ABA vs. Floortime?

dolly3186

Hi everyone,

I'm in the middle of setting up an more intensive home program for my 18 month old son that was just diagnosed with ASD.

I have the option of choosing between two agencies, one is strict ABA therapy with discrete trial training. The other company is more relaxed that incorporates ABA and a Floortime approach and also some of the Early Start Denver Model. (I don't know much about that last method of therapy.)

Can anyone shed some insight onto what worked for them? I know ABA is the "gold standard", but I'm not sure if my son would react well to that. It's a lot of sitting at a table and learning drills.

Just honestly curious of anyone's experiences with either one, good or bad.

restoreleanne

Aba work for My DD It has been night and day. We still have 40 hours a week and has been that way for the last year. She is five and no one every told us about floortime. She did do the early learner before moving to aba at 4year old. I hope this helps. Glad you are get help at a young age I wish we would have done it.

iluminadaonix

I'm an ABA therapist for the past 9 years and also a step-mother of a 7 years old boy with autism. I strongly recommend ABA. You want intensive treatment early. ABA will incorporate floor time as well. ABA is scientifically based to improve or even help recover from the symptoms of autism. Once your daughter/ son acquired the fundamentals skills through ABA, eye contact, responding to name, pragmatic language, object,gross motor, oral motor imitations skills, then you might want to consider floor time. Once you get a teacher make sure she is experience, take data, and is able to explain what she is doing and why. If inexperience make sure she get supervised weekly. Best of luck,
Jenny

iluminadaonix

I do early intervention. Most of my students start at 18 months. In my experience the earlier they start ABA, the higher chances they have to mainstream and recover. Get as many hours as possible, this is the time to reach him/ her.

Booksandbeaches

There's no reason you can't do Floortime yourself. However, I would go with ABA from an agency. We saw more results from Verbal Behavior ABA than Floortime. I think Floortime is a good complement to ABA and since Floortime can be done easily by parents, do it yourself.