Aspies For Freedom

Are you moving for his education or for a job or something else?

Because if you move for his education, Oakland County(in michigan)has the best special ed programms in the country. Especially Clarkston school districts, they have the best AI programm of ALL public schools in the country. Im serious too, like it's an actual fact, and i've heard it more than once.

I always recommend homeschool, if you can.  
I was homeschooled off-and-on during my childhood and it saved me a lot of suffering... or postponed, maybe, as I convinced my parents to put me back into public school for middle school.  That was kinda dumb in retrospect, as I was miserable there.
The only good thing I got out of public school was learning Spanish... and maybe 1 friend and 2 teachers that I still wish to get back in touch with.

That sounds like another thing to add to my list of reasons against diagnosis.

As part of the aims of Aspies for freedom we are against ABA.

Please get your son out of this program, it is your right to choose what is best for him, and its not ABA.

It can have long term harmful psychological effects on autistics.

You should maybe read the parent blogs and autistic blogs on http://www.autism-hub.co.uk/ for more about ABA.  I have noticed it talked about there, too.

I think I heard it could be practiced without the ugly bits but I really don't understand how.  I got the 'Pavlov reflex', too, when I read about it.

Kristina Chew talks about how loving and nice the ABA therapists are that work with her kid.  So maybe she could tell you which bits they leave out.

Oh also... I think ABA is related to behavior modification, right?  I think this was done on me once in a while, but my mother (as a fellow aspie) was honest about it.  
Example: At some point (I think I was a teenager, or almost) she said "I want you to learn how to swim, so I will pay you a certain amount for every lap you swim."  And I agreed to it and eventually learned to swim.  In the same way, when I bribe my students I tell them:  "I am going to bribe you to do something I think is useful for your learning.  So here is how it's going to work..."  And of course they can choose not to do it, but if they choose to do it they get some benefit.

From the little bit I've read, I think one of the creepier parts of ABA must be the sneakiness of it.  So maybe that's a good part to leave out.

Please correct me if I am inaccurate in any of this...

Yes, I agree that it would be better to leave the ABA out if the therapists are going to be so pushy. It's not compulsory to have it and from what I've heard, it is very time consuming and expensive.

It'd be better to put the money and time into doing something that your son enjoys.

I have a question about this. What are the long term harmful effects? I am curious because people "do ABA" all the time, they just may not call it that. An example that comes to mind is when teachers use a "point system," for good behavior, turning in homework, etc. When the class has enough points, they get a prize or a class party or something like that. That is ABA in the sense of rewarding "good" behavior. Do you think that ABA like this is harmful? Or, is it more what is taught using ABA methods? Like if ABA is used to reward NT behavior, verses using it to teach reading, math, paying attention in class or something like that?

Sounds as if he's got a pretty busy schedule, even without the ABA.

I think marinebiology has a good point.  As parents, we use a version of ABA pretty much every day.

But, when it comes to skills that are difficult or uncomfortable for autistics, that aren't really necessary to their lives, it's ridiculous to use it.  And, for the most part, these seem to be the skills I hear talked about.

My son got so much happier once we let go of certain things.  He'll tie his shoes in his own time.  He only HAS to use his fork properly in a restaurant.  It's no big deal if he eats his shirts or paces during recess.  We work with him on sanitary issues (flushing, wiping and washing in the restroom) and things that get him teased (picking his nose).  We do explain why we want him to work on the behavior and, not having that many other tools to work with, we reward him or penalize based on whatever system we feel could work for him.

I think for more autistic children, there is too much emphasis on verbalizing their needs.  For some reason, this can be really stressful for certain children.  ABA fails to take into account the cost v. benefit here, simply believing this is a skill that is "necessary."

What helps my son more than anything is identifying his stressors and adapting to his sensory needs.  Eliminate the things that interfere with his ability to function, and most of the negatively perceived autistic like behaviors disappear, too.

My son's condition is only light Aspergers, so it's difficult for me to know where the lines need to be drawn for someone more severely affected.  But, you can find blogs by autistics and the internet, and discover why they felt certain goals were really harmful to them.  It's been interesting for us to read some.

We had our teacher conference for our son yesterday, and one skill the teacher had listed to work on was my son's perceived "stubborness."  She's a first year teacher so I'm not surprised she perceives a few things incorrectly, but I explained to her why I have a difficult time using that word for a child like my son.  He doesn't entract into a position because he wants it his way, he entracts because he can't see his way to the alternatives.  If you lay that path out, he can often change his position.  But, it's difficult for him to change paths.  I didn't ask her to, but she quickly erased that word from her sheet

Perhaps this is the problem with ABA:  it seems to assume the only reason compliance is lacking is stubborness.  It does nothing to place a new and clear path in front of the child.  It simply strives for a single result.

Does that make sense?

I have heard mentioned PTSD for one thing.

Didn't this stuff used to be called "operant conditioning" years ago? (the ABA I mean).

Cue "Ode to Joy"!

BloodyKisses, that is wonderful news!

it's because when ABA is applied for say 20-40 hours a week, it is too restricting upon the child - they are not being allowed to just be a child - they are continually being forced to do stuff that isn't in their nature.

There's plenty of time to worry about academics when kids are older. When they are in the early grades, learning should be made fun and not a chore so that they will not be turned off learning in the first place.