Finally received a diagnosis for my son & an ABA questio

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So, we finally received a diagnosis this week (from a neuropsychologist) for our DS8 - PDD-NOS, ADHD & GAD. My husband and I really felt like she understood our son (he's very intelligent and I think he's been good at manipulating other professionals). She recommended a Speech therapist to help him with communication skills (he doesn't have any problems with language, per se, but with all the nuances of normal communication and with really understanding other people's intentions/feelings/etc) and a counselor. I haven't been impressed so far with the therapist he's been seeing, so I am looking forward to meeting someone else. Currently DS is taking Riperdal and Tenex and she felt like he should continue those for the time being until he can learn some coping skills in counseling for his GAD and impulsiveness.

One thing I keep seeing pop up as I"m researching PDD-NOS is Applied Behavior Analysis. I don't entirely understand how ABA works.. I mean, I get that the point is to change his behavior, but I don't really understand how they do something like prevent/reduce tantrums or hitting himself, etc. Have any of you gone through ABA yourself, or with your children? How did you feel about it? What other therapies have you seen be effective?

Thanks guys!

hmm I hate to be kind of blunt but from what I hear ABA does not actually adress the reasons for these behaviors...from what I hear it mostly tries to force normal behavior and treats autistic behavior as bad and unacceptable in an attempt to train the kid to fight the way their brain works so on the outside they look 'normal.' Personal opinion but therapies more focused at helping him cope and maybe put skills he has to use would be better than focusing on making him seem normal.

and just out of curiousity why are you so sure he's manipulating professionals? how old is he? I mean the child is manipulating the mental health professionals? how so? just something you might want to think about, I mean is this something the therapist said, the impression you got or did your son actually say this?Keep in mind my opinion about ABA is biased, so don't take my word for it I'd maybe look up information about it on the internet and keep watching for more posts here.

It kind of depends on who is offering the treatment, but basically ABA consists of choosing a particular behavior that you wish to change, studying it until you understand why it's there, and making changes to facilitate change of the behavior. It's basically a much more complex version of operant conditioning. While some parents have found it to be a useful tool, other parents and posters have noted that it can be a system of control. I think the difference between the two can be very much dependent on the person offering the therapy, so you have to choose your therapist well.

IMO, the most important part of ABA is the FBA, or functional behavioral analysis - whatever the behavior is, it's always there for a reason. Understanding the reasons behind behavior is critical to helping a child on the spectrum, (even a highly verbal one, as not all communication is verbal) as it may be their only means to communicate a particular need.

Thanks guys.

sweetleaf - What I meant is that, while is does have a lot of anxiety, he will sometimes put on a bit of a 'show' in hopes of avoiding an unwanted task. There is, obviously, anxiety there, but he will ratchet things up just to avoid punishment or having to do something he doesn't want to do. My husband and I can usually tell when his behavior is "real" anxiety, vs "avoidance" anxiety. In the case of real anxiety, we have to be very calm and supportive to help him. When he does his fake-avoidance anxiety, a few stern words and looks can usually get him past it. Teachers, the counselor and school psychologist don't seem to be able to differentiate between these like we can. The Neuro did appear to see the difference, like we do.

I haven't spoken with the counselor that the neuro recommended, so I don't know that they even do ABA, I was just curious about it because it appears that all the federal/state programs for children with autism seem to focus on it as the primary method of treatment.

Our personal goals are for him to learn how to recognize when he's becoming upset, and how to calm himself down, or to release his frustration/anger/anxiety in a more appropriate way (so that we can reduce/eliminate the Risperdal.) Secondly, we want him to get better at understanding other people's motives/intents and responding/questioning in an appropriate manner - so that in school, for example, when he's made to move from one assignment to another, he has the ability to ask the teacher if he can work on it again later, as opposed to just throwing a tantrum.

My son is in ABA now. We are currently using it to improve his communication skills - responding to questions, prompts, etc.

You may find that it reminds you of dog training, though, with all the "reinforcers" which can include food...

My son is only doing this a few hours a week, not the type of hard-core 40-hour job some kids get...

sweetleaf - It's hard for me to explain how I can tell the difference in his tantrums... but I think biggest evidence is in his reactions. If you react negatively, even the slightest bit, during a real anxiety-driven tantrum, it makes things 100x worse... but responding negatively (stern voice, send him to his room, whatever) during one of his avoidance tantrums, he'll stop, pout a bit, then do what he's told. He doesn't actually try it at home very often anymore.

And yeah.. I know he may never be as good at reading people as someone not on the spectrum, but I would like him to be able to learn to get outside of his head, just a little bit, enough to be able to talk and question when he's anxious/upset instead of just assuming the worst and freaking out.

At different times of my life, I have been effective as a low-key leader. For example, as a kid I organized tag games in this great field with high brown grass. I also organized picnics where we'd walk to locations. And in 5th grade (age 11), a couple of other kids and I put on backyard carnivals.

To me, the skills of leadership are more straightforward and make a lot more sense than the more nebulous skills of followship. I accept the fact that I have patchy social skills, as probably does every other human being. And then it's a matter of playing to strength.

Something else that might throw you for a loop is stimming. For example, even as an adult, I like to squeeze and twist a soft T-shirt as I imagine sports or action movies. And sometimes I make sounds like explosions or fighting sounds. And I do this even though I have had such jobs as manager of a photocopy center! And I can see, for all the world, how this might seem like it's part of the problem. When actually, stimming is part of the solution. As near as I can explain it, it kind of gives me an alpha state meditation in which I can emotionally process things. And like a lot of different things in life, it's time and place and it's something I do privately. I also get a lot of benefit out of long walks.