ABA Therapy & Autism - Inquiry
Did you find ABA (Applied Behavioural Analysis) Therapy helpful or harmful to you growing up?
My son has been diagnosed with autism, and his pediatrician recommended him to go to ABA, however, I have read online that it can be detrimental for autistic children (said by autistic adults -- who went through the experience). However, I have seen other autistic adults who became therapist and said ABA Therapy is fine? Albeit... My source is from a social media place that can be a hivemind sometimes and biased...I prefer being here on 7cups.
I've seen controversy surrounding ABA Therapy and wanted to get experience from those who have actually lived through it. Currently, my son has been to Speech Therapy(going to reenroll him when I move here soon) and graduated from Occupational Therapy.
Could I get your thoughts?
Thanks.
@ImpudentIncognito I've actually only heard bad things about it too🙁 but I'm sure they wouldn't do it if it was gonna make things worse right? I think with this one, you may have to trust your gut feeling. It's gonna be different for everyone. But whatever decision you make, you know it's gonna be the right one ❤ because you are just such a great mum, you really are, your kids are very lucky to have you ❤
@Tinywhisper11 I'm just worried because there were places that stated they help special needs kids, but then my son ended up getting bullied and he'd had scabs and cuts and the teachers would shrug going "idk how that got there"...It was ridiculous....So now I'm hyper vigilant on where I put my son in daycare, school, and therapy-wise to the point I had to move him around a bit until I found a good fit(I currently live in a REALLY bad city, but moving soon!)...He's been through a lot and I don't want to traumatize him more. :( I appreciate your input though! I'm thinking maybe I could maybe see if I can sit in on in the ABA class and check it out? Or I might just stick to speech therapy for now and if he's having future issues THEN I'll look into ABA...it's just scary the thought of him ending up bullied again...Thanks for your kind words btw. ♥
@ImpudentIncognito ohh! Bless him, and bless you too ❤ it must be heartbreaking for you😥 people can be so mean. It sounds like you worked out a good plan there. Let me know how it goes. Hugs you tightly ❤❤
We have our 7 year old son in ABA in some form or another for about 3 years. He's autistic, non-verbal with development delays and part honey badger (b/c he doesn't give a f#*& 😂).
While we are not over the moon with ABA, we do think it has helped in some respects. They taught him how to point at pictures and now he uses a tablet to communicate. Although 95% of his communication is to tell us what food he wants 😁.
I think like with most things, the success of ABA comes down to how good the therapists are and if they "mesh" with your kid. We've had therapists where we could tell are son didn't respond well to, then others that he treats better than his own mother.
We have debated taking him out of ABA but we haven't found any better alternatives, so we're staying where we are at for now.
It's always tough to make decisions like this for our kids, worried that it might be the wrong choice. But as long as you do your research and do your best to put your child's best interest at the forefront, that decision WILL be the best one for them. And in the off chance it doesn't turn out down the road, change course and move on. As parents we try our best for these kids, which is more than a lot of other people can say. Our decisions may not ALWAYS be stellar in the end but we never give up and never stop trying.
So go check some of the ABA centers out. Talk to the admin, talk to a few of the therapists, and talk to some of the parents of kids if possible. If you don't like the place or people there, cross them off your list and move on to the next one. If they all suck in your eyes, then ABA may not be a good fit for your family. We crossed off quite a few places in our search. Some because of the facilities, some because of the workers. There was one place where we were on the fence until we had a talk with the lead therapist, and he won us over. He turned out to be our son's favorite therapist.
Best of luck to you and your son. I'm sure whatever you decide to do will be great for him because you're an awesome parent. Keep on keeping on.
ABA therapy can be helpful, but you need to vet potential therapists thoroughly. What is their goal? Do they plan to punish your child for acting autistic (like stopping hand flapping)? Do they think nonverbal autists can't be reasoned with? If they are targeting harmful behavior, respect the humanity of your child, and focus more on positive (reward based) reinforcement than "positive" (punishment based) reinforcement, they shouldn't be actively harmful.
@ImpudentIncognito
I never recieved ABA as a child on the specrtrum, I had OT and other forms of early intervention. However, I have talked to people who has said that the real problem is when you diminish the stimming behaviors.