I'm just an SLP livin in an ABA world... :)

Posted by Dani, Speech-Language Pathologist

Hello everyone! This is my first time blogging so hang in there! I am a part of a dynamic team of amazingly intelligent and passionate women who kick some major butt at their jobs (to quote Heather from Real Housewives of New York City- "HOLLAA!!") and I represent the "Speechie" of the group.

Like many speechies, I was groomed against ABA (applied behavior analysis) during my undergrad and graduate years (I more specifically remember my grad school childhood language professor emphasizing the unnaturalness of using ABA for language development). All in all- I was taught that ABA is this terrible old school way of teaching children.


So, all of that anti-ABA grooming naturally brings me to my first job out of grad school at an  ABA-based Early Intervention Center. This job was everything I wanted, 1- NYC 2- Early Intervention and 3- CENTER BASED!! (traveling through unfamiliar neighborhoods in Manhattan was daunting to me so the fact that I could come to work to the same place every day was important to me), but ABA? Don't they know that I'm a speech therapist and we do **NOT** do the whole ABA thing...?

I'm not sure I realized the comprehensiveness of the whole "ABA-ness" of the program when I was hired. Our center was VERY DIFFERENT back then (it's gotten to be (in my humble opinion) the BEST early intervention center in all of the land) and I was pretty much just left to do my thang and share my wealth of language knowledge with these psychologists who did their thang with the ABA. Nowadays, the entire center, even down to secretary and cleaning lady is expected to follow the principles of ABA (as instructed on a case-by-case basis when necessary).

I can vaguely remember my initial defensiveness ( "Well, maybe that's what they do in the classroom, but I'm the speech therapist so I don't do that....) When a child was crying, I would try to coax them into being happy by showering them with attention and hugs. When a child threw a toy across the room, I tried to find something else they liked better because clearly I was doing a lousy job of selecting fun toys. I tried to keep my session going without causing a tantrum because lets face it- tantrums are NOT fun and there's not a whole lot of speech and language going on when a child is screaming at the top of their lungs. Lets just say, my actions and philosophies have changed...just a tad! I have come to realize the necessity of managing a child's interfering behaviors as almost a pre-requisite to effective speech and language therapy.

I totally understand the fears of the "unnaturalness" of ABA (specially for language programs that are old-school) so there were some changes that I helped bring about in order to make all of our verbal programs as natural and functional as possible. (I will divulge these in a later blog)

 Peri (a psychologist and head teacher at the time) and I worked very well together to adapt current verbal programs to make them more natural and less robotic. All of the teachers for that matter took into consideration all of my ways of shaping their existing programs into more functional and natural language programs. By language, I mean: eye contact, attention, interaction, relatedness and communicative intents through signs, pictures and words. During this time where I was helping to shape ABA  verbal programs, I began to subconsciously develop a little crush on ABA. Working closely with Peri and the other psychologists, I began to see the power of ABA (specifically in eliminating interfering behaviors and increasing appropriate behaviors)-- the main attraction?? IT WORKS.

One of the first kiddos I ever had on my caseload used to try to escape the speech room by crying, throwing themselves on the floor, and working themselves up so much that they would (and did) vomit all over themselves and me too (what a treat!) I remember sitting in my room thinking, "What on earth am I doing to this poor child? Maybe I should just open the door and let them walk around to calm down, maybe pick them up and give them smooches...yah that sounds like a great idea"

 HALT! this would have been probably the worst thing I could have done..I didn't know then but the CONSISTENCY of  our reactions to children is basically the most important aspect of ABA. If I  had already let this child cry and react for 20 minutes, and then in the final 5 minutes I pick them up ( because  duh hes a baby crying and I love him), I would have just totally made things worse. This is because, the next time the child would be with me, he would know that eventually, at some point, he would be able to escape if he just cried long enough, or if that didn't work, maybe he'd try throwing himself at me, or throwing an object (heightening the behavior). For the record it took this child 3 weeks of tantrums before he was able to sit quietly in my room and engage in activities..but do you know how it felt that first day the child walked with me to speech, holding my hand and sat down in his chair ready to communicate and play? AMAZING! and worth it.

So this is in a nutshell how I find myself writing on this blog..being obsessed with ABA (I use it in real life across all relationships SHH dont tell) and continuing to remain my speechie self while adhering to the principles of the ONLY empirically supported form of behavior modifcation...Stay tuned for more! Specifically how I use ABA to guide language programs in my sessions and how sometimes my sessions look absolutely nothing like a speech therapy session!!