7 dimensions of ABA

Applied Behavioral Analyses (ABA) is based on 7 core dimensions. Any interventions your therapist uses with your child will fall within or be defined by these 7 categories. Therapists use the anagram GET A CAB to remember each part of the therapy.

G is for Generalization: This is moving skills from one situation to another. Sometimes your child with autism may perform certain skills like using the potty in one location but not in another. Generalization is the process of moving this skill from one place to another.

E is for Effective interventions: All interventions are monitored to ensure effectiveness and to see how they impact the behavior you are trying to change. They must be strong changes that affect something for the better.

T is for Technological: Where interventions and procedures are described thoroughly enough that anyone trained can implement them.

A is for Applied: Socially significant behaviors are worked on, more so than others.  

C is for Conceptually Systematic: The concept of the interventions is chosen from a specific theoretical base, rather than just a trick.

A is for Analytic: All decisions for an intervention or anything within the therapy must be data related.

B is for Behavioral: Only behavior that can be observed and measured should be targeted.

In ABA when measurable behaviors are targeted based on how well it will help your child cope in society, data is collected and explainable interventions are tried and tested, then your child will go far. ABA is a therapy where you record the changes in your child for the better, or worse leaving nothing to chance. This is why this therapy is so effective and gets results more often than any other intervention.

Reinforces: How to make them effective

We talked about token boards and how they help reinforce good behavior during Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy sessions. But there is a way you can improve on the token boards and other reinforces to make them as effective as possible. Your therapist should use some of the following methods to help your child move forward through their skills quickly.

When offering a token or sticker for each completed task, your therapist will ensure it is given as soon as the child completes the task. It is here reinforcement will be the most powerful, mostly due to instant gratification. If you promise a treat later for doing something they were asked to do, the behavior change will not be as rapid. This is why stickers and tokens on hand are such an amazing tool, there’s no wait period.

The stickers, token or reward must also mean something to the child/teenager. If the reward isn’t very exciting, then it’s not motivating. Sure they might do it for the benefit of getting a sticker, but they’d do it with more gusto and energy if that sticker was of their favorite cartoon character and not a gold star.

The therapist should give the treat frequently. It would be a little ineffective to tell your child, ‘if you behave all day you can get a sticker.’ Not only is that unrealistic (who doesn’t make mistakes? What child doesn’t misbehave once or twice?) but the goal is out of reach, and the reward isn’t tangible. It’s not something they can easily imagine themselves receiving. Giving your reward frequently reminds your child how awesome it feels to get it.

The therapist should also make the reward exciting with the use of social engagement. Compliments, hyping up the gift, and being as positive about the reward as possible are some examples.

Another mistake newer ABA therapists make is turning the reward into a negative. Instead of saying, ‘if you don’t do X you won’t get this’, the therapist should say, ‘if you do X you will get this cool sticker!’ In an upbeat happy tone. Now the sticker is exciting, the praise is rewarding, and the outcome is something they want to work towards.

Just think about how it feels when someone tells you that you can’t have something unless you do as they say. Instantly we evaluate if we want that thing anyway, which makes us less likely to be happy about getting it. This is just human nature. One simple change in language can do a lot for any child.

ABA therapy is such a simple therapy really when broken down. From the outside it can be confusing and even a little scary at first, but when we look at it from a common sense angle, it’s little wonder why this therapy is so vastly used in all sorts of fields. Tokens, and stickers are nothing new, and if you ever have any issues with how they are used you can always ask the advice of your BCBA certified analyst or therapist.

A key piece of self-management puzzle is trying to identify emotional states and how they impact relationships

Emotional regulation for an Autistic child or adult is an important skill to have; being able to read body language and know when your behavior is appropriate can help you keep relationships and jobs.

If your Autistic child can’t recognize emotions in others or explain their own emotions, it can lead to a lot of undesirable behavior. They could get aggressive, they could bully, they could say inappropriate things, lose jobs, break relationships and much of it could be down to a misunderstanding.  Because an Autistic child doesn’t look at people’s faces often, or make eye contact, they miss a lot of the social interaction cues that babies learn early. Applied Behavioral Analyses (ABA) aims to put this development back on track. There are a few ways this can be done. One is with a picture system where each emotion is shown and the child points it out. Another is by displaying the emotion on your face, exaggerating it, and teaching the child to recognize it. But ultimately, the therapist will be aiming to make social interaction rewarding for your child. The more social interaction they are exposed to, the more they will learn through opening up discussion, and encouragement. Another way that therapist teach older children who have begun school, is with social stories. These are basic, short stories that explain a social scenario. They run through emotions, situations and appropriate way to respond to scenarios in a form that a small child could understand. 

Once a child understands emotions in themselves and others, it will be easier for them to read situations and react appropriately. Keeping their relationships healthy and giving them a much needed skill that they can utilize for the rest of their life.

Why the ABC's of ABA are important

Applied behavioral analyses therapy  (ABA) applies a tool that behavioral analyses use called ABC – Antecedent, behavior, consequence. This is a technique used in many behavioral therapies and is the foundation of why we do what we do, as human beings.

Every single parent has a behavior that we would like to change in our child, even if they aren’t Autistic. We wish they would put their socks away, not tantrum, go to bed on time or do their homework without being asked. As parents we negotiate, punish and set boundaries to help our child achieve the behaviors they need once they enter the world without us. ABC breaks down these behaviors into three parts to help us analyze and get the results we’re looking for.

If you’ve ever wondered why you’ve told your child 100 times not to do something? And think you’re setting the right punishment or reward for the behavior but are getting nowhere? Perhaps you aren’t looking at the antecedent.

What is an Antecedent?

An antecedent is a stimulus that occurs before the negative behavior. Such as: an action, circumstance or persons presence. It cues or sets off a certain reaction. It moulds our behavior— which is why ABA therapists will look at this first. If you can change the antecedent, you can change the negative behavior your child is displaying.

Here is an example of why looking at an antecedent can help…

A child is asked to sit in circle time during class. Instead, the child sits in the corner and waits for the teacher to drag the child back to the circle. The child continues this behavior until the teacher makes him sit at her feet as punishment.

In this scenario the child appears to not be interested in circle time and so is reprimanded and forced to so he doesn’t escape the situation. But look closer and you can see the real reason the child is running from the circle. To sit next to the teacher! If the teacher changed the antecedent (where the child is asked to sit in circle time) and instead asks the child to sit next to her, she could avoid this situation all together.

Behaviors occur in situations where they are reinforced; this is important to remember because rewarding a child works better than punishing them. So if you redirect the child to something else (in this case sitting next to the teacher), and interfere with the trigger or antecedent, over time the child’s behavior will be reduced.

Antecedents help us to remember to look at the root of the issue so we can turn the situation into a positive that helps our child function better in the world. And that’s why an ABA therapist will look closely at your child’s ABC’s.   

                                       

If Your Child Has Aggression Along with Autism, Then Here Are Some Reasons to Why.

Aggression in Autistic children is common, but it can be an embarrassing thing to deal with – even for the child. Aggression interferes with so much; from school, to play dates and sadly sibling relationships.

There are many reasons a child with Autism might act out by pinching, biting, shoving or hitting.

1.     They may feel stressed; if their routine is off, or they are in a place that triggers sensory issues

2.     Aggression could be the only way they have to communicate right now

3.     They could be trying to get out of a situation with an adult or child, or avoiding something they don’t want to do

4.     They could even be looking for you to react

None of these things mean that your child is ‘bad’. But Applied Behavioral Analyses (ABA) helps to put a stop to these behaviors once a for all. ABA looks at why the child is reacting in this way. Getting to the root of the issue gives us the tools to fix it. Once the therapist gets to the root of the issue, they can transform the violence into positive acts.

Your ABA therapist might do this using redirection. Such as showing the child a positive alternative. If your child is shoving a child away, they will teach the child to verbalize their feelings instead. If a child is told they can’t touch something, they will be given something they can touch instead. Using negative reactions, such as scolding, and scowling, only teaches the child they can distract you from the situation, avoid situations with ease or get attention with this negative behavior. It doesn’t teach them what they should do instead.

The goal of ABA is to teach your child positive behaviors, through positive rewards. So ultimately your child can grow to be confident, happy and ready to face the world without the use of aggression.

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Verbal Behavioral Therapy Works and Just Because A Child Is Nonverbal Doesn’t Mean There Is No Hope.

Verbal Behavior (VB) therapy is a branch of Applied Behavioral Analyses therapy (ABA); it helps non-verbal children to become vocal and use words with meaning. Having a child who is non-verbal is scary, for both the child and the parents involved, but there is hope even if your child is severely delayed. Recently a study showed that children, who cannot speak by the age of four, can learn how to speak – something that was deemed unlikely. The study can be found here.

B.F. Skinner was a famous psychologist who wrote a book on verbal behavior and developed many of the theories that ABA is based on. B.F. Skinner said that language comes in types:

Mand – To ask for something, such as juice

Tact – A label of an object, such as circle, when something is round

Intraverbal – A way to answer a question, such as where do you live?

Echoic – When your child repeats what is said

Because of these different types of speech, your therapist looks at what is the most basic and works their way up. In this case, a Mand would be most basic, which is why a child will learn to ask for juice by saying ‘juice’, and not ‘I’m thirsty’ when they begin.

VB therapists today also work on play skills, self-help skills, social skills and complying with instructions. They do this using discrete trial training, natural environment teaching and manding to name a few.

Just like ABA, VB doesn’t let the child feel they got the answer wrong. Autistic children receive little positive feedback as they don’t engage in the world in the same way other children do. To achieve a positive learning environment, the child is re-directed and lavished in praise to solidify the positive re-enforcement process – that will ultimately help your child learn in the real world.

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Is Your Child Sync with ABA Therapy and School? If Not Here Are Some Tools You Can Use to Get ABA Therapy and School Aligned.

Applied Behavioral Analyses therapy (ABA) helps to change behaviors that hinder your child’s development – when they have a diagnosis of Autism and other similar issues. But this therapy alone will not push your child to the heights of their learning abilities. It’s important that all areas of the child’s life are in sync – which is why it’s great to have an ABA therapist willing to be in contact and work with schools.

All Therapists Should be in Sync with ABA

Some schools provide OT, speech and other services that help improve your child’s quality of life, but they have the luxury of syncing these lessons together. If your ABA therapist is on the outside of this team, they can’t work as a whole. This is why, as a parent and ABA therapist, it’s important to be on top of the lessons the child is learning in all areas of their lives.

But what if your child is struggling in school and not progressing with peers? Or the school is not providing any therapy at all?

Some Autistic Children Do Not Cope in School

A child who absolutely cannot function in a social, verbal learning environment due to sensory issues will often exhibit strong sensory pre-occupation; they may seem inattentive, or exhibit bad or repetitive behavior. This is typical for a lower functioning Autistic child. It can be so distracting for your child and sometimes even painful, it’s almost impossible for them to learn in a school environment.

If this sounds like your child, ABA and homeschooling/shorter days should be thought about. Postponing regular schooling to correct sensory/learning problems doesn’t make you a bad parent. If a child cannot concentrate in a group setting, they won’t be gaining anything out of it anyway.

However, some schools simply aren’t trying hard enough. Hiring your ABA therapist to go in and investigate the school environment should be step one. They can identify the issues in the classroom and report back what isn’t working for your child and work with your child’s teacher who likely hasn’t been trained correctly. Using this method you can fight for better resources – and sometimes, unfortunately, it will be a fight.

Is ABA More Important than School?

ABA can help a child learn to learn, help a child overcome sensory issues and engage in the world outside of themselves. If your child can’t participate in a school setting, perhaps thinking about intense ABA therapy before school would be the best way to go. As a parent it’s best not to feel guilty about this; a child learning how to live in the world is more important than the skill of counting which can be taught at any age. With that said…

A child is not required to enter school until they are 6 years of age on or before September 1^st of the year they will enter school. But if pushing back school entirely makes you uncomfortable, you can also consider shorter school days in order to add extra ABA therapy or even home school entirely.

ABA therapy should be a compliment to your child’s schooling and should always come first if a child is struggling greatly. As a parent, it’s important to communicate with schools and our children’s therapist to know what course of action needs to be taken.

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Routine and Children with Autism

At first it may seem simple, stacking blocks, lining up trains all in a row, always wanting to drink from the “red cup”. These are some of the behaviors that parents report their child with autism exhibits. The reason can sometimes be because of their difficulty expressing themselves, they feel safe and with less anxiety when routines are set. Unfortunately, the real world does not always work that way, which can create frustration in both the child and parent.

Children with autism like routines. Keeping with the same therapists and schedule can help to minimize outbursts and problem behaviors. Sleeping in the same bed can help the child feel safe at night. However, wanting to always eat out of their yellow bowl, or always having to sit in the same place in the car may make the child feel better but would not be helping in the long run. A skilled behavior analyst can help with softening that rigidity as well as teach a whole new set of important skills to help the child develop and to make the household more typical.

Far too often people get comfortable with doing things to “keep the peace” in the home to the detriment of their child. A lollipop to prevent a tantrum here, going the long way to daycare there, may seem like minor occurrences but they can be powerful messages sent to a child with autism of how things “should” be.

Breaking children from routines can be difficult at first. It is not usually recommended to try it yourself. Enlisting the help of an experienced Board Certified Behavior Analyst can make all the difference. Along with a good therapist, the child can be gradually introduced to new stimuli and breaks in their routine, in a safe environment until the child no longer reacts so harshly to change. 

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Communication to get Autistic Child's Needs Met

Most children with autism have a difficult time communicating. Imagine being thirsty looking up at a cup of water that you just can’t reach. Imagine that everyone around you can reach up to get that water and if you only knew how to ask, you too could have the water. But you can’t form the words. What do you do?

Many children with Autism live out this scenario daily when they have needs and they can’t figure out a way to get them met. They may hit you, throw something, point, grunt, scream, or just start crying. Why can’t you just see that they want the water?

 Maybe after trying a series of a few inappropriate behaviors, someone tries to console them by offering water. Ahhhh, finally. Now unfortunately, a new pattern of abnormal behavior has just been set. Child with autism thinks, when I threw, cried and hit, I got water. Ok then.

Many therapist like to call these inappropriate behaviors maladaptive, when you think about it, the child modified his behavior to get his needs met. Whether it was appropriate or not, it got his needs met. That’s why we as therapist, teachers and parents, need to help teach the children more appropriate ways of getting their needs met.

And because many kids with autism have problems communicating, much of the behavioral problems can be reduced significantly if the child just knew how to ask for what he or she wants. When people learn how to get their needs met, the whole world opens up to them. Now imagine again being thirsty and calmly and confidently saying “may I have a drink of water please”. You immediately get the water.

These results are not uncommon when utilizing ABA with a competent Board Certified Behavior Analyst. ABA usually focuses on teaching skills which are socially relevant to the child. This usually results in less stress on the teachers, the family and ultimately the child.

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