ABA Programs: what’s it like?

In Arkansas and across the country, the autism community constantly seeks funding for ABA-type intensive training programs. You can usually spot these programs because they’re often acronyms: ABA, ABBLS, RDI, PRT. These programs promise to treat autism by improving communication, social skills and personal interaction. The programs also come with big costs: $50,000 a year or more per child. Neither schools nor insurance nor Medicaid want to cover these services, yet the ABA family has the best research to prove its effectiveness for those with autism.

But what are these programs doing on a day-to-day basis? Is it really out of reach for the average Arkansan who’s not Jenny McCarthy wealthy? Actually for severely disabled children, the ABA programs are fairly easy to implement.  Once a program’s been set up for the family, parents and other caretakers can definitely do the daily therapy sessions. SPARC in Jonesboro provides low-cost ABA training and implementation for families. But…

My family did a small at-home ABA therapy treatment called ABBLS-R for my son a three years ago for 10 to 15 hours a week. The tasks are broken down into such small parcels that any disciplined worker can do the ABA at home. But it’s very tiring for the parent to get the child with autism to do a task 20 times, then move onto another worksheet and do it 20 times, and so on for an hour or two. “Point to the red toy,” “Point to the yellow toy” 20 times, then say “Touch the car,” “Touch the animal” 20 times. A more disabled kid might have to touch a spoon 20 times, while a higher-functioning kid needs to name all the car objects on the table in 10 seconds. So in 2 hours you could easily do 200 individual tasks.

It’s much easier relaxing in the lobby of a therapy office. Doing these ABA programs certainly taught me to focus, but I didn’t have any fun. Your child’s not going to be pleased with the ABA program either.  There are rewards offered like food or toy time, but doing these exercises is work for him or her.  About 30 minutes into an ABA session I’d be hoping for some sort of interruption.

The ABA programs have some great strengths, however.  The daily exercises are carefully charted, so that everyone knows how much progress the child’s making. In the middle of an exasperating session, I could at least look at a worksheet and say “hey, at least he got 14 correct responses versus 7 earlier in the week.” This immediate feedback helped me wade through the therapy sessions. Also the simple task breakdown makes it easy for a lot of different people to do the ABA. Most disciplined workers can do this job. It doesn’t requires a Master’s, just patience and careful notes of results.

"Touch the green one"ABA is also much less successful as the child gains social skills.  There’s not much point in practicing “how to greet my peers” 20 times at home with mom. Real-world settings are a weakness for ABA. But it’s still considered the best available treatment for children with autism.

In Arkansas it's also difficult to find people who can setup an intensive autism program. Try calling and asking a therapy provider, child psychologist, BCBA, or the ACH Child Study Center for any recommendations. Check the certification and experience of anyone you hire, and of course another parent's positive feedback is worth a great deal. I promise a future article on providers of ABA programs in Arkansas.