…And Why Do I Need One? I’ve been noticing lately that there are many practitioners who claim to “practice ABA” or “use the principles of ABA” that aren’t actually Board Certified Behaviour Analysts. Often, when searching for solutions for children, parents are unaware of what qualifications they should be looking for. If someone is able Read more about What is a BCBA?[…]
If you could have an endless supply of one item – what would it be? Mine would be chocolate. I don’t think I could get sick of it. But there are other things I would get sick of in endless supply. Most things that we love are so special because they have to be earned Read more about Too Much of a Good Thing?[…]
What is a “prompt” and why is it part of an ABA program? Prompting is a strategy used to correct the learner and still increase learning. It is usually placed after the instruction and before the response. Instruction ⇒ Response ⇒ Reinforcement/Consequence Prompt↵ Why prompt Read more about The Prompt Hierarchy[…]
Reinforcement is a common occurrence in our daily lives. Receiving a paycheck every month, getting a compliment from a friend, taking a coffee break from work – these are all forms of reinforcement. Some types are more predictable and some take longer to achieve. During ABA therapy, it is always our goal to fade reinforcement Read more about How to Implement and Use Token Boards[…]
On a recent post about visuals prompts, one of the questions we received was: “Why are you using visuals if the goal is for the student to verbalize? Won’t the visuals make the learner dependent on them?” This is a great question and the answer is that it depends on the learner and on how Read more about The Importance of Visuals and How They Promote Independence[…]
What to Expect When Setting Up an ABA Program Finding out that your child is not developing as they should be can be very overwhelming. Maybe you’ve just received a diagnosis of ASD and you’re not sure how to accept it or what to do next. Maybe it’s something that you’ve known all along but Read more about My Child Needs ABA – Now What?!?[…]
We LOVE using visuals. Pictures make stories interesting and visual schedules give kids predictability and control. We also use these visuals in the form of scripts to teach conversation. You might be wondering, “But conversation has to be natural and fluid. Doesn’t it defeat the purpose if it’s scripted?” Our answer (and the answer of Read more about Can Conversation Be Scripted?[…]
This is a continuation from last week – 5 Steps to a Simple Communication System. The concern I often hear is: Why should we use pictures if we want the child to talk? We don’t want the pictures to replace words. Imagine that you were dropped in a foreign country where you don’t speak a Read more about Why Picture Communication Supports Talking (And Doesn’t Replace It)[…]
I was observing a client of mine who is in a group setting. I couldn’t help but notice another student in the group (not one of mine). This other child is not able to speak and really wanted to play with the play-doh. So what did he do? He screamed until the teacher gave in Read more about 5 Steps to a Simple Communication System[…]
A child’s life is full of transitions. They go from their bed to the car to school to the playground, etc… For some children, this can be extremely difficult and transitions can be when teachers and caregivers tend to see a lot of negative behaviour. Why is this? Most of the time, it’s due to Read more about Transitions: 4 Tips to Prevent Meltdowns[…]