Posted by Ashley, Special Educator & Peri, Licensed Psychologist and BCBA
How many times have you wished you could change the behavior of the people around you? Whether it be your spouse, your colleagues, your friends, or your children, most of us wish we could change someone's behavior at some point during our day! Well, we are here to share a little secret with you: you can change behavior! That is what the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is all about! The principles of ABA are founded in the idea that all behavior is learned and that all behavior can be modified. And, fortunately, these principles are not a secret! In fact, they are a science! We are here to share them with you! While we are closet (or maybe not-so-closet) nerds who enjoy reading ABA textbooks, we realize that most people do not! Our goal here is to take that information and break it down in a way that is useful to those of you who are not ABA nerds like us! Now let's get down to business...
Monday, October 22, 2012
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
What's the Point of Center-Based Intervention?
Posted by Ashley, Special Educator
In the field of Early Intervention, the majority of services are provided within a child's home. This is a widely accepted model and there are many advantages to home-based instruction. One primary strength is that the child is being taught in his/her home environment, hopefully making the instruction age-appropriate, natural, and meaningful. This allows therapists the wonderful opportunity to integrate instruction into the child's already existing daily routines (e.g. making lunch, brushing teeth, getting the mail, etc.)! It is also beneficial because it makes parent involvement a little easier. When therapy is provided in the home, parents are more likely to be included and to be treated as collaborative partners, which is hugely important! It also allows regular opportunities for the therapists and caretakers to observe one another and offer support. So, with all of these great benefits to home-based instruction, what's the point of center-based intervention? (Hint: there are many benefits, so keep reading!)
In the field of Early Intervention, the majority of services are provided within a child's home. This is a widely accepted model and there are many advantages to home-based instruction. One primary strength is that the child is being taught in his/her home environment, hopefully making the instruction age-appropriate, natural, and meaningful. This allows therapists the wonderful opportunity to integrate instruction into the child's already existing daily routines (e.g. making lunch, brushing teeth, getting the mail, etc.)! It is also beneficial because it makes parent involvement a little easier. When therapy is provided in the home, parents are more likely to be included and to be treated as collaborative partners, which is hugely important! It also allows regular opportunities for the therapists and caretakers to observe one another and offer support. So, with all of these great benefits to home-based instruction, what's the point of center-based intervention? (Hint: there are many benefits, so keep reading!)
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Responding to Name
Posted by Ashley, Special Educator
As we know, based on diagnostic criteria, individuals with autism display marked differences in the areas of socialization and communication [more information]. Differences in these areas are required in order to receive an autism diagnosis. What this means may vary from child to child. Differences in these areas may vary drastically in both degree and form. Remember that every child is a unique individual. However, although every child is different, there are sometimes specific areas of need that are common to many (not all) of our students. One of these areas is responding to one's name (i.e. acknowledging when someone has called your name).
As we know, based on diagnostic criteria, individuals with autism display marked differences in the areas of socialization and communication [more information]. Differences in these areas are required in order to receive an autism diagnosis. What this means may vary from child to child. Differences in these areas may vary drastically in both degree and form. Remember that every child is a unique individual. However, although every child is different, there are sometimes specific areas of need that are common to many (not all) of our students. One of these areas is responding to one's name (i.e. acknowledging when someone has called your name).
Friday, October 5, 2012
"Play" Is Not A Four Letter Word
Posted by Ashley, Special Educator
...Okay, so maybe it is a four-letter word, but not the bad kind!
Very often when people think about Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), they immediately picture a miserable-looking child sitting at a desk with a therapist who is running mass trials (i.e. drilling the child). The therapist presents all instructions and praise using a monotone and robotic voice, then pats the child on the head, hands over a cookie, and records some data. Yes, I too have seen these scary YouTube videos! I'll be honest with you: these types of therapists and programs do exist. In my opinion, this type of therapy is grossly outdated. This is what you need to know: although that type of ABA may exist, it does not represent all therapists or all programs. It certainly does not represent our "Getting the Words Out" team, if we haven't already made that clear! Our core behavioral belief system is probably pretty consistent with those therapists [see posts on ABA and Behavior Modification], but our implementation and practice is quite different! It's those old-school-totally-uncool-therapists who give our beloved ABA a bad reputation!
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
A Peek into the World of Sensory Integration
Posted by Nicole, Occupational Therapist
Learning the language of Sensory Integration can be an overwhelming task without previous knowledge of what sensory processing actually means. As an Occupational Therapist who provides treatment to children recently diagnosed with Autism and PDD who also have sensory processing deficits; I receive lots of feedback from parents having trouble understanding what Sensory Integration and what the different terms mean.
Learning the language of Sensory Integration can be an overwhelming task without previous knowledge of what sensory processing actually means. As an Occupational Therapist who provides treatment to children recently diagnosed with Autism and PDD who also have sensory processing deficits; I receive lots of feedback from parents having trouble understanding what Sensory Integration and what the different terms mean.
What's this "PDD" thing all about?
Posted by Peri, Licensed Psychologist, Board Certified Behavior Analyst
As the psychologist of this group, I feel very strongly
about addressing the role of a child’s diagnosis in early intervention, what it all means, and how if effects our families.
In my beginning stages of working in Early Intervention, I spent a significant amount of time doing evaluations for young children; the purpose usually being to
diagnose or rule-out Autism. Now as the
director of the ABA center-based program, I rarely conduct evaluations because my current role is to provide clinical and administrative support for the
program. Part of this role involves
doing tours and intakes with families; and what I’ve found during this process
has made me petrified for families beginning the evaluation process for early
intervention. It frequently boggles my
mind with the inappropriate (or mostly complete lack of) information that is
provided to parents when their child receives a psychological evaluation. More times than not, parents walk into my
school for a tour and say, “My child has PDD.
What’s that?”
Let's Get Related!
Posted by Dani, Speech-Language Pathologist
Hello everyone and thanks for reading my second blog post! The goal of my blogs is to inform the reader but keep it social so that everyone can enjoy it :) A significant number of kiddos that I work with are missing the pre-linguistic skills of communication (pre-linguistic = before speaking). Relatedness is a prerequisite to functional communication. What is relatedness?
Hello everyone and thanks for reading my second blog post! The goal of my blogs is to inform the reader but keep it social so that everyone can enjoy it :) A significant number of kiddos that I work with are missing the pre-linguistic skills of communication (pre-linguistic = before speaking). Relatedness is a prerequisite to functional communication. What is relatedness?
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