Darcy

JSD24, Thank you! I recommended 1 and 3 but not the other two. I will recommend this to her. Thanks again.

No, they are both in the same school district. I will forward this information to her. I think they're just doing whatever they want because the parent doesn't know anything about the process and they're just steamrolling her.

Hello, A parent reached out to me for support but the school is saying a bunch of things I've never heard of so I wanted to reach out to others for input. This parent's child attended school "A". At school A in Jan. 2024, the school switched him from an IEP to a 504 plan. The parent said she disagreed with this but the school did it anyway. They never came up with a 504 plan so she has no documentation. The child now goes to school "B". School be is saying the child must be on the 504 plan for a year before he is allowed to get his IEP back. The school is not implementing or even has a 504 plan yet. The child is having a ton of issues with behavior, no skill building and nothing that was addressed in the 504 plan (school A said we'll put XYZ in the 504 plan but no plan was ever created) is being worked on. My gut is telling me she needs to just email school B and call for an IEP evaluation and start getting everything in writing as far as them saying the child is not allowed to have an IEP, etc to make her case for mediation and any other action. Thank you for any support you can give on this situation.

Hi, I'm a BCBA so I'll try to explain an FBA the best I can. FBA stands for Functional Behavior Assessment. It's based on observations, questionnaires from people who know the individual, and anecdotal information. An FA is a Functional Analysis where you create analog conditions to test and control behavior to determine function. An FBA is usually sufficient to determine the function of the behavior. Both an FA and FBA are going to give the function of the behavior as attention, escape, access, automatic. It sounds like you don't think the function is escape (he just really doesn't like them so he refuses to go to school when he knows they're going to assess). Sounds like you think perhaps it's some other reason? Take anxiety as an example. As a BCBA, I can't work on things like anxiety because it isn't a function of behavior and I also cannot measure it (I can't count it, I can't record how long it happens, etc. It's a feeling, not a behavior.) That's not to say people don't experience anxiety, but that isn't a function of behavior. So if I had a client in this situation who I assessed as school refusal is escape maintained behavior, and after talking with the parent and learning "Billy" has a lot of anxiety about assessments, I could do a bunch of different approaches to address it like giving him a list of activities we would do during the assessment so he knows before hand, pairing myself with reinforcement with him so he's not nervous about a new person, etc. Does this help?

Oh! Ok, here is a page on ABA: https://www.attainaba.com/aba-blog-archives/beginners-guide-for-parents/ I'm working on a parent's course on ABA. When I'm done, I'll invite you to watch it!

Hi D.W., ABA can be for anyone with or without a diagnosis. It's focus is on how people learn, so there aren't specific interventions for any diagnosis. There are some learning differences in the brain that cause dyslexsia but the principals of reinforcement and breaking down the task into smaller parts that are easier to learn. There isn't anything in ABA that will treat the underlying cause of dyslexsia so the strategies by a speech language pathologist would be best; SLPs use ABA too(!) through reinforcement, breaking down the tasks, creating supports, etc. I don't work with dyslexia so I can't really tell you what anyone would do for it or if an SLP or OT would be better but I've only heard of SLPs working on dyslexia. I've never heard of a pediatrician providing ABA. ABA should be provided by a BCBA and is similar across all settings as the principals of learning are the same no matter what the setting is. Where I see the difference is that ABA offered privately (and paid by insurance) is only allowed to work on "medically necessary" skills whereas schools are allowed to work on educational skills to include adaptive daily living skills. I wouldn't say one is better than the other but that they often target different skills. Please let me know if you have any other questions! Hopefully I answered

Hello, I'm a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and Board Certified Advocate in Special Education through National Association of Special Education Teachers (naset.org). I provide training and advocacy for getting services and troubleshooting difficulties. I began this journey because so many of my clients were having difficulties getting the the schools around here to provide support for their children. Call my office at 47-313-5093 or reach out through my company's website at: abaunlimitedllc.com . Darcy

Hi Mackn, I would say that the motivation for the behavior does not change based on disability; just how the motivation is expressed. So if the child is struggling because s/he cannot see or visually understand and having behavior, it will still have the same motivation as someone without those disabilities but in the same situation. Put another way, why the person is having the behavior is not based on their disability but our support for that person will change depending on his or her specific needs. Does that answer your question?

Hello, I'm a BCBA and Board Certified Advocate in Special Education through the National Association of Special Education Teachers (naset.org). I provide center based ABA and IEP support for parents.