ABA

April 12, 2009

Thanks, Marcia. My son is learning language much better through other

avenues than ABA. Perhaps it is because the ABA the RC funded (we could

definitely not afford a 30- or 40-hour/week program on our own) focused on

specific self-help goals, and language wasn't really one of them.

Kristy

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of Marcia

Hinds

Sent: Friday, April 10, 2009 5:56 AM

knardini@...;

Subject: ABA

Kristy,

is right life is good ABA and so is good teaching. As far as what

Kristy said:

I think I understand why Dr. G does not like ABA. It does not address the

developmental gaps that were created when our kids were sick during their

early developmental milestones. ABA addresses specific shortcomings, but

does not usually develop dynamic thinking. My son STILL automatically

answers - at first - that he is 5 (he's 7) when asked how old he is because

that is what one of his ABA drills 'trained' him.

That is the way learning starts for our kind of kid. It takes years to

develop language in kids. It starts robotically and then becomes more

natural. Think of our kids learning English as a foreign language. When

you first learn another language it is not fluent nor can you converse

properly in it. But if you keep learning it, eventually it comes. It is

okay if it is programmed at first. Because later it will come more natural.

And much later our kids learn like other kids and you no longer have to

teach them everything they missed.

Marcia

April 13, 2009

Kristy,

Whatever works for your child is what you should do. It sounds like the ABA

program you had was not good. Language should be a major part of it and

nobody should do ABA for 40 hours a week. We had about 10 hours formally

but were trained in the principles so we could informally use them with our

son when needed. There is not one way to do this. You know your child best

and need to trust your gut.

As I said before, good ABA is just good teaching and doesn't have to be

called ABA for it to work. The people rather than the method are the most

important ingredients for success. I had a speech person from the school

district who worked with once a week. She was fabulous and used the

principles of ABA without knowing what they were; reward and reinforce the

behaviors you want to increase and learn. She also loaned us language

materials to use to work with because once a week is not enough for our

kids.

I hope you don't think I meant ABA is the only way, but I do disagree with

Dr. G when it comes to ABA as not being good for some of our kids. Having

said that, he is my hero for saving my child and I will always be grateful

to him, but we do disagree on this point. I think he is remembering the old

ABA which was extremely negative. If done correctly, and often it is not,

ABA is totally positive with ignoring undesired behaviors. Dr. G and I have

agreed to disagree.

For some of the more severe cases and for kids who are older than yours when

they found Dr. G, it is essential to get kids to attend. For older kids they

have more to learn and the behaviors we want to go away are more ingrained

because the kids have been doing them longer. If you can't get a kid to do

anything, you can't teach them anything. Good ABA moves to more natural

teaching as soon as a child is ready. It also can be done by people trained

by the parents so it tends to be less expensive. I wish we could all afford

Dr. Fosnot. I hear she is wonderful!!! And I would have loved to have had

her when was younger, but she wasn't part of the team then. So we had

to find another way. There is more than one way to get this done and one

cure doesn't fit all. There are a lot of different issues for different

kids. I'm happy you found a method that is working for your child. That is

all that matters.

Marcia

April 13, 2009

We live in a remote are but we were blessed with finding a woman who has

just moved here and did ABA well. She worked with several children and

my son seemed to be doing the best. She became a believer in Dr G after

awhile because she could see the difference. She also saw how off he

would get anytime he was ill or had the wrong food. Now my son is 12 and

is doing pretty well with nothing but Dr G. I constantly have to remind

myself to reinforce the good he does and ignore the bad. My husband and

I are constantly correcting him in the wrong way. It's such a bad habit

parents have!!!

>

> Kristy,

>

> We also had very good results with ABA, but over the years I have seen

> good

> ABA programs and then some poorly run ones as well. Good ABA is not

> robotic and should involve a lot of play and social interaction. I don't

> exactly agree that " nobody should do 40 hours a week " (sorry Marcia.

> You know I

> love you!). I think if you really want to make a difference and give ABA

> a good shot, then you should do as much as you can. I think it really

> depends on the child though. If Connor was occupying himself

> appropriately

> (i.e. playing with toys correctly or playing with his sister), then I

> would

> let him continue, but if he was spending time by himself engaging in

> self-stimulatory behaviors, then I knew I needed to get back involved.

> That said,

> I would never spend 40 hours a week using a " drill " format. We did ABA in

> his room, in the living room, on the trampoline (my neighbors probably

> thought we were crazy when our entire therapy team got on all at once,

> but

> Connor loved it and would do anything to be " bounced " ), at the zoo, while

> taking a walk, etc. It really is a way of thinking, and Marcia is

> correct in

> saying that the incidental teaching in between is super important. We

> would

> often mix the two. I bought a year long pass to the zoo and his

> therapists

> would bring a backpack. They might spend 10 minutes or so going over one

> of his programs and then tell him he did a great job and go see one of

> the

> exhibits, but the whole time they would be continuing to ask questions

> (kind of " sneak " teaching...lol). " Oh what animal is that? What color

> is the

> elephant? What does and elephant say? Is he big or little? Where do you

> want to go next? You need to ask me. " , etc. Then it was the same thing on

> the car ride home ... " What is that? What do you do at Mc's? " Then

> prompting him to just comment on things like " There's the park! " ). I was

> blessed with some very creative therapists :-). And Connor got to the

> point where he would often ask for them to come over and " play " ..lol.

> That is

> the sign of a good therapist!

>

> Connor really didn't have much in the way of functional language at all

> before we started ABA. He wasn't responding to typical parenting and was

> having tantrums and head banging, etc. If I had not had the help and

> advise

> of a really good behaviorist, I'm not sure we would have worked all of

> that

> out. Now Connor can say pretty much anything he wants to, although his

> speech pattern is sometimes a little " different " (we still have the

> occasional

> backward pronoun, etc). But I remember all too well the days when he was

> little and it was so much work for him to attempt to get the word " juice "

> out, even with prompting.

>

> Good teaching comes in many forms! Just like different meds work for

> different kids, the same goes for methods of teaching. We spent

> several years

> with Dr. G and throughout it all we agreed to disagree about ABA. But it

> was working for us, so we stuck with it.

>

> -Sharon

>

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April 13, 2009

I love ABA. I really do believe without it my son would not be talking at all.

However I do think a good deal of it is done incorrectly ...A great ABA program

is hard to find. There is a great book ..at least I think so ...called Educate

Toward Recovery..Turning the Tables on Autism by Schramm. I know each kid

is different but for my son earning Instructional control without ABA would have

been almost impossible. We still use it with some of his control issues today .

Candi

knardini@...;

From: hindssite@...

Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 07:33:31 -0700