Preparing For In Home ABA Therapy

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ABA Therapy hours were approved and you are ready to get started, YEY!! 🎉 You are probably asking yourself what you may need to do to get your home ready for sessions. Below you'll find a simple guide to setting up your home for success with in-home ABA therapy services.

1. House Rules: Let us know what your house rules are so that we may all may follow them (i.e. any cultural practices, no shoes inside the house, noise levels, etc).

   1. Access to your home: Letting your team know any areas that they can have access to. We love to teach in the child's natural environment and sometimes this may look like playing in the room with their favorite doll house, playing with chalk outside and teaching new skills like riding a bike around the neighborhood!

   1. YOU! We love when our parents are a part of our sessions. We love to teach in the moment when implementing any techniques or protocols and want to make sure you feel confident in them when we walk out.

      • Also note: You know your child best! If you notice your child may be doing something different than usual or may be having an "off day" (i.e. may be getting sick, didn't sleep well), let us know so that we may modify our activities for the day to best help them.

   2. Your child's favorite toys: We love incorporating your child's favorite items within our sessions and teach through play (see Natural Environment Teaching)!

   3. Table and chairs: Sometimes we will complete activities that require a table and chair (i.e. homework activities, teaching trials that require a flat surface, messy items like kinetic sand or slime that we'd like to keep in a contained area and not on your floor (you're welcome 😉)) (see Discrete Trial Teaching).

   4. Distracting Items and/or Activities: Blenders, vacuum cleaners, dump trucks, TV's & siblings! We love teaching in the home because we are able to work through some of the most common distractions however, there may be some that are TOO distracting and should be kept to a minimum when our therapist arrives. Our team will review these items with you and how we can work together to minimize or bring these into sessions.

   5. Code of Ethics: All therapists in an ABA therapy team have a Code of Ethics to abide by. We always recommend that our parents review this Code of Ethics and ask any questions to their child's case manager if any areas are violated. Parents are able to report any violations to the Behavior Analyst Certification Board.

      1. RBT Ethics Code

      2. BCaBA/BCBA Ethics Code

We encourage our families to observe our sessions and ask any questions you may have in the moment. Communication and commitment to our families are part of our values at AMA Behavioral Consulting and we want to ensure we share our knowledge in each step of the way.

We hope this list was helpful and if these services seem like a great fit for you, make sure to fill our contact form here.

Preparing for An Initial ABA Therapy Assessment

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An initial assessment is an opportunity for our team to get to know you and your child. There will be several events that take place during this initial session and we want to make sure you know what to expect! Below you'll find the main components of what to expect during an initial ABA Assessment:

Photo credit: B & E Photography

1. Caregiver interview: The very first thing we will do is complete some questionnaires about your family and your child. This will include discussing any family history of diagnosis, developmental milestone progression and delays and learning about any medications or allergies. This will also be a great opportunity to talk about any concerning areas (i.e. Your child is not communicating using vocal words OR does not respond to one-step directions). We also like to use this time to discuss any short or long term goals you have for your child and your family unit to include in our programming.

2. Informal and Direct Observation: While we (Behavior Analyst) are completing this questionnaire with you, we will be observing your child in their natural environment. This is a great opportunity to discreetly observe any behaviors you may have reported, your child's ability to request items or attention while you're busy and also observe the way that they play with their toys!

3. Direct Assessment of Skills: We will then begin testing some skills in the natural environment. Depending on the child's level, we may use a variety of toys (it will look like we are playing but we promise we are testing!). We may also use testing books that have pictures and/or words to assess your child's skill level. Some of the categories we will test for early learners using the VBMAPP as an example will include:

   1. Requesting: Your child's ability to ask for items or actions they want/need.

   2. Labeling: Your child's ability to label items when asked to do so.

   3. Receptive Skills: Your child's ability to follow instructions and selecting items when told do so.

   4. Visual Perceptual/Match-To-Sample Skills: Your child's ability to complete multiple step items like a puzzle, matching and sorting.

   5. Play Skills: During our entire assessment, we will be evaluating how your child plays. Does your child repeatedly play with items a certain way? Do they explore the types of toys we bring in for the session?

   6. Social Skills: Your child's ability to take turns, share their toys and even make eye contact when they want to gain our attention.

   7. Motor Imitation Skills: Your child's ability to imitate the actions we show them through direct or play presentations.

   8. Echoic Skills: Your child's ability to echo words and sounds that we present during the evaluation.

   9. Please note: This is an example of what we would test and does not include additional skills like the child's ability to respond to fill-ins, answer questions, or their ability to create new relations based on direct teaching. For older children, we may use other assessment tools and categories (like these above), to best help them at their developmental level. Our team will review what tools will be used for your child!

4. Assessment Write-Up: Once we are finished with the assessment, we will create an assessment write-up with a summary of your child's skill set, behaviors and goals for the next 6 months. We will also review, based on the assessment results, what we are recommending for hours and what sessions will look like. We will send you a copy and review everything listed to ensure that your goals for your child are in agreement with the goals we have selected.

5. Insurance Approval: The next step involves sending this report to your insurance company for approval. This can take anywhere from 2 weeks to up to a month (time varies by insurance). Once the therapy hours are approved, we will discuss scheduling and get ready to start services. For more information on how to prepare for in home ABA therapy, please read our article here.

We hope you found this article helpful and would love to know if this was helpful in the comments!!

How to use ABA techniques to conquer your New Year goals

As the saying goes: New Year, New Me! But it’s February and maybe we’ve already fallen off track. On a serious note, how many of these goals do we actually meet when the year comes to an end? Most of the time, we don’t even remember what our goals were for the previous year! This article will review how to use ABA to conquer your new goals. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) studies behaviors and the environmental variables that contribute to these behaviors continuing to occur or not occurring at all. Follow these steps to ensure that you are able to reach your goals using ABA techniques:

1. Setting clear and objective (measurable) goals: describing in detail what we wish to accomplish and what constitutes meeting this definition. An example could be “I will go to the gym 3x a week”.

2. Values are very very important when selecting goals! Knowing WHY we want to make a change will help in the times that we begin to find ways to escape from the task. As an example, my family history includes lots of unhealthy habits and as a result, higher medical stats which decreases quality of life. As a result my WHY for being active includes to create a legacy for my family of healthier living.

3. Take data on your behavior: As behavior analyst, we LOVE analyzing data to see why behaviors are/are not occurring. This application when completing it on oneself is called self-management: the personal application of behavior change tactics that produces a desired change in behavior (Cooper, Heron, Heward, 2007). By taking data on the behaviors outlined as your goals, you can determine if these goals are being met and why/why not this system is/is not working.

4. Review your data! If your designed plan is not working, begin to review what variables may be contributing to not reaching these goals. If the goal is to workout 3x a week but the gym is 30 minutes away with traffic, the response effort to attend the gym and sit in traffic may be too high and thus inhibit the motivation to complete the workout. You can find a closer gym or try completing at home workouts instead.

   • Note: A fun way to track this is through free printables like this one here.

5. Make antecedent and consequent manipulations: Changing the environment to facilitate behaviors occurring at higher frequencies is called antecedent manipulations. An example of this could be to set out your workout clothes the night before to decrease the hassle of getting ready early in the morning. You could even set our your measured pre-workout and water for a quick mix in the morning. Consequent manipulations are also extremely important! Create a reward system for yourself if having a system like this in motivates you to keep doing it! An example could be: If the contingency is to to work out 3x/week for a month then you can allow yourself to get a new piece of gym equipment or a new pair of sneakers. This technique is also called the Premack Principle or “Grandma’s Rule”: If a contingency is met then a reward is received.

6. Find an accountability partner: Some of our “love language” is attention which can be provided in various forms including praise. By having an accountability partner, this person will be able to provide you with that praise you may enjoy receiving and also redirect you to your goals if you fell a little off track.

Credit to: The housewife modern

These techniques can be used in all scenarios of either increasing or decreasing behaviors. As discussed above, it is extremely important to take data and review measurable goals to determine what is/is not working and meet your 2022 goals!  

References:

Cooper J.O, Heron T.E, Heward W.L. Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007.

Can ABA Help My Child with ADHD?

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Can ABA help your child with ADHD?

Research shows that ABA therapy is evidence-based therapy that can help other diagnoses including ADHD. Research shows that a combination of ABA therapy and medication can make significant changes in a child’s behavior. 

Oftentimes, we’ve worked with children who engage in behaviors that may seem “impulsive”, “off-task” and “disruptive” to others in their environment. From our experience, some of these behaviors typically have a reasoning as to why they're occurring. Sometimes the learner may be engaging in these behaviors because they cannot communicate their wants and needs. Sometimes these learners cannot concentrate on their tasks because they are distracted by something in their environment. Sometimes these learners don’t realize they are being disruptive with their actions to others around them. 

Step right up Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)! What do we do in these types of situations? One of our primary goals in ABA is to provide our learners with the tools to help them advocate for themselves. We teach our learners to request for needs and wants appropriately instead of being impulsive and grabbing whatever they may need (be it materials or someone's attention).

We observe the learner in their natural environment and analyze the patterns of their behaviors. We conduct in depth analysis of their environment to determine what could be distracting them in times that they are off-task. We add tools to help them cope in environments that may be overstimulating to them. 

We provide our learners with tools to teach them recognize the behaviors they are engaging in and then help them correct this behavior (should it need to be corrected). One of our learners had a very challenging time completing tasks that involved more than 1 step (i.e. homework). We created a visual support to help with the completion of these steps. We then taught him self-management strategies to keep himself on track and complete these tasks from start to finish. An example of this program can be found below. We also taught this learner to track his “on-task” behavior using a vibrating timer at every 3 minute interval. When the timer went off, he had to evaluate his current actions and label if he was on or off task. Depending on the current action, he would either continue working OR redirect himself to the task he was supposed to be engaging in. This strategy was taken from Finn et al in 2014. 

In summary, ABA can be of immense help in helping your child with ADHD. Board Certified Behavior Analyst will evaluate your child’s current skill set, help create programs to help them develop the skills they need to communicate and teach any replacement or self-management behaviors to help them in the most challenging times of their day. Give us a call to learn more about how we can help! 

Resource: 

Finn, Lisa & Ramasamy, Rangasamy & Dukes, Charles & Scott, John. (2014). Using WatchMinder to Increase the On-Task Behavior of Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of autism and developmental disorders. 45. 10.1007/s10803-014-2300-x. 

5 Things To Do After Receiving an Autism Diagnosis

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As a parent, receiving the news that your child has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum comes with a whirlwind of emotions and questions. Depending on the level on which your child was diagnosed, difficulties may follow. As you may have read, there is no “cure” for Autism. However, you are your child’s number 1 advocate and you will be able to fight for what your child needs. What follows are a few recommendations of things to do after your child has received an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis: 

1. Evidence-Based Practices. Researching evidence based practices will be very important to ensure your child’s success. Evidence based practices have been heavily studied, researched and replicated. The National Autism Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorder provides a great list of evidence based practices you can see here.

2. Therapy Services. Your child may need additional support that your pediatrician/neurologist and/or psychologist may have recommended. Service providers will specialize in areas like speech development and communication, behavioral health, mental health, physical therapy and additional school services. We will be writing a blog post soon to discuss each of these service professionals and the incredible services they provide. 

3. Books. We often learn from other’s experiences. There are several books that we love and recommend to start the journey. Here are some of our favorite books: Parenting with ABA (Leanne Page, BCBA does an incredible job discussing behavioral concepts that you can implement with your child), The Verbal Behavior Approach (Dr. Mary Lynch Barbera discusses Verbal Behavior and how to implement it with your child) and last but not least the book we are currently reading Differently Wired (by Deborah Reber who discusses how to overcome the challenges in raising an neuroatypical child). 

4. Parent/Caregiver Support Groups. We have joined several support groups to help parents and caregivers. In these groups, we often see families come together and help support each other when they need advice, recommendations and support. Some of the groups in Hillsborough County include: Special Needs Community Resources of Pasco County- Florida, Southshore Special Needs Support, Families with Special Needs Kids-Tampa Bay. 

5. Additional Resources. There are several pages that provide additional resources from initial diagnosis to transitioning to adulthood. Some of our favorites are: 

   1. Autism Speaks

   2. Associations for Science in Autism Treatment

   3. First Words Project

   4. National Autism Association

Remember, this is a time where your child needs you at your best. Be open to new techniques that may be suggested by your service providers. The journey will not be easy but your child needs you in their corner to celebrate each milestone and help them reach their full potential. Teach your child that they have a voice and their voice matters regardless of their diagnosis. Your child deserves respect, dignity and deserves to receive what they need to be successful. This is not an easy feat but YOU (mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, foster parent) are here to help your child be the best they can be and we believe in you!

Teaching Your Child/Adult to Tolerate Wearing a Mask

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For some of our children/adults, clothing in general may present discomfort. With the pandemic we are facing today, it may be necessary for your child or adult to wear a mask while out in public. In this article we will teach you 5 steps to help your child/adult tolerate wearing a mask while out in public. 

1. Allow the child/adult to become familiar with the mask by playing with it, modeling how it is used on a favorite stuffed animal or on yourself. We want our child/adult to know that there is nothing scary about the mask! 

2. As part of the teaching process, we can use a social story if the child/adult understands the concept. We would not solely suggest this as the only method but it may be helpful if the child/adult understands the information being provided. A link to a social story about wearing masks can be found here: Wearing a Mask Social Story

3. When the child/adult has become more familiar with the mask, begin requiring that the child/adult wear the mask and time how long they are able to tolerate it. This will be our starting point! If the child/adult takes it off after 1 minute, we may need to start at 45 seconds and provide praise and lots of reinforcement once you hit 45 seconds when you practice. 

4. We will then start increasing the time required to wear the mask. If we had 3 successful times of tolerating the mask at 45 seconds, we can then move onto 1 minute, then 3 minutes, then 5 minutes, then 10 minutes and so on while doing other things at the same time (i.e. reading a book, playing with blocks, going for a walk). Our mission is to increase the time gradually and successfully while making the process for the child/adult less aversive. This is a procedure we call shaping. Think of it as creating the shape of a clay bowl: we must work on the small steps over and over again until we can achieve our biggest goal.  

5. The next step will be to test in the natural environment. Take your child/adult to a place where a mask may be required (i.e. grocery store). Remind the child/adult of the expectations before arriving and remind them of what was practiced at home. If the child/adult does not tolerate the mask in a public place, we may need to take a few steps back and test again to see where we need to work on and try again. 

Additional COVID-19 social stories: Autism Little Learners

We hope these steps are useful to you in these times! If you have any questions, please email me at amarilys@amabehavioralconsulting.com