ABA Basics

I've mentioned ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) before and a little about what it is. Short of a little miracle - for parents, is the science of controlling and predicting behavior. The person who came up with it and how to apply it, truly was inspired and blessed. It is a process that is amazing to watch, and when you have good behavior instructors working with the kids, you can learn almost as much as your children. We have been blessed to be working with a company, Holdsambeck and Associates, that not only allows but encourages parental involvement. I realize that we are blessed so that I am able to stay home to teach, learn from and raise our boys. I have learned more about how to deal with them as a parent in the past two years with ABA than the almost 5 years they have been with us.

Watching the instructors work with the boys - they have a remarkable amount of patience - and I have learned so much. I have been at my wits end with each of the boys as to how to discipline them. During the foster/adopt program we went through every class you could imagine available at the local colleges on child rearing and discipline.  It is not at all the same as disciplining a typical child. We have tried time outs, reverse psychology, taking away items - most turned out to be a joke in our case. Truth be told, none of them worked in any way shape or form. The only thing that has worked, I learned from the ABA. They reward good behavior, firmly say no to the bad unwanted behavior, and redirect them back to what they are to be doing.

                                                                                

Another thing I learned was from another behavior instructor, from another department of Holdsambeck, and that is we need to remember to acknowledge good behavior when we can. If your child(ren) are playing quietly in another room, and of course if they're too quiet you check on them (just to be sure they're not doing something they shouldn't be) - if they are playing nicely, acknowledge that. You can say something like "good playing quietly" or "nice playing" something positive to acknowledge that you know they are doing good. To often we punish the improper behavior (and of course we need to redirect their behavior), but most of us forget to acknowledge when our kiddos are being good.

The wonderful thing about being involved with the work your kiddos are doing, it allows you to either relay information your ABA - Autism Clinical Coordinator, school and your family. Even better, get your teachers and ABA coordinator together - at least at an iep meeting. They can always fill the teacher in on what they see from the data, and the teacher can fill in the ABA coordinator on how the little kiddos are doing in class. You learn how to deal with your kiddos and you learn what they can and can't do, what's new that they need to work on and what needs to be worked on so they don't forget what they've learned.

So much information to process, so many terms to learn, so many processes to - well, process. There is always new terminology, all kinds of abbreviations, and so many different programs to research. The best thing to do is take it one step at a time. Learn like you did in school - one step at a time. With ABA in particular (and those who generally work one on one with someone on the spectrum) instructors will use different "trials" to work with. Each has it's own purpose. The ABA teaching methods, in our case, are Discrete Trial Training and Naturalistic Teaching.

• In discrete trials - there is a beginning, a middle and an end. I was taught to remember "A,B,C" which stands for Antecedent (request - "touch your nose"); Behavior (The child does or doesn't do what is requested); Consequence (Reinforcement - either "good job" or "try again" sometimes the reinforcer is a preferred object to work for, so they either get it or they try again)
• In Naturalistic Teaching - the instructor interacts with the child in a spontaneous and individualized way, so that they interact verbally in a naturally occurring activity in the child's environment

There is a lot more to these teaching methods, but these are the basics. I'm sure I'll write more about it later as it comes to me, as being relevant anyway.    :)