I am not a Behavior Therapist. I only play one in real life. As a parent of a child who has Autism and Apraxia, I have learned a lot about behavior strategies and ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis). This knowledge has, in turn, helped our son become independent and compliant across multiple classroom and life settings.
Motivating a child with is hard. Inspiring a non-verbal child to talk, socialize and comply is stuff that you will not find discussed in most play groups. Why? Because success is not easily achieved in an instant, rather it is the result of a well thought out and executed plan.
That plan, the gold standard, in the world of Autism is ABA. It’s not bullet proof but it’s pretty close. When done successfully, it motivates a child on the spectrum to comply and achieve what other students take for granted.
Our son, Wyatt, loves it because the strategy uses his favorite things to motivate him: SpongeBob, IHOP, Sonic, Thomas the Tank Engine, Disney World and many more. After all, everyone likes to get paid for doing a good job. Children on the spectrum are no different.
As I said, I am not a real behavior therapist. I am just a parent. However, I have been blessed to work with some amazing professionals who are trained behavior therapists. Everything I have learned is from their training and advisement. I refer to this group of as “Team Wyatt.”
The team is made up of private professionals my husband and I have hired and professionals from our local school district. Although there is a dedicated and amazing school team. I built “Team Wyatt” to include other professionals including our pediatrician, our therapists, our priest, and our family.” It takes more than a village to raise a child with special needs!
So why am I so high on ABA to motivate my son? After all we have used many strategies. We have spent a fortune on learning PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System), sign language, and a Dynavox. We also have paid for thousands of dollars of physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. All of this with no regrets. After all they have brought us to where we are today.
Here is the "down and dirty" on why ABA works and why it has helped our son move from a self-contained classroom to a general education program called Project CHILD (Changing How Instruction for Learning is Delivered):
1. The program uses positive reinforcement and other principals to build communication, play, social, academic, self-care, work and community living skills to reduce problem behaviors.
2. It is highly structured by adults. However, it uses the child’s interests and follows the child’s initiation.
3. All skills are broken down into small steps. This provides my son the opportunity to learn and practice the skill in a variety of settings with lots of my son’s favorite rein forcers.
4. Performance is tracked on a daily basis. Although the school team takes data, I asked them to create a sheet that reports daily on how our son does. If he complies, he earns a sticker for that day. The stickers are connected to a daily and weekly rewards.
5. It rewards my son for being independent and compliant. Each day my husband and I ask our son what he wants to work for. We try to make is something that does not cost money. Last year we build an entire SpongeBob Square Pants village out of boxes. It took over our entire house. However, he had a great fourth quarter! We also pick a prize for five stickers in a week. In addition, we determine a BIG prize for him to work towards. This way he is also learning about goal setting: daily, weekly and monthly.
6. ABA enables a child to function independently and across many settings. That in a nutshell is the ultimate prayer I have for my son.
Please understand, we are far from being called "perfect parents." Our son still has a long road ahead of him. However, we are always willing to share what we have learned and what we are still learning to help encourage other parents and children.