autism daily

The Benefits of Using ABA at Home

When your child is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, it can seem like the entire world is changing. As your child develops or fails to develop, you may find it hard to engage in social situations with your child and find yourself frantically seeking help. The most commonly recommended method for helping to treat autism is what is known as ABA or Applied Behavior Analysis. ABA is a highly successful method of teaching children with autism spectrum disorders, and when applied intensively and early can help put many children on the same learning level as their peers. While ABA is not a cure for autism disorders, it does give children the capability to learn at their maximum potential. For many parents, ABA can be a very costly treatment. While many insurers will cover treatment, a number of people find themselves uninsured, facing only partial coverage, or even denied coverage. Other people simply feel that their child will be better suited to learn at home, at least in the beginning. While it is important for parents to understand that the primary goal of ABA is to ready their child for a standard regular school, home learning courses may be an excellent place to start. Whatever their reasoning for wanting to utilize ABA therapy at home, parents must be aware of the challenge and commitment that awaits them. The methodology of ABA is most effective when applied intensively, sometimes upwards of forty hours per week. It is crucial to always complete each task properly and fully to achieve the maximum benefit of Applied Behavior Analysis. Parents should also know that most children with an ASD are resistant to change and may exhibit an unwillingness to participate in ABA. This is not a reason to give up, and most children will not only come to accept the program, but most will find it highly enjoyable. In the end, ABA can be a very effective method for any child with an ASD, as long as it is properly taught. Teaching your developmentally disabled child will require a great deal of patience, work, and time and is not a decision to be taken lightly, but can be highly successful for the entire family. Applied Behavior Analysis has the potential to help your child function as normally as possible and home courses offer options to many who may otherwise be denied this powerful and effective treatment.

Christy Butch is the Mother of a 6 year old with autism and the founder of Maximum Potential Group Maximum Potential has developed courses that train parents and school systems how to work with children with autism http://www.maximumpotentialkids.com

Tips for Collecting Data During Home ABA Therapy

 For parents conducting intensive ABA or Applied Behavior Analysis therapy at home, collecting and tracking data can seem like a daunting task.  Some parents feel that they need to keep rigorous data in regards to every question to a degree that it hampers their ability to teach effectively, while some parents feel that they can rely on memory to track their child's progress and note both impairments and improvements.  The truth is that data collection is a delicate balance between ensuring that progress is properly noted without getting so wrapped up in details that the lesson suffers.  What follows are some basic tips for collecting data. It should first be noted that parents are encouraged to use data collection sheets.  Professionally designed to offer task analysis as well as the creation of easy to read graphs, data collection sheets simplify analyzing your child's progress with ABA therapy.  For parents who opt to create their own data records, however, there are some tips to simplify and streamline the process.  It is recommended to record data for separate sections and skills on separate sheets of paper and to document results only at the end of the lesson.     One tip many parents find helpful is to take a task such as getting dressed and break it down into smaller sections, such as choosing clothes, putting on underwear, putting on pants, putting on shirt, putting on sock, putting on shoes, putting pajamas in hamper, etc.  When each step is outlined, it becomes easy to outline which steps were taken without prompt and which required prompting.  This helps to outline trends and areas that need more work.  The same theory can apply for any activity, including things such as shape or color recognition, with notes being taken of shapes or colors recognized alone and those requiring a hint or prompt.  It is important to count only the child's first response and to be truthful in your data recording, as counting partial answers can skew data and harm your progress in the long run.    In short, data collection can be a relatively simple process even though it is highly important.  While professional collection sheets are recommended, many parents find success using their own data collection methods.  Applied Behavior Analysis relies heavily on the assessment of the data that is collected from each lesson, but as long as the proper data is recorded and the proper points are stressed and worked on, ABA is designed to help your child function as normally as possible. Christy Butch is the Mother of a 6 year old with autism and the founder of Maximum Potential Group. www.maximumpotentialkids.com

How Applied Behavior Analysis can Improve Social Skills

For parents who have a child with an autism spectrum disorder, public places can seem like scary places. Many parents of autistic children have learned to expect a series of glares and discouraging remarks when they take their young children out, as many children with autism have poorly developed social skills. The most commonly recommended treatment for children with an ASD, Applied Behavior Analysis has been proven time and time again to help children with autism develop social skills on par or close to those of children in their own peer groups.  ABA therapy utilizes a series of commands or requests to teach a child the appropriate response to a specific scenario. Because these children learn differently than other children they often have difficulty learning appropriate behaviors or the meaning of simple requests made of them. ABA works by teaching children the appropriate response to a situation and requiring them to mimic the response. Inappropriate responses are ignored, while correct responses are met with reinforcements such as candy, stickers, or even verbal praise. As the child learns these new behaviors, research shows that their brains are actually rewired, and that the process can literally teach the children to learn. ABA therapy serves to prepare children for school by teaching them a large number of skills including intellectual thinking, verbal communication, conveying emotions, and social behavior. Intensive Applied Behavior Analysis therapy consisting of forty or more hours per week is shown to not only help a large percentage of children develop skills on par with their peers, but to provide them skills that keep them on par throughout life. ABA is not a cure for autism, as no known cure exists, but it can help all children reach their maximum potential and to function as highly as possible within the limits of their abilities. In short, Applied Behavior Analysis helps children with autism spectrum disorders to develop a strong set of social skills that will help them in any setting. These skills translate not only into a school or public setting, but even into later life in workplace and business scenarios. The many skills built through ABA therapy are a testament to the continued success of the method and provide strong reason as to why it has been the preferred method of autism treatment for decades. Applied Behavior Analysis therapy has given hope and help to children and parents dealing with autism spectrum disorders for over 50 years and is still the leading treatment in the United States and the world. Christy Butch is the mother of a 6 year old with autism and the founder of Maximum Potential. Maximum Potential has created DVD courses that enable parents and school systems to develop affordable and effective ABA programs, http://www.maximumpotentialkids.com

How Flash Cards Aid Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy

ABA, or Applied Behavior Analysis, is the most commonly recommended treatment for children with autism spectrum disorders. Scientifically proven to greatly improve a child's ability to function in a classroom or other social environment as well as improving communication and learning ability, ABA helps children to live up to their maximum potential, offering many children a chance at recovery and functioning similarly to their traditional peers. ABA is not a cure, but it is a highly effective treatment and one of the biggest parts of an effective ABA therapy regimen is flash cards or picture cards. Here we will take a look at these cards and what makes them so successful within ABA therapy. Picture cards or flash cards are effective tools for fostering the mastery of new words and concepts. While many people think of flash cards as a great way to learn new words, such as stove or refrigerator, many people do not think of flash cards as a means of conveying emotions or concepts such as happy or sunny. In reality, picture cards are used for all of these purposes and more. Many parents and therapists even use flash cards as a means of sparking conversation as part of a standard intensive ABA therapy. Many teachers choose to use multiple picture cards to convey the same idea. This helps to teach a child the concept of the object or idea, giving them multiple views of the same thing and helping them to associate the concept with the word. In addition to providing examples of concepts and words, picture cards can involve a puzzle of sorts, requiring a child to figure out what is wrong with the picture, such as a door with no knob or a fish in a tree. This helps to develop reasoning and critical thinking skills. In short, much can be learned through the use of picture and flash cards throughout the entire ABA therapy process. From teaching basic words to complex concepts and even helping to promote critical reasoning skills, picture cards are a highly functional group of tools for parents who have a child with an autism spectrum disorder. Intensive ABA therapy is designed to help your child reach his or her maximum learning and functioning potential. Picture cards are an integral part of this process and can be crucial in helping your child learn to understand and communicate both simple and complex thoughts and ideas. Christy Butch is the mother of a 6 year old with autism and the founder of Maximum Potential. Maximum Potential has created DVD courses that enable parents and school systems to develop affordable and effective ABA programs, http://www.maximumpotentialkids.com

Behavior Management and Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA

Behavior management is one of the most talked about topics when discussing children with autism. Most of the discussion and programming is in the context of behavior reduction. Parents, teachers and care givers want to reduce inappropriate behaviors. It is important to know that everything we do is behavior. It is important to understand that this includes positive behavior as well. Language, interaction with peers, listening, responding and attending are all behaviors. What parents, teachers and care givers seek help with is reducing inappropriate behaviors. Children with autism have the same feelings as everyone else does. Stress, anxiety, excitement, and anger, are all typical feelings that children have. These in fact are feelings and not to be confused with behaviors. It is fine to feel stressed, anxious, excited, or angry, but it is not alright to fall in the floor screaming, hit, bite, or spit on someone because of those feelings. This is where behavior management can take place and reduce these reactions (or behaviors) to these feelings. First understand that there is always an antecedent to a behavior and a consequence following a behavior. This can be referred to as the ABC's. (Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence) When a child with autism has an inappropriate behavior like spitting, falling on the floor or hitting, the question has to be asked "What is the antecedent to this behavior?" One of the best examples is one told by Dr. Coby Lund PhD of Atlanta GA. There was a student that was in a particular school that spit frequently. It was not out of the norm for this child with autism to spit 50 or more times a day. So, what was the antecedent to this behavior? What was it that happened before this spitting occurred?More importantly, what was the consequence to this behavior? After observing this student and collecting data on his behavior, it was determined that the spitting occurred when unwanted demands were put on this child.The student wanted to escape and avoid demands, so he spit.  The demands can not change because being a child in school means this student will continue to have demands placed on him. He would still be asked to come sit at the table, or get in line, or write something.  In behavior management, the consequence is the crucial thing that can be changed to reduce the unwanted behavior. So in this instance and Applied Behavior Analysis program was implemented. The student had specific planned out demands placed on him by an instructor, teacher or peer. Initially the demand was something the student achieved success at quickly and easily. It might have been something as simple as asking him to come over to the table and touch the chair in the area he was to start working. Immediately the student is rewarded for touching the chair. And what was the reward? Getting to go do something he wanted which was escape and avoid demands. He got to immediately leave and go away from the table.  This program evolved over time and the demands became more demanding and the reward remained the same. Eventually this student learned that it was much easier to work and be rewarded with escape avoidance than always try to escape and avoid the demands. The student learned to accept the demands placed on him and in return would get time away from the demands as a reward. Applied Behavior Analysis programs like these can be created for children with inappropriate behaviors and give parents, teachers and care givers a plan of what to do with these children. The inappropriate behaviors will decrease and cease all together. The adults will have a sense of control and not helplessness and the environment is much more enjoyable when there is time spent rewarding a child instead of continuously correcting or punishing the child.

  Christy Butch is the mother of a 6 year old with autism and the founder of Maximum Potential. Maximum Potential has created DVD courses that enable parents and school systems to develop affordable and effective ABA programs. http://www.maximumpotentialkids.com

Follow Up to Your Child ' s ABA Sessions, Why it is So Important

Parents of children with autism typically have a difficult time understanding how to help them or where to start. In many cases they are overwhelmed with all of the information that they receive. The read articles and see shows on TV that describe certain therapies, diets and procedures. In most cases parents learn what works best for their child by trial and error. The therapies for the most part are foreign to a parent and there is little out to help a family understand what a certain therapy does and how it helps.  For many families, ABA is the best rout to take in order to further develop their child's skills. They put their trust in their ABA therapists and either drop them off for an hour or two at a clinic or leave their child in a room in their house, while they run errands or just have a break. Once the therapy is over, a parent does not know what to do or how to effectively follow up. Although these breaks are great for a parent, follow up to ABA therapy is imperative and a necessity to further develop a child's progress. This process is time consuming and forces a parent to be more immerced in autism than they probably want to be, but without follow up most children will not reach their maximum potential. As children we all participated in events that that our parents became a part of. In most cases our parents practiced with us or drilled us to hone our skills. Practicing ABA therapy is no different, it just takes time to learn and practice.  Parents need to become a part of each therapy session or at least find a way to watch the therapy. Quality therapists will be able to provide you an outline of each session and give a parent tips. It is also important to attend seminars or find a way to learn all of the skills necessary to provide ABA. In order to effectively help a child, a parent must first understand the principles of ABA and how they work. State of the art therapy centers train their staff how to provide skills and work on programs, but they also teach the theory of ABA and how to utilize such skills as prompting, shaping, fading and data collection. Without knowledge of the skills of ABA, a parent will most likely keep spinning their wheels and not see much progress.  Once the skills are learned, parents need use the outline that their therapist has used to practice the skills learned. Some of this will be discrete trials at the table, but most of this will be generalizing what was learned into the natural environment. Practicing these skills throughout the day in different environments will greatly increase the chance of mastering skills.  Being a parent of a child with autism, does not mean that you should not know what is going on or have the capability to provide care to your child. Knowledge is power and the sooner a parent understands ABA the sooner they can begin working with their child to improve behaviors and skills.

Christy Butch is the father of a 6 year old with autism and the founder of Maximum Potential. Maximum Potential has created DVD courses that enable parents and school systems to develop affordable and effective ABA programs, http://www.maximumpotentialkids.com

Why Parents of Children With Autism and School Systems Need to Work Together

School systems across the country are facing an uphill battle. With autism on the rise, school systems are taking in more and more students who are on the spectrum. Although many systems have trained staff in place, most districts are at a loss of what to do and how to handle the situation. Parents are becoming increasingly frustrated and in some cases, schools are being sued in order for a child to receive proper therapy.  This does not need to be the case if both parents and school staff work together to provide the proper environment. First and foremost, a school is not a place for a parent to drop off their child to be babysat, especially if that child has special needs. A school is a place for learning, social skills building as well as a place to learn life skills. Many parents of children with special needs put an enormous burden on a school to provide everything their child needs without providing any support. The reality is, if this happens, the child will fail and nobody wins.  The key to having success in school for a child with autism is to form a team mentality with the school and its staff. Take time to work together to create the environment to best suit the child, not the parents or the schools best interests. In order to do this, both sides need to be on the same page, speak the same language and understand where each other is coming from.  Raising a child with autism can be a daunting task. Parents of children with autism are frequently exhausted. A large number of children with autism stay up all night and finally fall asleep at 4 or 5 in the morning. Parents are working long hours and then have to come home to take care of a child who may have numerous challenges. Parents have spent every penny they have on therapy, and are reaching out for help in the best way they know how. Many times that way is to drop them off at school in hopes that by the end of that day their child as progressed in some way. At the same time teachers are attempting to work with every child in their class both typical and special needs to help them learn. Each child has their own challenge, but the addition of a child with autism can make a teachers day much more difficult, especially if that teacher does not know how to work with a child with autism. Furthermore, school systems have not been prepared to deal with this inflow of children with autism. They do not have the resources available to provide help, and when they do the cost can be extremely high. When all of these factors come crashing together, the powder keg is ignited and explodes into difficult, painful and sometimes litigious situation.  This situation can be avoided if both school system and parent are willing to work together to attempt to solve challenges and celebrate successes. This means understanding each others language and communicating to each other about the child.  Parents know their child best and also spend the most time with them. The know if their child has had a bad day or if they did not eat a good breakfast. They also know what works will with their children and what reinforces them. All of this is knowledge that a teacher needs to know on a daily, weekly or quarterly basis. When a parent contacts a teacher and tells them about a negative or positive situation that happened at home, a teacher can either be prepared to counter act a behavior or praise and celebrate an accomplishment.  It is also extremely important for a school to be as open as possible. A school needs to develop a plan to over communicate with a parent and let them know all that is going on, so that both sides can work together to solve problems or reinforce positive actions.  Finally, the school and the parent need to be trained on how to work with children with autism. School systems need to have training in place not only for their Special Education Department, but also for their para professionals, and general education staff. Each person in this child's life needs to know how to work on bad behaviors and reinforce positive behaviors. They need to be proactive, not reactive in their teaching to develop their student to the fullest potential. Parents need to be trained so that they can take what was learned at school and help develop skills and work on behaviors.  When both sides have open communication, are realistic about a child's goals and work together the child with autism has a much better chance of success.

Applied Behavior Analysis Offers Real Results Not Robots

For decades now Applied Behavior Analysis has been the method of choice in treating children with autism spectrum disorder. ABA therapy teaches children to think and learn and helps to foster positive behavior without the ineffective method of punishing negative behavior, which does not work in these cases. When first examining and learning about ABA therapy, however, many parents are turned off by the idea that the therapy appears to simple teach children to produce robot like imitations of words or movements. What parents much understand, however, is that treating autism is a process, and that these seemingly robotic responses are critical to helping a child think critically and independently. One way to better understand how ABA works is to compare it to learning a foreign language. Before you can learn to put together sentences and utilize grammatical structure, you must spend a significant period of time repeating new words. In the beginning your intonations will be little more than robotic repetitions, but as you commit the words and their meanings to memory, you will slowly begin to understand the language, developing the ability to use it and to create sentences and paragraphs and even compose lyrics with it. Applied Behavior Analysis works much like learning a foreign language. Repeating words and commands and slowly coming to understand their meanings is crucial to learning to think independently and understand broader concepts. While the words for water and sky may be repeatable, it will take an understanding of both of them for the concept of rain to be understandable. For children with an autism spectrum disorder, this type of understanding comes from first practicing repetition until the basic principles are understood. While many parents fear at first that they are turning their children into robots or teaching them simply to mimic other people, those who have seen or experienced the end result of ABA therapy understand why such repetition is necessary. ABA is designed to help children reach their maximum potential for learning and functioning in society and the classroom, and many children are able to develop a normal or near normal level of functioning with intensive ABA therapy. These results have been proven time and time again, which is why so many parents are willing to take the chance even when they fear they are merely programming their child's responses. At the end of the day, repetition with ABA therapy is not at all a way of programming your children to provide robotic responses, but is instead a method of helping them to understand basic language, commands, and concepts. ABA is the groundwork for higher functioning in children with an autism spectrum disorder and is designed to help them prepare to enter typical schools and to function normally alongside their peers. While the methods associated with ABA may seem strange to parents, when it is understood that these children simply need to learn differently, the difference becomes decidedly worthwhile.   Christy Butch is the mother of a 6 year old with autism and the founder of Maximum Potential Kids. www.maximumpotentialkids.com

How Children With Autism Can Learn to Ride the Bus

Parents of children with autism desperately want their children to fit in at school and be liked by other children. Any parent wants that for their child and they are devastated when it does not happen. In the past children with autism were placed in different rooms, rode different buses to and from school and ate their lunch in a different cafeteria. As time has passed, many school systems are beginning to include more special education students into the mainstream classrooms as much as possible. This task can be challenging and does not always work, but the true hero's are the teachers who do not quit and find a way to make it work for the child.  One of the most gut wrenching things a mother does is put her child on the bus for the first time in either Kindergarten or in First grade. Many mothers tell stories about how they or their child are in tears and one or the other is rushing onto or off the bus. Having a child with autism usually means that this experience won't happen. Typically parents drop off their child at school or put on a special bus where they will not cause any harm to others or themselves. The question is, does this have to happen, or can a child with autism be placed on a bus and function. The answer is yes it can happen, but it takes a lot of team work by every member of the team at school as well as the parent at home. In order for this to get off the ground, the parents and the teacher need to be on the same page. Discussions at home as well as in the school need to begin with the steps it will take to get the child into the routine of getting on the bus. Remember children with autism are very literal and for the most part keep a schedule in their head. Once a child begins to feel comfortable with these conversations, it is time to move on to the next step.  That next step is to have the child read or be read a social story that describes everything about the experience. All the details need to be covered. The color of the bus, name of the bus driver as well as all of the rules. If a child is verbal and can read, they need to be the one leading the story. This gives them a sense of empowerment and control over the situation.  After the social story has been read the school should slowly take the child through the steps of getting out to the bus. This may begin with the child taking only a few steps toward the door they would go out to get the bus. The next day go a little further until the child is on the bus. Have the child and the bus driver get introduced and get to know each other so that the child trusts the bus driver. Have the teachers prompt less and less and fade any instructions until the child can get on the bus themselves. Once they are comfortable then the child can start riding the bus home. All of the skills used during this period are those of Applied Behavior Analysis. Understanding the nuances of ABA will make this process easier.  Having buddies on the bus is a key component. Taking 2 or 3 order students and having them shadow the child keeps the bus safe and also helps ensure the the child with autism gets off the correct stop. Of the three children try and have one who gets off the previous stop, one who gets off the same stop and one who gets off a later stop. Having all three students and the bus driver aware of the child prevents any issues from coming up. These three students also can keep the child in check if he or she gets upset. They can alert the bus driver and keep the bus safe.  Having a child with autism does not mean that they need to keep away from others. With the right amount of help, many children with autism can flourish in a school setting. Having the right people trained the right way and having them be proactive is the key.

Behavior Management And Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA

Behavior management is one of the most talked about topics when discussing children with autism. Most of the discussion and programming is in the context of behavior reduction. Parents, teachers and care givers want to reduce inappropriate behaviors. It is important to know that everything we do is behavior. It is important to understand that this includes positive behavior as well. Language, interaction with peers, listening, responding and attending are all behaviors. What parents, teachers and care givers seek help with is reducing inappropriate behaviors. Children with autism have the same feelings as everyone else does. Stress, anxiety, excitement, and anger, are all typical feelings that children have. These in fact are feelings and not to be confused with behaviors. It is fine to feel stressed, anxious, excited, or angry, but it is not alright to fall in the floor screaming, hit, bite, or spit on someone because of those feelings. This is where behavior management can take place and reduce these reactions (or behaviors) to these feelings. First understand that there is always an antecedent to a behavior and a consequence following a behavior. This can be referred to as the ABC's. (Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence) When a child with autism has an inappropriate behavior like spitting, falling on the floor or hitting, the question has to be asked "What is the antecedent to this behavior?" One of the best examples is one told by Dr. Coby Lund PhD of Atlanta GA. There was a student that was in a particular school that spit frequently. It was not out of the norm for this child with autism to spit 50 or more times a day. So, what was the antecedent to this behavior? What was it that happened before this spitting occurred?More importantly, what was the consequence to this behavior? After observing this student and collecting data on his behavior, it was determined that the spitting occurred when unwanted demands were put on this child.The student wanted to escape and avoid demands, so he spit.  The demands can not change because being a child in school means this student will continue to have demands placed on him. He would still be asked to come sit at the table, or get in line, or write something.  In behavior management, the consequence is the crucial thing that can be changed to reduce the unwanted behavior. So in this instance and Applied Behavior Analysis program was implemented. The student had specific planned out demands placed on him by an instructor, teacher or peer. Initially the demand was something the student achieved success at quickly and easily. It might have been something as simple as asking him to come over to the table and touch the chair in the area he was to start working. Immediately the student is rewarded for touching the chair. And what was the reward? Getting to go do something he wanted which was escape and avoid demands. He got to immediately leave and go away from the table.  This program evolved over time and the demands became more demanding and the reward remained the same. Eventually this student learned that it was much easier to work and be rewarded with escape avoidance than always try to escape and avoid the demands. The student learned to accept the demands placed on him and in return would get time away from the demands as a reward. Applied Behavior Analysis programs like these can be created for children with inappropriate behaviors and give parents, teachers and care givers a plan of what to do with these children. The inappropriate behaviors will decrease and cease all together. The adults will have a sense of control and not helplessness and the environment is much more enjoyable when there is time spent rewarding a child instead of continuously correcting or punishing the child.   Christy is the mother of a 6 year old with autism and the founder of Maximum Potential Group. www.maximumpotentialkids.com