ABA is no longer controversial although some school districts like to claim that so they can avoid paying for it. There has been many many improvements for kids on the spectrum. My son is severe and it's been the cornerstone of his learning. He has many more skills than kids that are less disabled but did not get a quality ABA program.

However, be careful. Not all ABA programs are quality programs. Make sure the providers have significant experience and a proven track record with their current clients.

I recommend reading every post on this list before making a decision regarding ABA therapy:
http://neurowonderful.tumblr.com/post/135286731...

My personal opinion is that any therapy referred to as "ABA therapy" is too risky to subject an Autistic child to, because there's a chance it could be true ABA therapy (the kind invented by Ivar Lovaas), which almost invariably does more harm than good, often causing PTSD and other trauma-related conditions.

I teach a preschool where we have several students with ABA therapists helping them. I have seen behavioral improvements over the past 8 months that I would not have believed possible. I have been trying to get my son ABA for almost a year, but openings are limited in my small town.

My son started ABA about 3 months ago. And about 3 weeks they have been coming to the house. He's almost 6yrs old he does great for them but it's not helping yet for how he is with us "mom dad brother and sis... oh and animals " but I'm gunna keep waiting they are great with him. They do know what there doing. That's for sure

We just started ABA at home 2 weeks ago. My son just turned 2. He has speech therapy one hour a week and ABA 2.5 hours a day, 4 days a week at home. It has been an adjustment but I think the structure is good for us all. He seems to enjoy it for the most part and I really like our ABA team, but it has been a bit taxing and he has been grumpier than usual (understandably so!). I don't know much about the controversy. I do know that I'm just glad we are intervening now and have resources available. One thing they are using is PECS for his speech/communication. I'm still skeptical on how they are going to be used in our everyday life, especially since he is already starting to verbalize his requests for certain items (mostly food). So we'll see how it goes.