What is the role of a school aide in an ABA program?
First, you have to be sure that school is an appropriate environment for your child. Just as you would not send an eight-year old to a college calculus course, so you would also not want a child with the communication and social skills of a toddler in a Kindergarten class. It is not only not an appropriate placement, it is cruel to the child; he is being set up to fail. Once your child is ready to learn with other children in school, however, chances are he requires a level of attention that no teacher can be expected to provide. He may frequently lose attention, engage in disruptive behaviors, not respond to questions, not follow along with other children, or simply not understand instructions reliably. These are problems all children have to some degree, but which are effectively addressed by the classroom teacher. Children with autism may require such a high level of prompting or redirection that it is simply not possible for the teacher to do his job properly. An aide, therefore, i
