A tool that can help to reduce your child's anxiety

Children who have Autism often have trouble with transitions. A transition is just a fancy way of saying, going from one activity to the next, or one place to the next. Applied Behavioral Analyses (ABA) has plenty of tools in its toolbox to help your child overcome the meltdowns, or negative behaviors that occur after or during the transition.

This article talks about visual schedules…

Autistic children love routine and love knowing what’s going to happen next. Think about it this way:

A friend says they’re taking you away for the weekend. They want you to pack everything you need within 2 minutes so you can leave right away. If you don’t pack in time, you’re leaving any way and can’t gather what you need. You aren’t allowed to know the location, who is going to be there, or any clues to what you might need with you.

The scenario is a little exciting sure, but incredibly stressful. Do you pack jeans? Something formal? Hiking gear? Will you need soap? Will you need a towel? Can you gather your tools to be successful on this trip fast enough?

Springing a transition on an Autistic child is a lot like the above scenario. Without a schedule there is no walk-through, your child doesn’t know what to prepare for, what tools they might need from their coping toolbox, who might be there or how they’re expected to act socially. When a new activity is dropped on them out of nowhere, it’s akin to trying to pack a suitcase in 30 seconds flat…Oh and listen to what your parent tells you to do and do it right away! It is horribly overwhelming.

Knowing this, it’s a little wonder your child might be tantrumming, throwing their toys, or just plain sulking and refusing to go. After all, they probably don’t have the same tools an adult would, to navigate the situation.

A visual schedule is essentially pictures of all the locations your child will be visiting that day. Perhaps it’s different classes, or Grandma’s house. Whatever it is, take a picture and put it up on an hour by hour schedule and talk to your child about what you will be doing that day. Warn your child 30 minutes before you have a transition, and use the picture during a transition, to explain what is happening next. 

Once your child becomes familiar with the routine, and locations, things may get better. This is just a quick explanation, your ABA therapist can use these tools and more to help reduce your child’s anxiety.

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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Find Out How Natural Environment Training Works And Be Applied Every Day

Natural Environment Training (NET) is part of Applied Behavioral Analyses therapy (ABA). NET works with the natural environment around the child and moves learning from a desk to the real world; something that ABA promotes. This is fantastic for generalization and promoting skills that have already been taught. NET also works with natural motivators; these are toys and objects around the home (or therapy office) that the child would like to play with or use. This technique isn’t about the traditional sit-down and learn, it focuses on the child’s ability to learn whilst they play.

NET is a great thing to implement in the home because it uses your environment to teach your child the skills they learned in therapy. For example, if your child is working on how to say goodbye and hello, you can help them wave to people who come to visit, or when you take them to daycare, or anywhere else you can think of. To do this, you model the desired behavior for the child and make a big, fun, parade out of saying hello or goodbye everywhere you go.

ABA is all about collecting data and using structure, and reward, to help a child learn certain skills. But when you switch to using NET techniques the therapy becomes louder, with plenty of speech and exciting play. NET can get spontaneous and uses your child’s desires to help teach them. The therapist may set up a color matching game for the child to play, as they could be learning colors, but then have to switch to manding as the child asks for different objects.

If you’re wondering as a parent what this would look like, the therapist should be talking a lot about everything they are doing. They should model behaviors (showing the child how to correctly do things), they should ask questions, and use the world around the child to engage in what they want to engage in. This shouldn’t be a forced, stiff point in the therapy. It should look much like when you talk to a very young child about the world around them, commenting on everything you are doing.

NET is a thrilling part of ABA for an Autistic child. Children on the spectrum can’t often play appropriately, and so don’t learn through play as well as other children would. This is precisely what NET helps to promote, play, joy, and learning, all rolled into one.

10 Facts You Must Know About Applied Behavioral Analyses

Applied Behavioral Analyses therapy (ABA) is a fantastic therapy for Autistic children, to help them keep up with peers, learn life skills and develop into happier adults.

Here are ten remarkable facts you might not know about ABA.

1.     ABA continues to be researched and practiced, for more than 35 years. The original name of the therapy was Behavioral Modification, which goes back even further to the early 1900’s.

2.     ABA therapy is supported by the Association for Science in Autism Research, the Surgeon General and the National Institute of Health.

3.     This therapy can be performed at any age, but works best on younger children.

4.     It works anywhere, from school to home and work life. Fostering generalization across all areas of life ensures your Autistic child can live life to the fullest anywhere.

5.     90% of Autistic individuals who underwent ABA, at 40 hours a week, substantially improved. (Lovaas, 1987, study of intensive behavioral treatment)

6.     45% of therapies develop long-lasting and observable results – according to the Surgeon General Autism treatment report. ABA is one of these.

7.     ABA is not all table work; a child learns in the real world too!

8.     Corporate punishment is not a part of this therapy.

9.     ABA is used to quit smoking, help personality disorders, air those with OCD and counsel relationships. It is also used in the workplace, and with athletes.

10.  No two ABA programs are the same. By its, nature ABA is tailored towards the child so that every ABA therapy will look different.

11.  Since ABA is personalized, it is also a data driven therapy. Lots of information and facts are written down and recorded about your child to help them progress.

12.  Bribes are not used during ABA, re-enforcements are. This means a child is not told they will get something if they do something; the positive behavior is praised after the child has performed the needed action or behavior.