapist does not, she just says dog. The speech therapist will help him put Little People up a ladder and down a slide and get him to copy her saying "Up up, up, up, da-da-da-dowwwwwwn, etc. She involves him more in play and he LOVES it- it really keeps his attention and he parrots her a lot, so I feel that he is learning by copying her sounds.
I hope that helps some; although they both work on speech, I feel the approaches are different and he learns in different ways from them both. If you can afford it, or if your insurance covers it, I would continue to do both. I think when it comes to early intervention, you can't do too much when it comes to speech.
We had a speech therapist for a year that I thought was so-so. After starting with a new one, I found that she was better at meeting his needs. I asked our ABA director who she has worked with in the past and liked and went with a new one. Our speech therapist uses some ABA techniques and also writes a list of things for our therapists to paractice with him during their sessions (oral motor exercises, kaufman cards, other language cards) since they see him daily.
It could also be that she is focusing on the social stuff and that is quite difficult for him right now, thus making it difficult to focus. It's hard to know, but if you don't feel it's a good match for your son, maybe you should consider someone else. I think a speech therapist is an important part of his team and I wouldn't stop it. Yes, my son also gets a lot of his language from the ABA sessions, but they are not qualified to really know the articulation issues and what direction to go. In ABA, they work toward functional language (approximations if needed), whereas the ST works more on articulation and understanding of the concepts and langague learned.
On another note, don't neglect the social deficits. I think it's important to work on. A good ABA program will have some social components. There has been a lof of discussion on this board lately about social issues and ways to address that in addition to or within your ABA program. Hope my experiences have helped.
I would continue to do both.