We did ABA...for about three weeks! It was so hard on my son. He felt utterly frustrated, was crying alot, and it was so damn controlling that for my husband and I it just intuitively felt wrong for my son.
My son is a pretty calm kid. But ABA made him more angry, more frustrated. So it was not the choice for us.
I was so happy when I finally ended the sessions with the therapist. I started relying on Relationship Development Intervention (Dr. Gutstein) and also heavily on floortime and other ideas of Dr. Stanley Greenspan. He loved the games, the fun that these other therapies rely on. He embraced them, looked forward to them. So now I had a kid who was almost always happy and smiling instead of a sad, frustrated little kid. And I have found Dr. Gutstein's and Dr. Greenspan's work beautifully.
ABA may not be for every child. To this day, I could kick myself for even putting him through that hell for even three weeks. :(
Could it just be that the ABA is too controlling for him?
[QUOTE=sunflowers]We did ABA...for about three weeks! It was so hard on my son. He felt utterly frustrated, was crying alot, and it was so damn controlling that for my husband and I it just intuitively felt wrong for my son.
My son is a pretty calm kid. But ABA made him more angry, more frustrated. So it was not the choice for us.
I was so happy when I finally ended the sessions with the therapist. I started relying on Relationship Development Intervention (Dr. Gutstein) and also heavily on floortime and other ideas of Dr. Stanley Greenspan. He loved the games, the fun that these other therapies rely on. He embraced them, looked forward to them. So now I had a kid who was almost always happy and smiling instead of a sad, frustrated little kid. And I have found Dr. Gutstein's and Dr. Greenspan's work beautifully.
ABA may not be for every child. To this day, I could kick myself for even putting him through that hell for even three weeks. :(
Could it just be that the ABA is too controlling for him?[/QUOTE]
I'm not sure. It's something that I'll think about though. We're on a waiting list for RDI, but the ABA is being paid through our school district. It's really one particular therapist that does your "typical" ABA. He's also learned a lot from her though. He also seems like he's having fun but his frustration level has increased. As the other poster said, with ASD a lot of this is guess work. I'm going to give it more time and then see where we're at.
hi hun
its the same old thing
you carn,t have good without bad
because aba is so controlling the only way he can release is through anger all his other behaviours have been surpressed
he is just establishing his security has his behvaiours before were just that his way of feeling secure and safe
he is larning his new boundries
give him time he will settle down
ABA is not a favourate of mine so i dont want to go on with myself but has i said about good and bad ABA is the same
he has never done it before because he has not needed to he knew which oddaties calmed him or were used for blocking out
he will adjust but it will not be overnight
stay strong my friend
shell
Age 5 is a very interesting age for a lot of asd children. It's an age of big changes for some when they really blossom and their development takes a very positive turn. it comes with a bit of an emotional rollercoaster but if you are seeing improvements in other areas, social speach etc then you can expect some emotional kickback. It's a powerful developmental boost he's getting. Just be as supportive as you can, without giving in to his tantrums, he needs stability at this time. It's also true that ABA is putting a lot more demands than other therapies but it's not nec a bad thing, depends what you are looking for from your intervention. Good luck and I hope it gets easier for you both really soon.
Thanks for the support. It's not your typical "ABA," more of an ABA/RDI type therapy especially due to his age. But one therapist in particular gears more towards "drills," and I've noticed he's having behaviors with her. I do recall the lead therapist indicating at the beginning that it will get worse before it gets better.
It's hard to see my son doing things that used to be his strong point (no real behavior issues), but his speech has improved and his cognitive level has increased as well.
Thanks again. It's so nice to "talk" to people who totally understand.
perhaps both therapys are to much for him and he just overloads
only he really knows
and has with ASD i general its down to guess work
keep smiling hun
shell
k
Could be stress from starting ABA, or a cognitive leap to the fact he can influence/control others.
My 9 year old ASD son did that at about 5 or 6. He would meltdown if I went the "wrong way" somewhere, or went somewhere he didn't want to go. Explaining where we were going helped some, as did explaining that there is more than one way to get somewhere. I also had sucess with Boardmaker icons Velcroed to my car's sunvisor.
Many, many, many, many explanations later he is pretty much OK with driving most of the time.
I did have to pull over to let him calm down so we could get where we needed to go often in those years.
My son, who is 5, has always been a pretty even-tempered child. Well, my son just started ABA therapy, and I'm seeing major improvements in some areas, but I'm seeing a regression in behavior.
He's acting like he wants to control situations. Such as when I'm driving. He freaks out when he thinks I'm going the wrong way. Or he tells me he wants to go home, so I drive home because he's hysterical and then when we get home he tells me he wants to go back to the store.
We just had a major incident at the toy story today. He wanted all the toys (never has done this before) and then when I was negotiating with him he wanted to run away from me and go home. So I leave the cart to go home and then he freaks out in the parking lot that he wants to go back in the store.
I'm sure the people in the parking lot thought I was abducting my son he was screaming and fighting me so hard.
He's NEVER done this before. He was the kid I could count on to go with the flow.
Why do you think he's doing this now? I think I jinxed myself by telling his therapist that I have no problems with him in the community. Yikes!
Thanks! Christine
Could the behavior be a meltdown? In any case, it does seem likely that the behavior is stress-related. ABA is probably great therapy for him, but it is also a change in his life, and change is stress.
Try to minimize the various sources of stress (for example make sure he gets plenty of sleep, give him extra down-time, etc.) and he'll probably be able to go with the flow again.
Another thing that will probably help is understanding his sensory challenges and how they might be affecting him in the car and in the store. Here's a checklist that will help you identify over- and under-sensitivities.
http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/sensory-processin g-disorder-checklist.html
Good luck with everything.