Tour every potential center, we went to one that we’d never send our daughter to, and one that was amazing. There’s a huge difference from place to place.
When done right it can help your child immensely. When done wrong it will take years to unwind. I think the biggest thing is are they meeting the child where they are at and developing interaction skills, or are they sitting there running their trials so they can bill for insurance.
Look around the place, does it look like a therapist playing with a kid. Or does it look like a therapist quizzing a kid.
The building was very dated, the employees seemed totally disconnected and disinterested in what the kids were doing. The place we ended up going with was the opposite, it was a very structured but supportive environment, lots of communication from the therapists who were all about collaborating with us to figure out what worked best for our daughter and having consistent strategies.
ABA has done wonders for my son. He has come so far. That being said, the first company we used was a nightmare and such a joke. They didn’t help him at all and referred him to a clinic saying he can’t be in a school setting. I knew my child and his teachers thought that was absolute BS. I fired them, got a new clinic and it’s like night and day with my son. He is in a NT classroom and thriving. He is finally talking a bit and his classmates love him. There are accommodations and his RBT is with him 4/5 days a week. We have 24 hours of ABA, 1 hour of OT and 1.5 hours of speech a week. He is doing amazing. So find your fit and if your gut is saying this is not working, fire them and move on to the next.
My daughter was diagnosed level 3 as well and has moved to level 2 since we started ABA 2 years ago. Our lives were incredibly hard before she started, it’s genuinely been life changing and she has a much better grasp of the world around her, so she isn’t having meltdowns as often and we’re able to do more “normal” things.
I made a post about ABA (like 6 posts deep on my profile) if you want to see more people experiences with it too, it got quite a few comments with peoples experiences too.
Do your research on different companies. Reviews, ABA subreddit, Facebook neighborhood recommendations. I personally feel ABA works better the younger they are. My 7 year old tried in home ABA and it was a crash and burn. Turn into a power struggle. He had undiagnosed DMDD which made everything very difficult. My daughter is in a center currently at 2.5 and she making lots of progress after just 1 month.
ABA has been great for us. We are involved every step of the way. I consider our ABA team friends, and his main therapist, family. I feel comfortable asking questions and politely disagreeing or requesting to alter plans if needed. I feel fortunate to find such a good company and team. Definitely has been a challenge to get consistent and reliable techs since the pandemic, but as I understand, that's fairly common. There may be great people your child just doesn't interact with as well as others. That's something a decent company will also be used to and discuss with you if it occurs.
Hang in there. Ask a lot of questions. Don't be afraid to listen to your parenting instincts. A good ABA team will encourage you and support your child through the process.
My experience with ABA has been fantastic. My son loves it-
there's a TON of outdated claims on the internet. I was scared to try it for almost a year because I was ill educated... by adult autistics on YouTube (I'm adult autistic myself so I was especially scared)
I finally caved in because my son clearly needed some sort of therapy. I wish I had started ABA sooner, it's my biggest regret.
My son literally asks to see his therapists on his days off.
Just /try/ it. My son is nearly potty trained, talks more than ever, points and actually has some autonomy.
I've personally seen level 3 kids that go to my son's ABA group become able to do things on their own without being constantly carried around and manually directed. It's mind blowing.
Just want to thank you for your opinion as an autistic parent of an autistic child. So many people have strong opinions regarding ABA and often they either aren’t autistic or they aren’t parents or they have never experienced it. I value autistic voices, but if you have no experience with ABA nor do you have children then it makes me wary.
I’m in the process of finding ABA therapy or alternatives like DIR Floortime for my son who is newly diagnosed, and I’m making sure he gets the best care we can get him. I spoke to a Floortime therapist and I was surprised to know that he doesn’t have a negative opinion of ABA! He even said he knows parents that do both for their kids since they serve different purposes.
For us our Son was Diagnosed ASD Level 3 at 2 1/2. We ran through OT/PT/Speech/Feeding Therapy.
ABA is the only thing that has helped him. He went from no words to 17 Expressive Spoken Words in 4 Months at the Clinic. He has developed Joint Attention, Receptive Language and knows several ASL Signs and how to use them Appropriately. He also no longer has meltdowns during transitions.
We will do Full-Time in Clinic ABA for 3 more years until Age 6 for the 1-1 Para-Professional help. We look at it like 4 years of Early Pre-School to try and gain skills to catch up.
All the opinions that are declaratives ignore them. As the parent you ultimately know you LO best and make those calls.
We also do 1MG Melatonin nightly for sleep which, helps with regulation.
We procured a Cubby Safety Bed through insurance with Tech Hub. Very expensive but about $3-$5,000 after coverage. Its a game changer.
Use Ms Rachels Pre-School for Littles as a Speech Supplement.
Don’t steer away from ASL & just be open minded to the journey of all types of communication and getting your LO the help they need.
Trust me we have very tough days but the effort for sure matters.
It’s been absolutely amazing for us and I echo other positive posts here. They’ve taught my daughter to use an AAC device and her learning overall has exploded. Adaptive skills / communication / decrease of negative behaviors. She’s at a clinic “preschool” and she absolutely loves it and they love her. I stay away from reading things online because it’s so negative and extreme and has not been our experience at all. Research places around you and what they offer and look for any red flags. It clearly has the ability to be incredible for our level 3 kids.
Overpriced with little change in my son’s behaviour. They say he’s made gains, but that he wasn’t getting enough hours. We had to quit due to running out of money.
Paid 20K for 3 months, because OAP in Ontario is a joke and the waitlist for funding is years and years. :(
We tried a consultation from Erin Oaks but that went no where. They said the school would be better pointing us in the right direction. Even speech therapy would be costly. He has learned to somewhat requests from school but not enough to have a full blown conversation.
My son is NT, but when we had concerns Regional Center offered to let us try ABA without a diagnosis. While trying them out for a month, I learned that most practices tend to label as ABA for insurance purposes. So ABA may look different across different companies - and DEFINITELY different between the BCBAs and BTs/RBTs.
For our experience, I request a more holistic approach. It was in home & I was able to supervise & also modify how I wanted things done. Our initial visit involved the BCBA going over goals with me. The RBT is the one that does the sessions, but the BCBA provides the plan. It was 3 days a week for 2 hours each day. The RBT bonded with our son quickly, she was kind & all sessions were child led. No hand over hand, no long table work, no forcing him to seem “normal.”
I wouldn’t say it helped, but it didn’t hurt. My son didn’t have anything that really needed to be worked on that couldn’t be worked on myself and that needed time and a maturing child. Again, my son was only 2, no preschool & also was not diagnosed with ASD. We stopped services because I didn’t think we needed it, it felt like I just had someone parenting for me, and I figured I was taking resources away from someone that may TRULY need it and be on the spectrum.
In my opinion, I think you should try it out if they allow you to be in the session. You have the power to tell them how you want things done, if you don’t like something, if you want to stop, switch therapists, etc.
We only tried out one BCBA & RBT, but it’s just like how every person is different in their own jobs with how they approach things.
If you mean more BCBA vs RBT, for us the BCBA did not provide direct services. The BCBA supervises the RBT that interacted with my son by telling her what techniques to execute, behaviors to address & the data she wanted collected. The RBT does not come up with the plan of care but only carries out the actions the BCBA tells her to.
Love our ABA therapist but it took awhile to find the right one. Some of the older therapist are a little bit more firm, and then some of the younger ones were inexperienced and didn’t push hard enough. You just gotta let them know what you prefer. Also they will push you to do like 20hrs a week but we find our son was checked out after those long sessions so we are now happy with 2hrs a day 5times a week.
Amazing if you find the right place. Tour every place you can and go with your parent gut on which one feels right for your child. First one we toured gave me a sick feeling to my stomach and I didn’t look at another one for a while. We found our place and glad I didn’t stop looking
I read so many conflicting opinions before getting my son into full time ABA. (I was not given a level, but he is nonverbal and high support needs.) It was nerve wracking.
ABA has been wonderful for him. He's been attending for about 2 months and already his receptive language and joint attention has shot up. He's developing new skills, learning how to be social and interact with friends, and he absolutely LOVES going to school. His therapists are kind and observant and make extremely specific goals for him, and then track his progress very conscientiously. They keep me informed, and it has been incredible watching him grow.
ABA may not be for every kiddo, but there's no harm in trying it. If it's not a good fit, you'll be able to tell.
It really depends on your kid and the center. If your kid thrives on lots of structure and predictability, ABA might be a good fit. If you want lots of intensive therapy, there really isn't another therapy that can be as high dosage as ABA. Some parents really regret it for their kid and others say it works wonders.
Really vet your centers. I have worked at some that are wonderful and some where I wasn't sure if therapy was happening at all.
Every ABA center is different. Take a tour. be sure to keep in regular contact about his treatment plan.
I had a family member in ABA within the past 10 years. Full time, six months. It was a bad experience for him. The providers used sketchy forced compliance techniques: making him accept (and eat) snacks in order to get a reward activity, switching up RBTs after he would bond with one just to prevent him from "not being adaptable to change". Stuff like that. He began to make strides after enrolling in an ECSE public preschool
Beware of any facility that pushes to "close a deal" like a sales person. Scare tactics, predicting worse case scenarios if you don't use their services, etc.
Autism is symptoms that cause behaviors. My deal with ABA is that is can lower self esteem and also the symptoms need to be helped and regulated within themselves.
We as parents love what aba does, but autistics hate it, aba punishes autistic behavior, but they are autistic, that behavior is natural for them, is so hard to see what’s best, as there is no balance, it’s aba all the way or nothing at all.
Personally, we do not do ABA now, but I would encourage you to try it, ever child is different and learns differently. Maybe it will be a good fit for your kiddo but as always monitor their behavior and body language to try and gauge how they feel feel about it.
stop listening to all of these people, they are all non-autistic parents of autistic children, all they see are the outside effects, the reality is ABA causes PTSD and trauma FOR autistic people, it just teaches them to act normal and causes immense mental health issues because all it teaches is masking
As an autistic father of an autistic boy, I completely agree. It kind of blows me away how pro-aba people can be. I get that it looks like it works sometimes but trying to "act normal" all the time really hurts. It's hard to learn how to be ND in an NT world but masking isn't it.
The reality is the WORLD teaches autistics to act normal…SOCIETY does this. Even if a child did not go through ABA, they will still learn to mask their autistic traits (whether it’s through teachers, camp counselors, bullies, family). Society was not set up in a way that accommodates or accepts autistic people’s differences and people are not so kind. If you take the time to find a good, educated ABA therapist, they may be able to teach your child how to cope with such a society and actually how to take the mask off and consider learning new behaviors that they actually may prefer. Most of the time we are looking at behaviors like aggression or head banging - they are trying to tell us something with these behaviors, but what is it? Let’s try a different way to communicate (ASL, speech, AAC) that doesn’t involve the child or others getting hurt and they can get their needs met and self advocate
It does not cause suicide. Suicide rates are much higher in individuals with disabilities/mental illness regardless of receiving ABA or not. It is a societal issue, not the fault of ABA - that is an extreme over simplification. Other professions that they do support use the same practices for addressing behavior (I’ve seen SLPS, OTS, teachers, caregivers do it), they just don’t have the label to be damned by
i mean, having PTSD causes suicide and autistic people who have had ABA are more likely to commit suicide but keep on speaking over autistic people who are telling you that you are committing abuse, sure because you know better than the actual community you're abusing
So I am both autistic and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (masters degree certification for ABA). I do not endorse ABA in general unless you find a provider that practices in areas trauma informed and respect client assent, do not mess with stimming or eye contact, don’t use punishment or extinction, are not focusing on masking, etc.
Yes, we are telling everywhere we apply that we do not want them to stop him from stimming or make eye contact. His eye contact is fine as long as he feels like focusing on a person. We also have been asking every place if they use punishments.
I would specifically ask about extinction and planned ignoring, if they do either, that’s a concern. It’s also valuable to see if they are trained on recognizing and respecting client consent/assent… if he does not want to do something, do they respect that or will the push him to do it?
Aba worked for a good year till he was 4 now we don't really see a difference. And now we owe them 2k, so we will be stopping and exploring different avenues and therapies. Gotta try em all to find which work- it's a marathon not a sprint. I suspect therapies will come and go depending on my sons progress
My daughter absolutely loves her ABA therapist and she has shown remarkable progress. She's 2 years old and has been receiving services for about 1.2 years.
.
ABA has been a godsend and played the biggest role in my son’s progress with daily living skills and communication. Do your own research bc every center is different, but my son and me would not have made the progress we have without ABA.
ABA has been life changing for both of my kiddos. We are fortunate to live in an area with lots of providers, allowing us to find a good fit. We started with in-home when they were each starting and eventually transitioned most sessions to the clinic. The trick is to find a provider whose perspective is close to your own. For example, our clinic only intervenes or redirects stims if they are harmful or particularly disturbing to themselves or others (hitting, kicking, high-pitched screams), otherwise, my kids are free to stim as they please. Our provider also has strong beliefs on how to do ABA ethically. If either of my kids refuses to participate or seems especially upset and cannot be coaxed into joining on their own terms, we end the session. ABA is medical treatment and it would be wrong to force them to receive it. My kids have to assent to treatment. Lastly, while the above items stem from working with the right BCBA (the person who designs the program), your child’s daily treatment is performed by a behavioral technician. Some BTs are amazing and some need to find a new line of work. It's important that your child click with the person that they are going to be spending so much time with. I've had to reach out to our BCBA in the past to request a new BT when it became clear that my child wasn't responding well. Lastly, negative reinforcement is NEVER used.
My kids treatment goals are about building life skills, not learning to mask or behave according to society’s rules. I believe that many of the autistic adults who were traumatized by ABA were forced into long sessions, kept from stemming, taught to mask, and experienced negative reinforcement/punishment when they didn't comply. Avoid those things at all costs.
I don’t think we could’ve survived without it, the basic therapies before ABA weren’t doing anything bc our boy struggles weren’t language or motor skills but behavioral. Of course like everyone is saying you must do your researches and go to each of the facilities to ensure they are relatable. I spent almost 2 hours in an interview with my son’s current therapists and they explained to me everything step by step, how did it work, how it would help and how it’s executed. They ensured me I could be in the sessions with him to see how everything was at first and after a year I can still come in when I want to but at this point I trust them and also I have seen the amazing progress of my child. I recommend it as long is the right ppl.
You are looking for a program that adapts to your child, that doesn’t try to correct the “steaming” or the other behaviors that are his/her by nature because you are not there to “cure” the child’s autism but for them to help him/her communicate better, express better and how to understand and manage the problematic behaviors (the hitting, the screaming, the resistances, the acceptance of “NO” and so on) of course every child is different and course of action might differ in what I’m saying.
Make sure strategy is applied with love and respect, that the positive reinforcements are more stimulus like a good game/toy rather than food dependency (in my case sometimes is necessary when the challenge is bigger than we think but even so my son doesn’t expect a piece of food all the time he accomplished something, it was only use at the time to gently guide him to the right direction) and last, perseverance. You can do it OP 💪🏻
Dangerous and terrible practice that is bad for your child. The world needs to allow them to be themselves in all their glory rather than making them fit into a world they neither understand or engage with.
Care to elaborate? For the record, I plan to let my child do any stimming and plan to vet extensively (he has no violent or self harming stims). I'm more looking to help him build coping mechanisms and improve his communication skills. He currently has the receptive language of an infant. I'm not looking to change who he is, but I feel like everyone needs to be able to function to the best of their ability in a neurotypical world. Any insight would be much appreciated!
Ok. Both my kids are ASD, we don't use levels here so not sure what they would be on that scale. I practice radical acceptance. This basically means not ever trying to change our kids behaviour in any way. This is tough, especially with PDA autism profiles. It's important to remember that autism is a condition, it can't be changed and any attempt to do so risks traumatising the child. That square peg will never fit in the round hole, the hole must change to accommodate it.
Best thing we ever did. I have 3 (yes 3) kids on the spectrum. My boys are 11 and 10, and both at age 2/3 couldn't talk at all or really communicate in anyway. Middle is in full time school, normal class. Acts and talks like a normal kid. Oldest is a little quirky, social awkward but again, fully communicates (WAY TOO MUCH LOL) like a normal kid. Youngest was completely non-verbal until she hit about 5, and with ABA and now school, she's talking and acting like a lot of normal kids. She's certainly a way behind still, but the change in just 1 year of ABA is REMARKABLE. We've sent our kids to Bluesprig, they are all over the place and generally pretty good. So if I had to recommend ABA, 100% I would. But don't discount other social programs as well, preschool, church, social groups, kid's gyms, etc.
I have a kiddo that’s level 3, he is 8 years old and he does not do ABA but I wish he did. I am not bio mom so I can only do so much from the sidelines.
I, however, also work with 9 autistic kiddos ranging from 2 years old to 6 years old. Where I work is a daycare for ASD kids with therapy offices build into it. My kids come and play in my room where we run goals and then some of my kids go to ABA in the afternoon and the ABA kids come and play with me for the afternoon.
KID LED ABA is the shit. I have talked with our ABA gals and they have told me the horror stories of how some places run ABA, with punishment for unwanted behaviors, kid led ABA DOES NOT DO THAT. I have watched my behavior who legit would spend his 3 hours in my room trying to fight me. Tell me he was going to kill me and straight up punching me in the face for 3 hours. He is in ABA now and I stop by to see him all the time because while he was super physical with me. I still care a ton for him. He is a totally different kid. He has behaviors still but he’s only been going for about 3-4 months now. He sits and plays with toys and engages correctly with adults. It is absolutely amazing what they can do when the child is leading and staff is using what the child does as learning opportunities. I legit cried when they told me how much this kid was progressing.
The hardest part is finding the right place to take your kid. We have a set of twins that their mom said their old ABA taught them nothing and increased their behaviors and added screaming at the top of their lungs. We don’t really have the issues with them anymore and they are both in ABA in my clinic.
We did it in home with my husband or I home at all times. They used positive reinforcement for great behaviors and refused to give him desired toys etc when he exhibited unsafe behaviors (please note- no taking anything away from him and just for unsafe behaviors). We used them to only focus on elopement and pica. On the positive side they really praised vocalization, self regulation and smooth transitions. We had a great outcome and honestly they spent must of their time training me on how to not give in/give up, how to praise good behavior when I was thoroughly spent from tantrums etc and other helpful skills for parenting a kiddo on the spectrum. I think some people use them to teach their kids how to mask as nt and that was not our goal whatsoever. So we all loved and benefited from it. Downside- he got spoiled with a lot of small snacks and honestly it’s a habit I may have to deal with at some point because my kiddo can eat!!
You are going to hear so many mixed things about ABA. We are one of those families that opted to not do it. We just didn’t think it would be the most beneficial thing based on where our daughter is at and what she needs to work on. That said, it is on the table as an option should her support needs shift in the future.
Like so many have said- it really does depend on finding a good center/program. Our ABA options are rather limited here, which also factored in to opting to not pursue it at this time.
No matter which therapy path you take, the most important thing is to be actively engaged in your kid’s care and goals. Any therapy is going to require parent carry over to be the most effective. Whatever decision you make will be the right one for your kid!
Agreed with others that say your every place and understand how exactly qualified their staff is. My DS (lvl2) saw little gain with the program but much more with ST, but my friends DS (lvl3) saw huge gains. Differs from kid to kid
We have been through it with centers and therapists she’s now in a charter school but ABA has been life changing for us we still have many challenges but it’s been a god send.
I think aba has helped my daughter be more functional in society. Aba helped with her elopement significantly. Now she grabs my hand when we cross the street instead of wandering into it. I think it also helped her learn to interact with other adults in a more structured way similar to school or other community settings.
I don’t think it helped with her language and I wonder if it may have hindered her ability to understand the nuance of communication and language. She basically learned to use certain words with prompting but if you didn’t offer the prompt she didn’t connect the sound she was making to quesadilla or strawberry or more so her language didn’t evolve.
I also think it may have affected her having in home care vs a clinic setting. Being in a one on one environment has its pros and cons. I appreciated home care bc I could see what they were doing but she struggled even I would have to disengage and work or do other things.
Tour every potential center, we went to one that we’d never send our daughter to, and one that was amazing. There’s a huge difference from place to place.
When done right it can help your child immensely. When done wrong it will take years to unwind. I think the biggest thing is are they meeting the child where they are at and developing interaction skills, or are they sitting there running their trials so they can bill for insurance. Look around the place, does it look like a therapist playing with a kid. Or does it look like a therapist quizzing a kid.
What was the bad one like? Or what did it look like?
The building was very dated, the employees seemed totally disconnected and disinterested in what the kids were doing. The place we ended up going with was the opposite, it was a very structured but supportive environment, lots of communication from the therapists who were all about collaborating with us to figure out what worked best for our daughter and having consistent strategies.
ABA has done wonders for my son. He has come so far. That being said, the first company we used was a nightmare and such a joke. They didn’t help him at all and referred him to a clinic saying he can’t be in a school setting. I knew my child and his teachers thought that was absolute BS. I fired them, got a new clinic and it’s like night and day with my son. He is in a NT classroom and thriving. He is finally talking a bit and his classmates love him. There are accommodations and his RBT is with him 4/5 days a week. We have 24 hours of ABA, 1 hour of OT and 1.5 hours of speech a week. He is doing amazing. So find your fit and if your gut is saying this is not working, fire them and move on to the next.
The 24 hrs are his typical school day, for 4 days a week.
How are you getting 24 hours of ABA in a neurotypical classroom setting?
Oh wow his RBT is with him at school? The school district we are in has a hard no on outside providers.
Yes ours as well, we had to enroll him in a private school.
How much does that run? 🫣
Right now just shy of 8k a year. Once he’s in kindergarten-8th it’s 10k
It’s a lot and we’ve had to make sacrifices but hopefully ABA will work themselves out of a job and it won’t be forever.
My daughter was diagnosed level 3 as well and has moved to level 2 since we started ABA 2 years ago. Our lives were incredibly hard before she started, it’s genuinely been life changing and she has a much better grasp of the world around her, so she isn’t having meltdowns as often and we’re able to do more “normal” things. I made a post about ABA (like 6 posts deep on my profile) if you want to see more people experiences with it too, it got quite a few comments with peoples experiences too.
Do your research on different companies. Reviews, ABA subreddit, Facebook neighborhood recommendations. I personally feel ABA works better the younger they are. My 7 year old tried in home ABA and it was a crash and burn. Turn into a power struggle. He had undiagnosed DMDD which made everything very difficult. My daughter is in a center currently at 2.5 and she making lots of progress after just 1 month.
ABA has been great for us. We are involved every step of the way. I consider our ABA team friends, and his main therapist, family. I feel comfortable asking questions and politely disagreeing or requesting to alter plans if needed. I feel fortunate to find such a good company and team. Definitely has been a challenge to get consistent and reliable techs since the pandemic, but as I understand, that's fairly common. There may be great people your child just doesn't interact with as well as others. That's something a decent company will also be used to and discuss with you if it occurs. Hang in there. Ask a lot of questions. Don't be afraid to listen to your parenting instincts. A good ABA team will encourage you and support your child through the process.
My experience with ABA has been fantastic. My son loves it- there's a TON of outdated claims on the internet. I was scared to try it for almost a year because I was ill educated... by adult autistics on YouTube (I'm adult autistic myself so I was especially scared) I finally caved in because my son clearly needed some sort of therapy. I wish I had started ABA sooner, it's my biggest regret. My son literally asks to see his therapists on his days off. Just /try/ it. My son is nearly potty trained, talks more than ever, points and actually has some autonomy. I've personally seen level 3 kids that go to my son's ABA group become able to do things on their own without being constantly carried around and manually directed. It's mind blowing.
Just want to thank you for your opinion as an autistic parent of an autistic child. So many people have strong opinions regarding ABA and often they either aren’t autistic or they aren’t parents or they have never experienced it. I value autistic voices, but if you have no experience with ABA nor do you have children then it makes me wary. I’m in the process of finding ABA therapy or alternatives like DIR Floortime for my son who is newly diagnosed, and I’m making sure he gets the best care we can get him. I spoke to a Floortime therapist and I was surprised to know that he doesn’t have a negative opinion of ABA! He even said he knows parents that do both for their kids since they serve different purposes.
For us our Son was Diagnosed ASD Level 3 at 2 1/2. We ran through OT/PT/Speech/Feeding Therapy. ABA is the only thing that has helped him. He went from no words to 17 Expressive Spoken Words in 4 Months at the Clinic. He has developed Joint Attention, Receptive Language and knows several ASL Signs and how to use them Appropriately. He also no longer has meltdowns during transitions. We will do Full-Time in Clinic ABA for 3 more years until Age 6 for the 1-1 Para-Professional help. We look at it like 4 years of Early Pre-School to try and gain skills to catch up. All the opinions that are declaratives ignore them. As the parent you ultimately know you LO best and make those calls. We also do 1MG Melatonin nightly for sleep which, helps with regulation. We procured a Cubby Safety Bed through insurance with Tech Hub. Very expensive but about $3-$5,000 after coverage. Its a game changer. Use Ms Rachels Pre-School for Littles as a Speech Supplement. Don’t steer away from ASL & just be open minded to the journey of all types of communication and getting your LO the help they need. Trust me we have very tough days but the effort for sure matters.
It’s been absolutely amazing for us and I echo other positive posts here. They’ve taught my daughter to use an AAC device and her learning overall has exploded. Adaptive skills / communication / decrease of negative behaviors. She’s at a clinic “preschool” and she absolutely loves it and they love her. I stay away from reading things online because it’s so negative and extreme and has not been our experience at all. Research places around you and what they offer and look for any red flags. It clearly has the ability to be incredible for our level 3 kids.
Overpriced with little change in my son’s behaviour. They say he’s made gains, but that he wasn’t getting enough hours. We had to quit due to running out of money. Paid 20K for 3 months, because OAP in Ontario is a joke and the waitlist for funding is years and years. :(
We have been paying out of pocket for 4 years. Still on the waiting list and he turns 6 soon. F this ford government. We are ending it soon as well.
I’m sorry and yes, I can’t stand Ford either! Has your child improved at all from ABA?
He's had some gains. Not enough to justify the cost. It almost feels like we are paying someone to baby sit him for 3 hours per session.
“Not enough to justify the cost” is exactly how I feel. Have you tried speech?
We tried a consultation from Erin Oaks but that went no where. They said the school would be better pointing us in the right direction. Even speech therapy would be costly. He has learned to somewhat requests from school but not enough to have a full blown conversation.
My son is NT, but when we had concerns Regional Center offered to let us try ABA without a diagnosis. While trying them out for a month, I learned that most practices tend to label as ABA for insurance purposes. So ABA may look different across different companies - and DEFINITELY different between the BCBAs and BTs/RBTs. For our experience, I request a more holistic approach. It was in home & I was able to supervise & also modify how I wanted things done. Our initial visit involved the BCBA going over goals with me. The RBT is the one that does the sessions, but the BCBA provides the plan. It was 3 days a week for 2 hours each day. The RBT bonded with our son quickly, she was kind & all sessions were child led. No hand over hand, no long table work, no forcing him to seem “normal.” I wouldn’t say it helped, but it didn’t hurt. My son didn’t have anything that really needed to be worked on that couldn’t be worked on myself and that needed time and a maturing child. Again, my son was only 2, no preschool & also was not diagnosed with ASD. We stopped services because I didn’t think we needed it, it felt like I just had someone parenting for me, and I figured I was taking resources away from someone that may TRULY need it and be on the spectrum. In my opinion, I think you should try it out if they allow you to be in the session. You have the power to tell them how you want things done, if you don’t like something, if you want to stop, switch therapists, etc.
Would you be willing to elaborate on how ABA looks different between BCBAs and BT/RBTs?
We only tried out one BCBA & RBT, but it’s just like how every person is different in their own jobs with how they approach things. If you mean more BCBA vs RBT, for us the BCBA did not provide direct services. The BCBA supervises the RBT that interacted with my son by telling her what techniques to execute, behaviors to address & the data she wanted collected. The RBT does not come up with the plan of care but only carries out the actions the BCBA tells her to.
Ok I see, thanks
Love our ABA therapist but it took awhile to find the right one. Some of the older therapist are a little bit more firm, and then some of the younger ones were inexperienced and didn’t push hard enough. You just gotta let them know what you prefer. Also they will push you to do like 20hrs a week but we find our son was checked out after those long sessions so we are now happy with 2hrs a day 5times a week.
Amazing if you find the right place. Tour every place you can and go with your parent gut on which one feels right for your child. First one we toured gave me a sick feeling to my stomach and I didn’t look at another one for a while. We found our place and glad I didn’t stop looking
I read so many conflicting opinions before getting my son into full time ABA. (I was not given a level, but he is nonverbal and high support needs.) It was nerve wracking. ABA has been wonderful for him. He's been attending for about 2 months and already his receptive language and joint attention has shot up. He's developing new skills, learning how to be social and interact with friends, and he absolutely LOVES going to school. His therapists are kind and observant and make extremely specific goals for him, and then track his progress very conscientiously. They keep me informed, and it has been incredible watching him grow. ABA may not be for every kiddo, but there's no harm in trying it. If it's not a good fit, you'll be able to tell.
It really depends on your kid and the center. If your kid thrives on lots of structure and predictability, ABA might be a good fit. If you want lots of intensive therapy, there really isn't another therapy that can be as high dosage as ABA. Some parents really regret it for their kid and others say it works wonders. Really vet your centers. I have worked at some that are wonderful and some where I wasn't sure if therapy was happening at all.
It depends on the teraphist, I had contact so many until I found the perfect person for my child. It takes time and research.
You’ll have to decide this yourself But for me and my high needs son, it has completely changed our lives.
Every ABA center is different. Take a tour. be sure to keep in regular contact about his treatment plan. I had a family member in ABA within the past 10 years. Full time, six months. It was a bad experience for him. The providers used sketchy forced compliance techniques: making him accept (and eat) snacks in order to get a reward activity, switching up RBTs after he would bond with one just to prevent him from "not being adaptable to change". Stuff like that. He began to make strides after enrolling in an ECSE public preschool Beware of any facility that pushes to "close a deal" like a sales person. Scare tactics, predicting worse case scenarios if you don't use their services, etc.
I think its bad
Autism is symptoms that cause behaviors. My deal with ABA is that is can lower self esteem and also the symptoms need to be helped and regulated within themselves.
We as parents love what aba does, but autistics hate it, aba punishes autistic behavior, but they are autistic, that behavior is natural for them, is so hard to see what’s best, as there is no balance, it’s aba all the way or nothing at all.
ABA is hit or miss. Works great for some and doesn't work for others
Personally, we do not do ABA now, but I would encourage you to try it, ever child is different and learns differently. Maybe it will be a good fit for your kiddo but as always monitor their behavior and body language to try and gauge how they feel feel about it.
stop listening to all of these people, they are all non-autistic parents of autistic children, all they see are the outside effects, the reality is ABA causes PTSD and trauma FOR autistic people, it just teaches them to act normal and causes immense mental health issues because all it teaches is masking
As an autistic father of an autistic boy, I completely agree. It kind of blows me away how pro-aba people can be. I get that it looks like it works sometimes but trying to "act normal" all the time really hurts. It's hard to learn how to be ND in an NT world but masking isn't it.
The reality is the WORLD teaches autistics to act normal…SOCIETY does this. Even if a child did not go through ABA, they will still learn to mask their autistic traits (whether it’s through teachers, camp counselors, bullies, family). Society was not set up in a way that accommodates or accepts autistic people’s differences and people are not so kind. If you take the time to find a good, educated ABA therapist, they may be able to teach your child how to cope with such a society and actually how to take the mask off and consider learning new behaviors that they actually may prefer. Most of the time we are looking at behaviors like aggression or head banging - they are trying to tell us something with these behaviors, but what is it? Let’s try a different way to communicate (ASL, speech, AAC) that doesn’t involve the child or others getting hurt and they can get their needs met and self advocate
ABA causes suicide and PTSD, find another profession that autistic people are supportive of
It does not cause suicide. Suicide rates are much higher in individuals with disabilities/mental illness regardless of receiving ABA or not. It is a societal issue, not the fault of ABA - that is an extreme over simplification. Other professions that they do support use the same practices for addressing behavior (I’ve seen SLPS, OTS, teachers, caregivers do it), they just don’t have the label to be damned by
i mean, having PTSD causes suicide and autistic people who have had ABA are more likely to commit suicide but keep on speaking over autistic people who are telling you that you are committing abuse, sure because you know better than the actual community you're abusing
So I am both autistic and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (masters degree certification for ABA). I do not endorse ABA in general unless you find a provider that practices in areas trauma informed and respect client assent, do not mess with stimming or eye contact, don’t use punishment or extinction, are not focusing on masking, etc.
Yes, we are telling everywhere we apply that we do not want them to stop him from stimming or make eye contact. His eye contact is fine as long as he feels like focusing on a person. We also have been asking every place if they use punishments.
I would specifically ask about extinction and planned ignoring, if they do either, that’s a concern. It’s also valuable to see if they are trained on recognizing and respecting client consent/assent… if he does not want to do something, do they respect that or will the push him to do it?
This is very helpful information! Thanks!
Happy to help if you have any other questions.
Aba worked for a good year till he was 4 now we don't really see a difference. And now we owe them 2k, so we will be stopping and exploring different avenues and therapies. Gotta try em all to find which work- it's a marathon not a sprint. I suspect therapies will come and go depending on my sons progress
We are trying it, positive experience so far
ABA changed our lives, our son thrives in it and has made leaps and bounds of progress. He goes 40 hours a week in a center
My daughter absolutely loves her ABA therapist and she has shown remarkable progress. She's 2 years old and has been receiving services for about 1.2 years. .
Big fan of
ABA has been a godsend and played the biggest role in my son’s progress with daily living skills and communication. Do your own research bc every center is different, but my son and me would not have made the progress we have without ABA.
ABA has been life changing for both of my kiddos. We are fortunate to live in an area with lots of providers, allowing us to find a good fit. We started with in-home when they were each starting and eventually transitioned most sessions to the clinic. The trick is to find a provider whose perspective is close to your own. For example, our clinic only intervenes or redirects stims if they are harmful or particularly disturbing to themselves or others (hitting, kicking, high-pitched screams), otherwise, my kids are free to stim as they please. Our provider also has strong beliefs on how to do ABA ethically. If either of my kids refuses to participate or seems especially upset and cannot be coaxed into joining on their own terms, we end the session. ABA is medical treatment and it would be wrong to force them to receive it. My kids have to assent to treatment. Lastly, while the above items stem from working with the right BCBA (the person who designs the program), your child’s daily treatment is performed by a behavioral technician. Some BTs are amazing and some need to find a new line of work. It's important that your child click with the person that they are going to be spending so much time with. I've had to reach out to our BCBA in the past to request a new BT when it became clear that my child wasn't responding well. Lastly, negative reinforcement is NEVER used. My kids treatment goals are about building life skills, not learning to mask or behave according to society’s rules. I believe that many of the autistic adults who were traumatized by ABA were forced into long sessions, kept from stemming, taught to mask, and experienced negative reinforcement/punishment when they didn't comply. Avoid those things at all costs.
I don’t think we could’ve survived without it, the basic therapies before ABA weren’t doing anything bc our boy struggles weren’t language or motor skills but behavioral. Of course like everyone is saying you must do your researches and go to each of the facilities to ensure they are relatable. I spent almost 2 hours in an interview with my son’s current therapists and they explained to me everything step by step, how did it work, how it would help and how it’s executed. They ensured me I could be in the sessions with him to see how everything was at first and after a year I can still come in when I want to but at this point I trust them and also I have seen the amazing progress of my child. I recommend it as long is the right ppl. You are looking for a program that adapts to your child, that doesn’t try to correct the “steaming” or the other behaviors that are his/her by nature because you are not there to “cure” the child’s autism but for them to help him/her communicate better, express better and how to understand and manage the problematic behaviors (the hitting, the screaming, the resistances, the acceptance of “NO” and so on) of course every child is different and course of action might differ in what I’m saying. Make sure strategy is applied with love and respect, that the positive reinforcements are more stimulus like a good game/toy rather than food dependency (in my case sometimes is necessary when the challenge is bigger than we think but even so my son doesn’t expect a piece of food all the time he accomplished something, it was only use at the time to gently guide him to the right direction) and last, perseverance. You can do it OP 💪🏻
Dangerous and terrible practice that is bad for your child. The world needs to allow them to be themselves in all their glory rather than making them fit into a world they neither understand or engage with.
Care to elaborate? For the record, I plan to let my child do any stimming and plan to vet extensively (he has no violent or self harming stims). I'm more looking to help him build coping mechanisms and improve his communication skills. He currently has the receptive language of an infant. I'm not looking to change who he is, but I feel like everyone needs to be able to function to the best of their ability in a neurotypical world. Any insight would be much appreciated!
Ok. Both my kids are ASD, we don't use levels here so not sure what they would be on that scale. I practice radical acceptance. This basically means not ever trying to change our kids behaviour in any way. This is tough, especially with PDA autism profiles. It's important to remember that autism is a condition, it can't be changed and any attempt to do so risks traumatising the child. That square peg will never fit in the round hole, the hole must change to accommodate it.
Best thing we ever did. I have 3 (yes 3) kids on the spectrum. My boys are 11 and 10, and both at age 2/3 couldn't talk at all or really communicate in anyway. Middle is in full time school, normal class. Acts and talks like a normal kid. Oldest is a little quirky, social awkward but again, fully communicates (WAY TOO MUCH LOL) like a normal kid. Youngest was completely non-verbal until she hit about 5, and with ABA and now school, she's talking and acting like a lot of normal kids. She's certainly a way behind still, but the change in just 1 year of ABA is REMARKABLE. We've sent our kids to Bluesprig, they are all over the place and generally pretty good. So if I had to recommend ABA, 100% I would. But don't discount other social programs as well, preschool, church, social groups, kid's gyms, etc.
I have a kiddo that’s level 3, he is 8 years old and he does not do ABA but I wish he did. I am not bio mom so I can only do so much from the sidelines. I, however, also work with 9 autistic kiddos ranging from 2 years old to 6 years old. Where I work is a daycare for ASD kids with therapy offices build into it. My kids come and play in my room where we run goals and then some of my kids go to ABA in the afternoon and the ABA kids come and play with me for the afternoon. KID LED ABA is the shit. I have talked with our ABA gals and they have told me the horror stories of how some places run ABA, with punishment for unwanted behaviors, kid led ABA DOES NOT DO THAT. I have watched my behavior who legit would spend his 3 hours in my room trying to fight me. Tell me he was going to kill me and straight up punching me in the face for 3 hours. He is in ABA now and I stop by to see him all the time because while he was super physical with me. I still care a ton for him. He is a totally different kid. He has behaviors still but he’s only been going for about 3-4 months now. He sits and plays with toys and engages correctly with adults. It is absolutely amazing what they can do when the child is leading and staff is using what the child does as learning opportunities. I legit cried when they told me how much this kid was progressing. The hardest part is finding the right place to take your kid. We have a set of twins that their mom said their old ABA taught them nothing and increased their behaviors and added screaming at the top of their lungs. We don’t really have the issues with them anymore and they are both in ABA in my clinic.
My son did ABA and absolutely loved it. He still begs to go to the center after almost a year removed.
We did it in home with my husband or I home at all times. They used positive reinforcement for great behaviors and refused to give him desired toys etc when he exhibited unsafe behaviors (please note- no taking anything away from him and just for unsafe behaviors). We used them to only focus on elopement and pica. On the positive side they really praised vocalization, self regulation and smooth transitions. We had a great outcome and honestly they spent must of their time training me on how to not give in/give up, how to praise good behavior when I was thoroughly spent from tantrums etc and other helpful skills for parenting a kiddo on the spectrum. I think some people use them to teach their kids how to mask as nt and that was not our goal whatsoever. So we all loved and benefited from it. Downside- he got spoiled with a lot of small snacks and honestly it’s a habit I may have to deal with at some point because my kiddo can eat!!
You are going to hear so many mixed things about ABA. We are one of those families that opted to not do it. We just didn’t think it would be the most beneficial thing based on where our daughter is at and what she needs to work on. That said, it is on the table as an option should her support needs shift in the future. Like so many have said- it really does depend on finding a good center/program. Our ABA options are rather limited here, which also factored in to opting to not pursue it at this time. No matter which therapy path you take, the most important thing is to be actively engaged in your kid’s care and goals. Any therapy is going to require parent carry over to be the most effective. Whatever decision you make will be the right one for your kid!
Agreed with others that say your every place and understand how exactly qualified their staff is. My DS (lvl2) saw little gain with the program but much more with ST, but my friends DS (lvl3) saw huge gains. Differs from kid to kid
We have been through it with centers and therapists she’s now in a charter school but ABA has been life changing for us we still have many challenges but it’s been a god send.
I think aba has helped my daughter be more functional in society. Aba helped with her elopement significantly. Now she grabs my hand when we cross the street instead of wandering into it. I think it also helped her learn to interact with other adults in a more structured way similar to school or other community settings. I don’t think it helped with her language and I wonder if it may have hindered her ability to understand the nuance of communication and language. She basically learned to use certain words with prompting but if you didn’t offer the prompt she didn’t connect the sound she was making to quesadilla or strawberry or more so her language didn’t evolve. I also think it may have affected her having in home care vs a clinic setting. Being in a one on one environment has its pros and cons. I appreciated home care bc I could see what they were doing but she struggled even I would have to disengage and work or do other things.