Top 5 Must-Have ABA Program Materials

Materials for an ABA program don’t have to cost a ton of money. We’re big fans of keeping it simple and doable. Fancy, laminated cards look pretty but if something else can get the job done for a fraction of the time and cost – that’s a winner!

Besides for a few materials that we recommend purchasing, most materials involved in programming can be scavenged from around the house or printed as needed (real photos are ideal anyway!).

We’ve come across lots of program materials over the years and we thought we’d share with you some of our must-have favourites.

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1) A few good sets of flashcards

2) Choiceworks app

Visual schedules can get cumbersome to make and laminate and then clunky to tote around with so many other things. This app for itunes takes all of the work out of creating a visual schedule. You can take a picture and add it right into a schedule. You can even add video! There are also boards for things like “emotions” and “waiting”. The calendar for ipad also acts as a visual display of events and activities over the week or month. So much to love!

3) Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

We’ve taught lots of kids to read and nothing beats the ease and effectiveness of this direct instruction program. Created by Sigfried Engelman (think: Reading Mastery, Language for Learning) it’s systematic, phonics-based approach also targets important skills like rhyming and reading comprehension. It’s a good one!

4) Sequencing Cards

There is so much teaching to be done with sequencing cards: visual performance, language development, before/after, inferences, how questions, etc… It’s always been a big part of our programming because it’s so diverse and leads to so many functional skills. Teaching a student to come home and relate what they did during their day all starts back with a good sequencing program!

5) Good books and toys

The bottom line is that an ABA program needs to be fun! Learning can take place during play and through preferred toys and activities. Generalizing skills to play can be done by using books and toys and being interactive and fun with our clients. Lots of skill and language can be incorporated into fun play-based activities that are ideally inherently motivating!

For more of our favourite programming materials, visit our page: Favourite Program Materials