Speech Therapy and ABA at Home

These days, insurance is covering ABA at home, but many parents want their child to have more hours of training than their insurance will cover.  ABA is a form of behavior modification, used to teach skills.  It stands for "Applied Behavior Analysis".  The basic premise is that you break down a task into measurable parts that are easier for the child to learn.  You use very consistent reinforcement.

So, for example, we started with wanting to teach our daughter to answer yes or no for a basic question.  We started with her favorite food, cantaloupe.  Before expecting her to learn the skill, we role modeled the skill.  I would show her the cantaloupe.  Then I would say, "Alyssa, do you want cantaloupe?"  I would say, "Yes, I want cantaloupe".  Then I would give her a bite.  I would do that every time for about 10 bites.

After a few days of this, I upped the ante.  She either had to nod her head or say yes in order get the cantaloupe.  I would ask the question and when she said yes, I immediately gave her a bite.  We repeated for 10 bites, and did this daily for a few days.  Once she was consistently successful with this task, we generalized the yes/no "Do you want" question to other things.  This is so important because it gives the child the ability to answer you for what they want.  This verbal skill lowers their frustration and hence lowers the frequency of tantrums.

Anyone can learn to do ABA.  I highly recommend the book, "Teaching Developmentally Disabled Children:  The Me Book"  by Ivar Lavaas.  It will walk you through the steps and it will give you specific goals to work on with your child.