Spring is a time of new beginnings and growth. With the promise of warm weather and a renewed sense of hope after the long winter season, now is the perfect time to enroll your child in ABA therapy.
Applied Behavioral Analysis, also called ABA therapy, utilizes behavioral principles of learning to help children on the spectrum master new skills and improve interfering behaviors. ABA Therapy is the endorsed treatment for ASD, per the surgeon general, and is one of the most successful techniques to bolster independence in children on the spectrum.
If you’re considering ABA therapy for your child, here’s a fresh look at the techniques we use in our facilities:
ABC Data Collection and Analysis
Antecedent Behavior Consequence (also called ABC analysis) is a technique used to identify the antecedents (triggers), the behavior, and the consequences of a behavior. Consequences aren’t punishments: instead, they are the outcomes of a behavior (both adaptive and interfering behaviors). For example, if a child interrupts the teacher during a lesson (the behavior) the teacher may choose to ignore them or give the child a verbal warning (the consequence). Once the antecedents and consequences have been identified, a therapist can develop a plan to change the behavior.
Behavior Support Plans
A Behavior Support Plan (or BSP) is a blueprint for changing interfering behaviors. They play a crucial part in supporting positive changes and fostering confidence in children with ASD. Typically, our ABA therapists will observe your child to gather information and identify their habits. Here are a few ways our staff may evaluate your child’s behavior:
Direct Observation: As the name suggests, direct observations involve watching your child and gathering data in real-time. This provides a detailed account of their antecedents, behaviors, and consequences.
ABC Data Collection: In the Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence (ABC) data collection method, therapists record information about the events that occur before and after a behavior. This helps our clinicians and specialists identify patterns and formulate behavioral support plans.
Scatterplot Data Collection: Scatterplot analysis tracks how many times certain behaviors occur throughout the day. Based on how often a behavior occurs, ABA professionals can identify potential triggers based on blocks of time or under other circumstances.
Interval Recording: Interval recording divides the observation window into blocks of time and notes if the behavior occurs within each time frame. This method provides insights into behavior patterns within specific time intervals.
Stakeholder Interview: To better understand behaviors that occur across environments, our therapists may interview parents, siblings, teachers, etc. to determine to socially significant behaviors that occur across settings to better support generalization of learned behaviors at the clinic.
Once our staff gathers enough data, they will write a BSP. This BSP is a written guide for caregivers, teachers, and other individuals who work with your child that outlines how to stop interfering behaviors while encouraging positive, adaptive behaviors. They typically include the interfering behavior, interventions to reduce the interfering behavior, a plan to teach new skills, and a plan for a follow up evaluation.
Positive Reinforcement
Positive Reinforcement is exactly what it sounds like! When a child successfully repeats a target behavior, they are rewarded. This increases the occurrence of said behavior. There are four types of positive reinforcers: natural (like completing a project in class), social (receiving praise from teachers), tangible (physical rewards, like food or a toy), and generalized (token reinforcers like stickers or points that lead up to a bigger reward). Over time, this leads to meaningful behavioral change.
Discrete Trial Training (DTT)
In DTT, a therapist breaks down a skill into small, manageable steps and then teaches each step individually to your child. For example, a therapist might use DTT to teach a child how to tie their shoes. They start by teaching the child how to hold the shoelaces, then, how to make a loop, and finally how to tie a knot.
Many professionals have found DTT to be effective when teaching autistic children new skills. In fact, DTT was one of the first interventions developed to help children with autism and has extensive research supporting it!
Natural Environment Teaching
NET is typically utilized alongside DTT for individuals on the autism spectrum. This approach allows the child to have more control over their environment and increased choice. With this approach, children sometimes don’t even realize they are working or learning. If 30-40 hours of ABA sounds like a lot, it doesn’t feel like it with an NET approach. Many of our staff are additionally trained in Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) which harnesses the essence of NET by letting the child lead the activities. The therapist then embeds learning opportunities into this play to maximize fluency and build skills through play. We value our clients’ buy-in, and this approach really helps us ensure they enjoy being in ABA, but also make highly valuable gains in their communication, social, and adaptive behavioral skillsets.
Are you interested in learning more about ABA Therapy Techniques? Visit our about page to learn more about our practices, and check our blog posts for additional information!
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