What is ABA?
Applied Behavior Analysis is an evidence and researched based practice that helps practitioners and families alike to understand behaviors and teach new skills. By teaching through play, and breaking down key skills into component parts, children learn more effectively, and are able to meet developmental milestones.
ABA focuses on the patterns around things that come before, or trigger a behavior or skill, and how people and the learner’s enviornment respond to the behavior or skill. For example, if every time a child bangs on the fridge, they get a snack, we might feel confident that the child’s banging indicates a need for a snack. With that in mind, we may focus on teaching the child an alternative method of getting that need met, like learning to bring a caregiver into the kitchen, pointing to snack items, giving a picutre of snack items, or vocally requesting snack items.
When a behavior or skill is followed by something that the learner values, that learner is more likely to repeat that behavior. In otherwords, if what they are doing gets their needs met, they are more likely to continue to use that skill.
Our BCBAs work with families to determine what skills are most important for the child to learn, with the goal of giving the child the skills to clearly and effectivly get their needs meet, and more independently navigate their enviornment.
How does ABA work?
ABA works by systematically teaching new skills and reducing challenging behaviors through the use of positive reinforcement strategies and other evidence-based approaches. This may be as simple as providing praise for calm behavior, more bubbles as a result of poining at the bubbles, or giving a high five for following directions.
When teaching a new skill, Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs) first work with to develop rapport with your child, and establish a fun game or activity that the child enjoys. RBTs then identify a moment that is condusive to teaching a new skill. For example, when teaching a point, a natural moment might be requesting a new car from a bin of toys. If teaching to follow the direction to sit down, a natural moment might be asking a learner to sit before completing a preferred activity at the table. The RBT will then give the direction to the learner, and after a brief pause to allow an independent response, will provide prompting to help the learner sucessfully demonstrate the skill. The RBT will then provide praise, and continued access to the fun game or activity.
By using this approach across their therapy day, learners are provided with a high rate of opportunities for learning. Skills targeted are identified by the family and BCBA as skills of importance to the learner and the family, and are updated as the learner demonstrates progress
Who is ABA for?
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a therapeutic approach primarily used to help individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities. ABA can also be beneficial for a wide range of individuals across different ages and abilities. ABA is typically the treatment method recommended for individuals with autism, and can effectively help indviduals learn skills that are important to the learner, and their families.
At Little River Autism Services, we provide early intervention ABA therapy, which means we focus on learners who are typically under the age of 7, or who have not yet gone to school. Our goal is to teach our learners to more effectively communicate their needs, play with friends, and be more ready to enter the school setting.
A diagnosis of Autism is not required to enroll in our services. Our team will meet with your family to determine eligbility. Often, when learners start with us they may be missing key developmental milestones in communication, social skills, and behaviora regulation, that may indicate they will be a good fit for our services.
What skills does ABA teach?
ABA providers can teach a variety of skills to the individual, as well as the individuals caregivers. Skill areas include: communication skills, social and play skills, daily living and adaptive skills, motor skills, emotional regulation skills, academic and classroom/school readiness skills, and safety skills.
The following are some examples of skills that early learners may focus on.
Communication Skills: asking for items they want or need, following directions, identifying common items, naming common items, anwering basic questions
Social Skills: sharing, turn-taking, conversation skills, waiting for items, engaging in sustained social play, engaging in group activities
Adaptive/ Daily Living Skills: eating with a fork, increasing tolerance for new food items, potty training, dressing routines, brushing teeth, etc.
Motor Skills: imitation, tracing, buttoning clothes, tying shoes, prerequisite fine motor skills for writing in school
Emotional Regulation: using calming strategies, learning how to wait, tolerating being told "no," finding a Plan B
Academic Readiness Skills: follow multi-step step instructions, follow routines, engaging calmly in common activities, independently completing common tasks
Safety Skills: following directions to stop, wait, or walk with adults, staying within boundaries when playing outside, answering personal information questions
BCBAs will work with you and your child to determine which skills are most important to your family, and develop a plan to best meet your child’s needs.