Does ABA Help For Kids With High Functioning Autism?
Does ABA Help For Kids With High Functioning Autism?
My 2.5 year old son was recently diagnosed with High Functioning Autism by a Psychologist. The doctor said my son has a "complex combination of strengths and weaknesses." He has amazing cognitive abilities, but struggles with speech. He has a huge vocabulary, but uses a lot of jargon and his sentences aren't longer than three words. He has great eye contact, but is behind (or so I'm told) on social skills (i.e. taking turns, sharing) and has some sensory issues. While is isn't potty trained, he… read more
Modern ABA has come a LONG way from its roots. If the SLP's were trained 10-15+ years ago then they probably aren't familiar with what it looks like today. I don't think I would've wanted my DD to do "old school" ABA with its heavy reliance on flashcard drills and use of aversives. My DD's program is very naturalistic and incorporates a lot of techniques from FloorTime and RDI. She sees it as "playing" with the therapists and asks to go to the center on weekends and holidays.
Thanks for all the responses/advice @A MyAutismTeam Member, @A MyAutismTeam Member, and @A MyAutismTeam Member! We have an appointment with an ABA analyst tomorrow so we'll see how it goes!
A MyAutis...
A MyAutis...
Sorry about the typos. On mobile. VB-ABA is verbal behavior which focuses on language. A speech therapist recommended that to us over ST/SLP.
We did verbal benavior ABA for our relatively high functioning son starting at the age. He breezed through it so perhaps it wasn't challenging enough - it did improve language and cognition. However his ABA wasn't robotic type and our therapists used a lot of play therapy as well. He likely would have done well with any other therapy (Sp, RDI, son rise, floortime, etc) as well. He attended mainstream pre school during this time as well for half day. I'm hindsight, I would have done less ABA and more therapist focused lot more on social. But we were too fixated on the language past at that Time.
