Children on the autism spectrum and their parents experience daily challenges. This includes people with developmental disabilities. ABA Therapy, or Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy, seeks to help each person work on skills that aid them in becoming more independent and successful now and in the future. Let’s investigate how teaching life skills through ABA Therapy helps in building independence.
What Does ABA Therapy Teach?
Whereas neurotypical children learn life skills through “living life” and help from their parents and peers, those on the autism spectrum can get lost. They need guidance and support to learn how to behave in all situations alone and with others.
Simple things most of us take for granted need to be slowly developed and enhanced, such as:
- Getting dressed
- Bathing
- Communication
- Responding to others
- Taking direction
- Eating
ABA Therapy begins as a certified therapist does an assessment of the child’s current skills and any deficits before goal setting begins. The goals will be specific and broken down into smaller parts. Every child is different, so the goals will be individualized.
ABA Therapy Strategies
Whatever skill is being taught is broken down into its parts. One example is getting dressed each day.
The scenario may be:
- Deciding on what clothes to wear and placing them on the bed
- Putting on clothes in the proper sequence, like beginning with underwear
- Putting on pants and securing closures with buttons or zipper
- Putting on a shirt or top
- Putting on shoes
Additionally ABA Therapy uses the following:
- Positive reinforcement to reward good or appropriate behavior based on the individual.
- Includes parents, family members and caregivers in learning the strategies to be able to support the therapist.
- Sometimes the therapist uses prompts to ease the child into the next step. These can be hand signals or written (or pictured) suggestions. Slowly this would stop as the child learns the next step without a prompt.
- Constantly compiling data and assessment to determine success.
ABA Therapy in Chicago and Highland
ABA Therapy has been used since the 1960s to help children with autism or other developmental disabilities gain many different skills including social, behavioral, improve attention, focus, memory, academics, increase language, and decrease problem behaviors.
You can choose from part time ABA, full time ABA, or even virtual ABA.
Contact Spectrum of Smiles for an assessment and to discuss how we can help your child on the autism spectrum. Call our Chicago office at (773) 322-1909, call our Highland office at (219) 419-8491, or request an appointment through our secure online form. We offer both in-home ABA therapy and in-clinic ABA therapy, and we’re here to help you choose which is best for your child.
Sources:
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) | Autism Speaks
The Top 10 Reasons Children With Autism Deserve ABA – PMC (nih.gov)
Benefits of Full-Time ABA Therapy for Kids with Autism (behavioral-innovations.com)
