Is ABA for everyone?? | Autism PDD

I think it does sound as if your son would benefit more from Floortime or RDI, but you may want to look at some of the higher level ABA programs for social skills.  I also agree that if your son is at all interested in other children, you should definitely have him spend time with typical peers, or maybe even children that are slightly older who can model appropriate social skills.

ABA is a wonderful program but I felt it was not right for Paul as a main intervention.  I always have included big behavioral component into my work with Paul.  So do his therapists and teachers.  I believe ABA gets more press than other therapies because it is inherently objective and possible to measure; therfore there is a lot of published research.  Therapies like "floortime" are subjective by nature and their success or failure is anecdotal for the most part.  It is very difficult to measure so there isn't much publishable, empirical research on them. 

But, just because a therapy is difficult to measure doesn't mean it is less effective.  And just because there is a lot of research that shows a therapy is effective doesn't mean it's right for your child.

That's part of what makes this all so hard--trying to sift through it all! 

pat

 

It really seems like you can't read about autism without seeing ABA right along with it.  Maybe I don't understand exactly what it is but it doesn't seem "right" for my child.  Am I wrong???  My child is very high functioning... has no gross or fine motor deficits, no major sensory issues, no behavioral problems, some speech issues (receptive speech is advanced, expressive is average, but articulation is delayed... he's pretty difficult to understand), he does very little stimming and perseveration (and is very easily redirected from it when he does do it).... his major problem is social.  I guess I don't understand how ABA helps with social skills???   Our social worker suggested Floortime for him... but everything I read is about ABA.  I don't want to miss our window of opportunity... ds is 2.5... or waste time if ABA is really IT!!  Any thoughts or suggestions???

No I don't think ABA is for everyone.  Sounds like floortime would be an excellent program for him. You may also want to look into RDI- the focus is really on relationship building and social skills. Also does he go to preschool? That may help also.

I tried Floortime with DS when he was 15-18 months without much success. But I was doing it on my own without much guidance- and I felt we weren't getting anywhere- so we added ABA. ABA works on social skill by having programs in turn taking, learning appropiate play skills, practicing eye contact and devleoping language.

DS needed more structure and tasks to be broken down into simple parts. When we started DS was very delayed in receptive and expressive language. However he -like your child does not have major motor delays, sensory issues, behavioral problems. He does have issues with perseveration and stimming. 

ABA has done great things for his language skills-but we have a multidisc approach-ABA, ST, OT, floortime, RDI, vision therapy, Kindermusik- you name it- I'll try it!

I think when you try a therapy it's important to re-evaluate in a few months and see if it's doing anything for your child. Otherwise you will just keep adding things and overwhelm yourself- financially, physically and emotionally.

Things that we tried that didn't seem to help - weighted vest, GFCF diet, Little Gym. We've cut down OT from 2xweek to 1xweek.

Don't second guess yourself- you know your child best and what works for one may not work for another.

I think that everyone who reads posts here know I am pro ABA. Saying that, ABA is a philosophy and can be incorporated into any other therapy. It is about antecendent-behaviour-consequence. There is a manual for teaching social skills using aba called "Making a Difference" which is the next level on from Catherine Maurice's first book. if you could borrow a copy from the library you could look at the drills etc as see if it is what you want.

We did floorplay, pretend play etc using ABA principles. For example we did an activity where we put animals  in a bag. First my dd had to tell the therapist to shut her eyes, then she had to choose one and hide it under a box, then she had to pretend to be the animal and the therapist had to guess what she was. If she forgot to say "Shut your eyes" the therapist would of course see and remind her of what to do. If she forgot to say "open your eyes" the therapist would wait unitil my dd would realise (of course the therapist was saying things like "I can't see" etc.). Then the therapist would take a turn. As you can see there were many things in that activity that helped with attention, understanding anothers perspective, imagination etc.

I think the difficulty with ABA is that you can get therapists who get stuck on doing boring drills and forget it can be used for anything. If you have a good therapist then Floortime, TEAACH, etc will be incorporated as needed.

We also arranged playdates with one child where I would intervene and prompt using ABA principles. I would ensure I had taught games, answers to simple questions like "what's your favourite toy" etc.

I think that a good therapist can make a difference using all sorts of therapy. I also think that the reason the research shows ABA is better is because the kids have a measurable increase in IQ points, reduction of bad behaviours and increase in language functioning.

My psych however is not pro ABA or any particular therapy, he says that if you interact and intervene and make the child participate rather than letting them do their own thing that many children will improve. The important thing is to engage your child. If we are led by our childs' desire for interaction then there wouldn't be much happening.

Whatever you choose you have to be comfortable with it. I know what I chose worked for me and many of my friends and we are glad we did. However I am aware of the difficulties in "doing ABA". There are no guarantees. However I don't believe in reinventing the wheel and I was happy with my outcomes. My dd now is doing extremely well and my ds still has issues but at least he can talk etc and I know that ABA is why that happened.

Good luck with whatever you decide.
Chelsea's therapy started full on when she was 2.2 . We did 15 hours a week of therapy plus playdates etc. We stopped formal therapy when she was 4.5 . A big component of her therapy after she had gained language and thinking skills from the in home program was to send her therapist to school with her to intervene in the classroom and playground.

I also wrote a program that the aide supplied by the school had to implement that targeted her areas of need. I just used a list of skills that the therapist had given me for children her age. I then targeted the ones that could be done at school that I knew would need direct intervention and then I wrote steps for the aide to take in those situations.

The program had spaces to mark achieved, prompted, not achieved for every session at school (four times a week). The aide had had no formal training but she said that it made her job so much easier because she didn't have to work out what to do.  For example Chelsea refused to interact at all with the other children so initially we targeted her going in the home corner. She knew how to play with the equipment there because we had taught that at home so all the aide had to do was direct her to go and then reward her afterward. We would say things like "Here's Amy, why don't you feed the baby together?". We would just prompt her to go back until she had achieved 10 mins in the home corner per session. We used verbal feedback like"I liked how you played with the dolls with Amy" etc.

I can email a copy of the program if anyone is interested (it is in Word) or if someone can tell me how to copy and paste in here I can do that.

The books I used were "Behavioural Intervention with the Young Child with Autism" and "Making a Difference". I also read some books on ABA that I got from the library on using ABA in daily living etc but I can't remember the title sorry. I hope that answers all your questions.
cherylann i would be interested in a copy of the program if you can send it to me. i have treid the library for the 2 books you mentioned they dont have but i am going to try and find them somewhere. i live in illinois south roxana near st louis is there anyoine interested in starting a playgroup. sherry You're absolutely right Cheryl.  Anybody can claim they are an ABA consultant- they don't need any specific  degree or experience and that's why in has such a bad reputation.  I suggest anyone looking into doing an ABA program to research the people first!

I think the basic principles in all of these therapies are the same. You take whatever is motiving to your your child and use that as leverage to increase the behavior and skill you wish to teach the child.

Cherly- what age did you start and stop Chelsea's ABA program. Just curious. We  are planning on doing ABA for about  thanks for the information i am going to check into reading the books first and am thinking about trying to work with dakota using aba therapy. has anyone tried teaching this therapy themselves without using therapists our finances are too tight for me to even consider hiring someone to do this please let me know. thanks sherry mom of christa 22, elijah 16 adn dakota 3 mild cp and asd

I think I need to do more research on ABA.... does anyone have any good books or sites about it??  Esp any info on using it with HF kids??

The main reason I was turned off by it was from a personal experience... a lady from our church has a 4 year old boy with autism who has a 40 hour a week ABA program in place.  She came over to "teach" me some begining elements of it before we finished our eval.  Well all she did was sit him in a chair and tell him to imitate her and gave him a pretzal for doing so.   He's always imitated quite well so it was no challenge at all in doing this.  He thought it was great getting pretzals for nothing and I failed to see the point??  I am guessing she was doing it wrong... or at least wrong for my child???  I need to learn more!!

What skills does your child need to learn? I think that should drive your decision in choosing an intervention program.

Personally, I think everyone with children, whether they have autism or not, can benefit from learning behavioral principles. I agree with the others who are saying there are a lot of misconceptions about ABA. It is definitely not just sitting in a chair and imitating actions. However, having said that, from what I have seen and heard from people who know a lot about ABA and who have had a lot of success doing it, there are large pieces of the social puzzle that ABA can't fill. This is what has lead to the increasing popularity of Relationship Development Intervention.

I have twin boys who will be 6 in November, and ABA has been invaluable for us and them. One of my boys is severely autistic, and frankly he wouldn't be able to learn anything without ABA. My other son does not have a diagnosis. He is developmentally delayed, mostly language. He has the same sort of language processing problems that kids with autism have, and he also has some repetitive odd behaviors. BUT, he has never had problems socially, this is why he does not have an autism diagnosis, and also why he has progressed really well. The social piece is absolutely critical, and to me it is what defines autism.

We have done ABA with my delayed son though, but it's been a looser style with lots of natural environment/incidental teaching. Because his main problem was language we used the Verbal Behavior approach, which in my opinion is the best approach for higher functioning kids who are talking some. The ABLLS (Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills) that is used in verbal behavior has been a godsend for him.

Here are some ABA links that may help you:

http://www.autismteachingtools.com/  (This site is by a Mom who has 2 boys with high functioning autism. She did a somewhat eclectic approach with them, with heavy emphasis on verbal behavior, some floortime, and even some PECS in the beginning. As her boys got older, she realized they had social issues that needed to be addressed and has since become interested in RDI. Click on the link she has called Social and Relationship Intervention on the right side of the page.)

http://www.christinaburkaba.com/index.htm  (This website is by an ABA consultant who specializes in verbal behavior, and is very good at what she does.)

I posted this link on another thread- but I have found it useful :

http://mariposaschool.org/programs/TrainingManual.pdf

It goes through different levels of verbal behavior- everything from how to use sign language for a nonverbal child to how to teach a verbal child to ask questions.

Thank you for the links... I am looking forward to "attacking" them.  I think I need to learn more about RDI as well... I'd never heard of that (we are very new to this). 

Here's a "picture" of my son... he's 2.5 (will be 3 in January), has no gross or fine motor delays (although we can see a potential for a fine motor delay since he has NOOOOOO interest what so ever in coloring, cutting, etc), his receptive language is advanced (tested above a 4 year old), expressive is average for his age, but has an articulation delay (ST is questioning apraxia), he had no behavioral problems, no strict adherence to routine at all... very go with the flow, no major sensory issues (does have a high pain tolerence and likes to hide under things when uncomfortable but nothing that gets in the way of daily living), he does very little perseverating and stimming and is easly moved away from doing it when he does, he eats everything and anything you put in front of him, and he sleeps great.  His main problems are social.  He does not initiate interactions much at all... he will engage nicely if you seek him out and capture his intrest.   His eye contact is fair.  He needs help with conversation skills... he doesn't always "get" the back and forth nature of speakin.  He doesn't interact with other children unless it involves screaming, jumping, or splashing water.  He will cuddle with us if we ask him to but he doesn't seek it out.  So I need help teaching him social skills... how do I make ABA work for that??? 

I appologize for sounding so ignorant here... but truly I am... we are so new to this!!  We JUST started this whole process when my second child was a few weeks old and he's only 3 months now.  I've read Greenspan's book and lot of websites but there's just so much to read out there its hard to weed through whats important!!  I really appreciate any advice people have here!  Thank you!!

thanks for the information on ABA. does anyone have any information on RDI and can you recommend any books, sites etc. was up all nite with Dakota he had diarrhea all nite but seems to be getting and feelilng better. thanks i did order some books from starnet about floortime so will check that out. sherry mom of christa 22, elijah 16 and dakota 3 mildcp and ASD More information about RDI can be found at their website:

http://rdiconnect.com/

There are books and DVD's you can order. They also have 2 day conferences you can attend. We are going to the one in November. We have our RDI assesment next week. So I  guess in a few months I will have more on an opinion on RDI.

Best of luck.
srs-mom please let me know how your assesement goes and i will check out the website. let me know what you think of the conferences. thanks again sherry Every therapist we've seen has told us ABA would be overkill for our son. I'd say it's definitely a therpay to be considered on a case-by-case basis. As a result of our Early Intervention evals, we're doing ST and OT (Floortime based), but not ABA. If our son were extremely oppositional or non-verbal, we'd do ABA in a second, especially since we have a friend who teaches ABA and she could coordinate our plan! Naturally she thinks we should be doing ABA... but it's not gonna happen in our case, I'm pretty certain. mark_dad38598.6162037037Any aba therapist who made a high functioning verbal child count to ten again and again isn't doing aba right. That is why so many people get turned off by aba. If your therapist is truly competent then aba can be used for any level of child. I think with every therapy there are horror stories and not so competent therapists.

By all means check out your options but don't forget to look at the research etc for each therapy. Maybe you could talk to the parents at the local support group and find out what has worked for them. If any are using aba then you could check out if they are treating any hfa children and how that is progressing.

My dd is extremely hfa and we continued doing aba until her language and social skills had become age approriate. She now only has issues with shyness at school but in small groups copes extremely well.

I could keep pushing aba but ultimately you need to do your own research. I know it is difficult and we all have our opinions, sometimes very strong ones. However you are the one that has to live with your child and even though we give our opinion we don't have to bear the consequences. Therefore I think that is my cue to bow out of this discussion and wish you the best for the future.
I feel very encouraged reading these posts.
ABA is the best therapy for many kids.
Especially non-verbal and younger kids.
It has raised the IQ level of many children.
For my GS diagnosed past four it was a short lived disaster.
My daughter and I took the two day course, because we were told it is a "must".
My GS is VHF, and we came home to apply it.
" draw a circle, and we will give you Smarties".
response, "No thanks, I don't think so".etc. etc.
Still after several months once again we were guilt ridden that we hadn't persevered because everything you read and hear points to ABA as the one true treatment.
We hired a therapist and paid for two months in advance.
My GS practically ran from the room when she arrived each day, and finally told his mother "I don't want to count to ten again and again".
He hated every minute of it, and after one month we ourselves decided it was useless and frustrating for him.
We did not get our 00.00 back for the second month, but knew that this treatment was raising his anxiety level, not his IQ
We are doing two types of ST, and neurofeedback.
It is good to know that we are not alone with this decision.
Thanks

Thank you again for some great information.  I am heading to the library this week to look for those books... if you think of hte title of the one on daily living let me know!! 
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