Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that affects how children interact and communicate with others. If you are a parent of a child with ASD, then it may be challenging to try and connect with them, but learning about these disorders and what methods have helped others can help you foster a healthier relationship with your child. For parents with children on the severe side of the spectrum, connecting with your child may even seem impossible. Among the many types of therapies out there, our therapists at Behaven Kids offer autism services that will work with you and your children through ABA therapy.
How ABA Therapy Can Help You and Your Child
Applied behavioral analysis, known as ABA therapy, is a therapy that focuses on improving social, learning, and communication skills through reinforcement techniques. These reinforcement techniques work to encourage desired behaviors and discourage undesired behaviors, but each ABA treatment depends on the individual and their parents to create a successful treatment plan for them. As board-certified behavioral analysts, we work with parents to identify certain behaviors and social areas that can be improved on and design treatment plans that work with your child in mind.
ABA therapy can provide many benefits when used in a positive, healthy environment. ABA therapy promotes positive outcomes such as:
- Improved social skills: a common deficit observed in children diagnosed with an ASD is on social skills due to a variety of reasons, including lack of motivation to attend to social stimuli or attention to other signs in their environment. Using ABA our clinicians can access such deficits and teach skills that are crucial for a better quality of life.
- Improved use of functional communication: children diagnosed with an ASD may engage in challenging behaviors to communicate their wants and needs, or may withdraw and not communicate their needs and wants et all. ABA will help teach them how to appropriately request for what they want and need.
- Improved functional skills: deficits in functional skills are often observed in children diagnosed with ASD. ABA clinicians will assess areas such as daily functional living (e.g., brushing teeth, getting dressed), school related skills (e.g., packing backpack for school, doing homework), community skills (e.g., crossing the street) and many more. Goals to address such deficits are identified with the input of client and families.
- Decreased challenging behaviors: it is not uncommon to observe challenging behaviors with children diagnosed with an ASD. Through the use of ABA, clinicians will understand the reasons why the behaviors occur in the first place and will work with the client to teach replacement behaviors that serve similar functions.
Overall, our therapists will work with you to emphasize skills that enable your child to become independent and successful and can offer parents supportive learning skills to help engage with their children in healthier ways. Our BCBAs will implement personalized behavioral plans to reduce challenging behaviors and improve their adaptive learning, social, and communication skills. Through ABA therapy, we focus on techniques and methods that enable your child to communicate better, socialize with others, and interact with the world in a way that’s healthy and beneficial for life. For more information about the tools and techniques we use for ABA therapy, please schedule an appointment with our daycare and therapy center today.