My son Liam is 8 years old and has a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder. We are pursuing Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) therapy to help Liam talk. We tried various other treatments such as diet and supplements but only saw minimal changes, until we tried a 2 day session with an ABA therapist and he went from saying just 2 words per day (if we were lucky!) to 100 including “Mummy” and “Daddy”. Before we did ABA, Liam struggled with every aspect of daily life; communication, eating, sleeping, toileting, playing, making friends, going to the shops or out and about etc. We werent getting any help at home and despite sending Liam to a full time special school instead of a mainstream with the hope he would receive more intensive teaching, we were not seeing any progress. Liam wasnt even getting speech therapy. It was a very frustrating and stressful period. As his mother I felt helpless and as though I had no control over his development. Tired of feeling like this I started to research privately what was out there to help and came across ABA. Initially I thought wed have to remortgage or get into debt to afford it, but there are cheaper ways to access ABA which can still be effective. We trialled a 2 day session with a qualified and accredited ABA therapist Kerry Farrell and it was eye-opening, not only was he saying words such as bounce and push, but throughout the session he was totally engrossed in her, copying her actions and thoroughly enjoying the interaction. Since then we have been trying to get Liam as much ABA therapy as we can. As a cheaper way to access ABA we recruited volunteers from the local universities who were looking for some experience working with a child with autism. We put on a training workshop with the ABA therapist every 3-6 weeks, and we also sent the therapist into Liams school to train his teachers in ABA. To help pay the costs of the training and assessments for the ABA therapist we did some fundraising events and after a year we had gathered enough evidence and video footage to approach the council to take over the funding Liams ABA programme (school only), which they are funding for a third year now. I have to stress, setting up and maintaining Liams ABA programme has been extremely hard work. But the benefits have made it all worth while. Liam now verbally requests everything he wants, he can answer simple questions such as Whats your name? What School do you go to? And where do you live? He sings songs, can fill in a missing word, has a range of phrases which he uses in context and surprises us now and then with spontaneous new phrases. Hes not yet able to hold a conversation, but this is a huge improvement from the child that used to just grunt, screech or throw a tantrum to get what he wanted. On top of this he has learnt to wee on the toilet and is starting to access an education. His social and plays skills have improved and he is now eating a variety of nutritious food. We are continuing to work on Liams speech sounds to make his words more clear, we are building his self help skills such as his teeth brushing program and introducing new programmes to acquire new skills on a monthly basis. Thanks to ABA, Liam is thriving and has an opportunity to reach his potential! The only thing I would have changed about our ABA programme would be to have started earlier than we did. The earlier the intervention is put in place the better. My tips for making the most of ABA is being consistent; this is essential. Also ensure your child is motivated. Reinforce quickly and be patient. The steps are very small, but they do add up to huge milestones! Good luck to anyone who is starting on an ABA journey. I hope you are as blessed as we have been to receive such amazing support and results! X
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 22:32:31 +0000
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