When I decided to leave education and pursue my masters in occupational therapy, I learned through online forums one way to make my application to OT school stand out was by having ABA experience. This experience has paid it’s dividends in a number of ways:

• I got into an OT program!
• ABA therapy helped me learn to give my own daughter communication tools that we still use today
• It helps me understand my therapy clients more deeply (more on this later)

ABA therapy has proven to be the gold standard for autism treatment, and when implemented correctly can teach almost any skill to any person, with or without autism.

In the ABA clinic we would treat patients with autism, but also a number of patients with inappropriate behavioral habits without an actual autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis.

So what in the world is ABA?

ABA stands for Applied Behavior Analysis. The core of ABA is the manipulating the behavior chain through the A-B-C’s:

In ABA, therapists determine how to manipulate the antecedent and consequence to alter undesired behaviors, with the assumption that every behavior happens for a reason. Every behavior is a means of communication. Every behavior has a purpose. Yes, even the tantrums and screaming!

Antecedent is what happens before a behavior. Antecedents can be verbal, for example a command or request. They can also be an object, or an environmental factor such as light, sounds. Alternatively, they can also be something internal such as thoughts or feelings.

Behavior is anything that can be physically observed and is a direct response or non-response to the antecedent.

Consequence is what directly follows the behavior, such as positive reinforcement, raising your voice, counting to ten, frustration, punishment, etc. It can also be natural consequences such as losing an item, falling, and getting injured.

Behavior is a Form of Communication

Since every behavior is a means of communication, then our job in ABA is to give the child (or adult) a more appropriate way to communicate their needs and desires by understanding and changing the antecedents and appropriate consequences to behaviors.

ABA uses a number of approaches to teach new communication to patients, but the most commonly used ones (and the ones I use with my own patients) are:

• Positive reinforcement
• Errorless learning
• Forward and Backward chaining

Because ABA addresses what comes before and after the behavior, therapists who utilize ABA are intentional about using strategies to make transitions between activities run smoothly. For example, many children on the autism spectrum struggle with changes in a routine. To circumvent a complete meltdown, these children are often supplied with a visual calendar which empowers them with knowledge of what is to come, and what is coming next.

I plan to break down specific ABA strategies in follow-up posts, so please stay tuned!

Follow Therahappy on Facebook & Instagram for more tips!

Book a free 15 minute consult to see if our Primitive Reflex Integration program is right for your child.