How Does ABA Work For you if you do it?

[Anonymous]

We are new to the area, our 3 year old diagnosed with ASD level 2.
The neurologist recommended we look into ABA therapy after school. Our child is currently enrolled in a public pre-k (special ed) program from 8:30-3PM, which follows a ABA-type curriculum.

We are in DC, but open to driving; however it it looks like most private programs take place during school hours.
My post is about your experiences - broadly - with ABA therapy for a preschooler; did it help? Did you pull them out of school altogether during the preK years?

My child is most delayed in language and reaching developmental milestones like potty training, some fine motor skills. We are getting private Speech and OT currently.

I guess I'm just looking for other's experiences; if there were any providers you liked; did it really help etc. I realize all kids are different, but it feels like we're on our own to try and figure out how best to help our child.

[Anonymous]

If the neurologist is recommending it then I’d start with an intake assessment. Bottom line is you will get out of it what you put into it. Try to get home-based services and watch/record/participate in every session you can for at least the first year. Make yourself knowledgeable not just on what you’re doing but why you’re doing it. Become an integral part of the sessions with the provider so the skills easily overlap into your everyday life. Also find someone knowledgeable/do your due diligence and thoroughly interview all providers to find one that is a good match for your family and child.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely life changing for my autistic 3 year old (also ASD level 2 with severe expressive and receptive language delays as well as delays with fine motor and daily living tasks). He’s been in it for a year. We’ve seen words go from about 10 to over 400 and speaking in phrases. He’s drinking from an open cup, using utensils, riding a trike, identifying letters and more. This is a child who had almost no interests or skills when he started. The one on one intense coaching is the only thing that’s really helped him gain skills.

Look into Early Start Denver Model and similar… iirc naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions is the umbrella term they use for these therapies specifically designed for young children.

[Anonymous]

We also had a very positive experience.
We started ABA when DC was 3 yrs old and did after school home-based therapy for 2 yrs.
We used Verbal Beginnings and it was covered by our insurance.

[Anonymous]

We started ours as 3 as well (level 1) and home and school based. Many come to your house and we only did about 2 hours a week or so but you can find someone who can provide more hours and reduce it as time goes on. Capital ABA LLC is great - they have a list of several BCBA and the owner will do the intake and recommend someone in his team based on their speciality and availability. Just a note to hire a BCBA that you can grow a relationship with overtime - stay away from RBTs and firms which require a minimum number of hours.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thank you for the feedback, it's really encouraging. We've had some good progress with speech/OT but the 30-60 mins a week is not enough 1:1 time; but we've struggled to find SLPs/OTs with availability for more.

We are looking into doing home-based services; I'm trying to decide whether to pull DC out of school altogether or try to supplement after school. Thinking it may be too much in one day for a 3 year old though?

[Anonymous]

It’s not too much if you find the right therapist and BCBA.
They basically play with the kids while teaching them important skills.
I would not pull the child out of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thank you for the feedback, it's really encouraging. We've had some good progress with speech/OT but the 30-60 mins a week is not enough 1:1 time; but we've struggled to find SLPs/OTs with availability for more.

We are looking into doing home-based services; I'm trying to decide whether to pull DC out of school altogether or try to supplement after school. Thinking it may be too much in one day for a 3 year old though?

I’d wait for the intake assessment to be completed and discuss this with your professional team. Until you have assessed strengths and deficits, how school is able to address those, how home based services would look, availability, goals, parent involvement, etc. then it’s impossible to determine what setting would be most beneficial.

It’s more common than not to provide majority of services at home for an age 3 level 2 child, but it’s very child-dependent. Some parents do preschool or public school for half days. Some might just do recess, lunch, and SLP a few times a week. Many do different peer-aged classes or community outings during ABA hours a few times a week. Very few I’ve met actually do full time public at that age in addition to a focused ABA home program. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen but like you said it’s a lot for this age once you add in home-based ABA. Those I’ve seen do full day often sought out very specific ABA based school programs (sometimes even moving into a new district for that program) and created continuity between home and school services. Usually these kids started home based ABA services in the 12-18 month range and had time to prepare for that transition.

I’m just giving some examples, no child or situation is the same, but I wouldn’t pull from school until you have an assessment for home-based ABA services. I would provide that as a possibility though during the assessment so you can obtain professional feedback on that as a possibility. Gather all the current school info you can and provide it to the incoming provider so they can add it to their background review.

Once you have all the information then you can make the decision that’s best for your family and child’s needs.

[Anonymous]

Life changing for us! My dd ended up going to an ABA preschool. Her insurance covered the 30 hours of therapy per week, and i paid a copay (not per hour, I was billed monthly). To make this work we needed to do speech on our own after school, but it was well worth it. We’re in a va suburb.

[Anonymous]

Give it a try. It functions on repetition so it can help with skills and behavior. My kid liked it but we dropped it for more speech as it was very basic.

[Anonymous]

How much should we expect to pay an out of network provider that doesn’t take insurance?

[Anonymous]

ABA is only good when it's a billing code to get insurance to pay for extra hours of real OT. ABA as ABA defines it is child mistreatment.