How do I know if....

ABA Therapy is right for my DD?

DD was diagnosed at 19 months. She is 20 months and has gone two weeks with ABA therapy so far and is doing wonderfully. She is low on communication and social. but high everywhere else in regards to cognitive and adaptative learning.
She seems to be learning alot. She has increased her signing and vocabulary so much in the last two weeks.
I have to say the last two weeks for the most part, she has been great. I think because she can communicate, she is less frustrated and doesn't have any temper tantrums? Is is just me? or is it really working?

Her eye contact is getting better and she is starting to point and gesture. The therapists have been giving her great remarks so far with the few programs they have started for her.

In reading and hearing from other people, I know some of you have mentioned that when your DC grew older, they were naming and talking and labeling everything which is not normal for a typical kid.

What are you thoughts? I know every child is different but what other kinds of therapy are there? Can you please share your opinon, experience and thoughts? How do I know if what I am doing is right for her?

Re: How do I know if....

My DS recieved ABA services and I seriously think it's what helped him come so far!
I think it truly is a great program.
We went from moaning, grunting, and yelling to..I can't shut him up now! LOL

He started ABA at about 2.5 and stayed with it until he graduated pre-k this summer. He's now in Kindergarten and so far, all is going well.

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Sometimes ABA is not the best choice. While it does provide the foundations of communication (gesturing, pointing, eye contact, etc.) it doesn't always create appropriate social communication. As a speech language pathologist, I feel providing speech therapy, even if it is in addition to ABA, is more beneficial. Speech therapy targets a child's social pragmatic skills for the purposes of communication, rather than rote naming of objects. I do believe that ABA works well for some children, but ALWAYS recommend those children receive speech therapy in addition! That will help them generalize the purpose and the use of everything they are learning!

How do I know if....

AJ started ABA at 18 months old. he then got SEIT from 3-5 & he is 5 now and receives Behavior Intervention (ABA for school aged 5+ children)

along with ABA he got speech at home.

he does not label nearly as much as he used to. he converses now, and is pretty damn social if you ask me.

during his ABA days, at least once a week we had anywhere from 5-10 typical friends over. that helped too.

Re: How do I know if....

ABA can be many different types of therapy. Many people confuse it with discrete trial teaching (knee to knee learning, repetitive). But, this is wrong. ABA is just applying principals to the way you teach, so, in theory it should conform to your child's needs.

ABA absolutely promotes social interaction. Your child can still receive ABA with a SEIT in a typical classroom.

I would go based off what has worked best in the past, while still making sure it's not holding her back.

Getting off the . Misconception of ABA is pet peeve haha

Re: How do I know if....

This is just my personal story and I do not mean to cause any drama.


I personally struggle with the choice I made to have my son receive aba. He was diagnosed with at the time with pdd-nos. he started receiving services when he was about 18 or 19 months. He had only 2 words, low eye contact and didn't point.

The plus was with the aba he truly blossomed he learned so many words, his eye contact was great. He did not qualify for therapy when he turned 3 and lost the diagnosis.

Fast forward to him now age 5 in a typical school he does not do well if he does not have a teacher literally on top of him telling him what to do. He seems to only do good when its a one to one environment . Like it was when he had aba.

Feel free to fm me if you like.
Best of luck

Re: How do I know if....