The situation
When we first met “Alex”, he had been unable to access school or his local community safely for a significant period of time.
Our support began as commissioned respite in the family home. Using a Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) approach, we focused first on building trust, understanding Alex’s communication and creating the conditions in which he felt safe and regulated.
As those relationships developed, we gradually expanded what Alex could access – first within his home, then in his local community and on transport.
Recognising this progress, Alex’s SEND school commissioned ABA Pathways to provide alternative education, with an ambitious long-term goal: helping him return to school.
What we did
Small steps. Big progress.
We broke that goal into achievable steps, always working at Alex’s pace:
Home → Community → Transport → School car park → School building → School day
Initially, success meant travelling to school and remaining on the bus in the car park. Next came sitting outside the bus, before gradually moving further into the school environment.
Returning to School
The outcome
Today, Alex is able to travel to school, enter the building and remain at school for nearly the entire school day.
He has his own dedicated space within school where he feels safe and can retreat when he needs to regulate. Importantly, this space has become a secure base rather than a limit. Alex is increasingly accessing other areas of the school, while knowing that he can return to his own familiar space whenever he needs to.
His progress has also extended beyond school. We have supported carefully planned transitions into other services and settings, including wrap-around care, helping Alex to build relationships with new people and access a wider range of opportunities with increasing confidence.
We have also supported the careful reintroduction of school staff and are working collaboratively to fade ABA Pathways support where appropriate. The aim is not to create long-term dependence on our team, but to build sustainable support around the young person and enable successful transitions to the people, places and services that will remain part of their life.
Alternative education can be a pathway, not a destination.
For some young people, education doesn’t look like sitting at a desk.
It may begin with feeling safe, developing a trusting relationship, leaving the house or simply getting onto a bus.
By understanding behaviour as communication and working collaboratively with the young person, their family and wider professional network, we can create an individualised pathway that starts from where that young person is now – and builds from there.
What the school have to say
“We reached out to ABA pathways during a time when one of our young people was not able to access school without considerable dysregulation. There was a general feeling that the young person might not be able to access school again and even going into the local community was very challenging.
The service ABA pathways provided was beyond exceptional. They worked with us and parents to build a highly specialised, extended plan with access to school being the end goal. It was ambitious but well thought out and exciting.
ABA pathways began by developing a relationship with the pupil in their home and rapidly moved to a point where they were going out on transport daily. Very quickly they got to a stage where the pupil was in school for short periods of time each day that built toward longer and longer days. They even worked with us to reintroduce school staff and fade out their own service.
ABA pathways are team players and one of the most person-centred services I’ve ever encountered. They took a very challenging situation and worked with the young person toward a solution that centred around the pupil’s needs. They care about the young person at the centre of the conversation and they are very, very effective.
Work with them – they’re amazing.“
What parents have to say
“It is difficult to put into words just how much ABA Pathways and their incredible team have meant to our family over the years.
Our son, Alex, has very complex needs. He is autistic, non-verbal and has extremely challenging behaviours, including periods of significant violence and self-injury. Supporting Alex can be incredibly demanding, both physically and emotionally, and there have been times when we genuinely didn’t know how we were going to get through the next day.
ABA Pathways have been there with us through some of the most difficult periods of Alex’s life.
When Alex was struggling so badly that he could no longer attend school and was going through a severe mental health crisis, ABA Pathways started supporting him at home. They didn’t simply turn up and work with Alex — they worked with us as a family, helped us understand his behaviour, gave us strategies and, most importantly, gave us hope when things felt incredibly difficult.
From there, they supported Alex with the transition back into school, eventually providing support within the school environment itself. Even now, because of the complexity of Alex’s needs, the school continues to rely heavily on their knowledge, experience and expertise to help meet his needs.
The difference between where Alex was when ABA Pathways first became involved and where he is today is enormous. We genuinely believe that the progress he has made would not have been possible without them.
What makes ABA Pathways so special isn’t just their knowledge of autism or their ability to manage extremely challenging behaviour. It is the way they treat Alex as an individual. They take the time to understand him, understand what he is communicating through his behaviour, and find ways to help him develop and succeed when other people might simply see the difficulties.
The support they have given us as parents has been just as important. They have taught us so much and have given us tools, understanding and confidence to help Alex. They have never made us feel judged or that we were failing. Instead, they have worked alongside us every step of the way.
I cannot praise the whole team highly enough. Shelby, Nicola, Liam, Chloe and everyone else who has been involved with Alex have shown an incredible level of patience, compassion, dedication and skill. The amount of knowledge they have passed on to us and the way they have worked with Alex has been nothing short of amazing.
It is very difficult to find people who genuinely understand children with needs as complex as Alex’s. ABA Pathways have that understanding, but more importantly, they genuinely care.
They haven’t just supported our son — they have supported our entire family.
If I’m completely honest, I don’t know where Alex would be today, or where we would be as a family, without their continued support. They have been a critical part of Alex’s journey and have helped us through some incredibly difficult times.
When you have a child with complex needs, you spend so much of your time fighting for the right support and wondering whether anyone truly understands what life is like for your family. With ABA Pathways, we have never felt alone.
We will always be incredibly grateful to them.
Thank you to every single person at ABA Pathways who has played a part in Alex’s journey. What you do is extraordinary, and the difference you have made to our son and our family cannot be overstated.
We couldn’t recommend ABA Pathways highly enough.”
