Can you learn ABA?
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| Hi all. Well, I am in the process of getting my son set up for ABA therapy. I have to sign him up in the exceptional family members program with tricare and then with ECHO, then I can finally get him started with ABA. But I think this is all going to take a little while so Im wondering if there is some way to learn about ABA and use it with my son. Are there any good books that will tell you how to use it? I would really like to be able to do this therapy with him but I dont know how to get started. Any info on this would be appreciated. Thanks! 'Catherine maurice - Behavioral intervention for young children with autism' A wonderful tool for parents who want to do aba with their children, actualy it's a must if you want to do aba at all imo. http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Individuals-Developmental-Del ays-Intervention/dp/0890798893 This book should really be in the home of everyone with a child w Autism. These are also very helpful: There is also one by Lovaas called The Reading & Writing Program which is REALLY good. If you have an InterLibrary Loan program at your library, they can pull the titles you need from any library in the country & ship it to your local library. I taught myself ABA. I did not, however, while berastfeeding a newborn include the very critical part which is to monitor & chart your data. But when Gage was 2 and a half I did TONS of ABA principles in the first book link. I made reward charts out of posterboard with tokens (which is how my son potty trained at 2 and a half!!! By the way, there is an AMAZING chapter on potty training these kids, it only took me one weekend!!!) I had to "teach" him how to love his sister! What i mean to say is, I kept baby Goldfish crackers, mini m&Ms, and a box of his favorite "stemming" style toys that he liked such as plastic drinking straws that he enjoyed, pieces of paper, or cardboard toilet paper tubes in a bin above the refrigerator. The key is finding reinforcers that will really work for your child - things they really live. Then, if he went near his sister, even just walked near her I would give him a reinforcer, such as 5 minutes with one of his "toys" or a mini M&M. Then sometimes I would try to get him to look my in the eye ("Gage Good Looking! Good looking Gage!" Give reinforcer) and ask him to touch the baby with his hand, then he would get a reinfocer. I finally was even able to get him to imitate loving actions such as giving her a kiss on the head! The same went for tons of other tasks, such as getting him to say "I love you". He has never to this day spontaneously said "I love you Mommy" (like my daughter did). What happened is I would say "I love you Gage. Now Gage - Say I love you" to which he would respond "I love you" and get a reinforcer. Now everytime I say I love you he says "I love you!" even still today! Same with Daddy or when anyone else says I love you. Thats the power of ABA - they really do seem to transfer the behavior to all aspects of situations, such as if Grandma says I love you - even without getting a reinforcer he is just "trained" to say it back. I could go on and on here but Its been a while since Ive had to do such things - he has grown so much with school & now the reinforcers are a lot more general such as "Gage if you clean up your room we can play your video game for 5 minutes. Pick up your cars and put them in the toy box" - you know, the instructions are a LOT more detailed than when we first started with "Gage, Look at me" and pointing to our eyes. I think you get the idea. We could not afford ABA so I just did the best I could. I learned everything I could about and I eat, slept, and breathed it. I even made a velcro board with letters on it to teach him his letters and numbers (this is a board whith velcro strips where the child selects which velcro chip has a certain letter that you say and gets reinforced for selecting the right one - of course, first you have to reinforce them engaging you in the board). Its a long process, and very time consuming but the pay off was worth it. I personally feel that what I did with him made all the difference in the world. I know some people might thing - well maybe he just got older and learned to do that stuff on his own. But they didnt see what his Dad & I saw when he was little. it is like night & day now. I will add that there is no substitute for professionally trained ABA therapists - if you can get proffessionals DO IT.
Wow I'm going to check those out too! I've been told it can be done at home. So I might as well try too.Thanks hopemommy for that post. It sounds like youve done an amazing job! Thanks for this thread. I had been wondering the same thing.My Son's programs, when he was in an Autism Program in Private Pre-school in NY, were taken directly from the aforementioned Catherine Maurice Book. It's fantastic! That's what they built the program around. Don't get discouraged by ABA, it isn't hard. Many of us learn through someone modeling it. That's how I learned. Many of the things you'll wind up using, you will find will become second nature and many are just things we all do as parents anyway to teach a child. It's really the repitition and consistancy with it in kids on the Spectrum, it's crucial for them to gain the skill. It might take a normally developing pre-schooler 30 times to actually obtain a skill whereas it could take 3 months of going over and over it for a child on the Spectrum to get it. Be patient, don't give up!  Best of luck to you and your family. Thanks DHBK! There are so many ABA books to choose from but the catherine maurice book seems like a really good one. I am just hoping it is easy enough to understand... Read all you can and really master the concept of reinforcing skills, behaviors you want repeated and learn to ignore inappropriate ones...until you can get this down you wont get much learning. Make of list of as many reinforcers as you can come up with and lock them up in a tackle box with a lock and key:) Use these one by one to get compliance and motivation from your child...we used edibles at first as she wasn't motivated by toys, or praise...but we faded out the edibles to rewards such as little toys, priviliges and praise all mixed up. Make sure everyone who is around your child are on the same page as far as behaviors go and how you deal with them or you will spend most of your time dealing with them instead of learning.. one step at a time and slow and steady wins the race...take accurate data daily:) Be prepared for up and downs and make sure to take breaks for yourself:) I had Sarah in 30 hr. a week and took over when they left and on weekends..it is a 24/7 type of lifestyle in order for progress to set in and not have regressions. We used many books but the following were the "Bible" of ABA and that we used each of them each week and incorportated them in every program she did.. she had 3+ years of ABA and it was a lifesaver for her..I never saw progress in anything we did like ABA:) Good luck! Behavioral Interventions for children-Catherince Maurice Teach me language/&manual -Catherine Maurice(many programs to enhance language and social skills) Picture It cd -rom-5,000+ pics of everything in the world to teach and has them all in catagories such as: emotions, animals, rooms, people, actions, foods, occupations, sequences, what's wrong pics.. ect... A time saver for ABA program! Kinko's lamenating machine:) You can laminate up to a 11x15 sheet of 30 flashcards for less than $3 bucks:) They have a slicer/cutter thing that will cuts them up perfect. Thanks so much everyone... Great post Shelley.. Just wondering, has anyone read this book? Hey- I am trying ABA-like principles myself as the Parent-teacher from the books everyone has already mentioned (trying to get a professional soon- for training and at least one college student) I have to say, that it is very intimidating at first, but I just had to go for it. I set up some charts and I love updating them-- because even though I hardly know what I am doing I am seeing improvements and progress....amazed....In fact- I just posted about how excited I am that my husband and I have taught our son to Point!!!! Oh- there is another book that hardly gets mentioned, but it was one I read first after coming out of my denial phase: Martin Kozloff: Reaching the Autistic Child - A Parent Training Program It isnt the easiest read--it is a description of a clinical program where the parents were trained to do parent-therapy at home in combination with the professionals in the clinic. But it helped me get started- since my son would not even look at me-- I followed their description of the "Look at Me" at meal times approach- and now when I do a "Look at Me" drill- he wont even look away.... Go for it and Good luck- Cindy
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