If you’ve been with us long enough, you know how we feel about visuals. They are in important part of teaching new skills and for promoting independence: https://howtoaba.com/importance-visuals/ Using a visual schedule helps to provide predictability and routine in lots of situations. Teaching a child to follow a visual schedule is a skill that will Read more about How to Teach Students to Use Visual Schedules[…]
Any of us working in the field of ABA and special education have seen our share of social stories. They are promoted in schools, at home and in many settings that our kiddos find themselves. What I’ve never seen is a child who isn’t able to greet others, reads a social story about appropriate greetings Read more about Do Social Stories Change Behaviour?[…]
As Behaviour Analysts, it is our job to put programs and protocols in place for therapists to carry out. This means that a program is often only as good as the therapist implementing it. A therapist who is able to follow programming, take data, and implement protocol is going to be essential to the success Read more about What to Look for When Hiring an ABA Therapist[…]
Generalization is an important part of programming because it allows for us to extend our reach beyond the actual ABA sessions and into the child’s everyday life. Parents are usually the ones that play a large part in this generalization. This means that we, as ABA professionals, need to be aware of how we’re training Read more about Parent Training[…]
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 Read more about Top 5 Must-Have ABA Program Materials[…]
Data is a big part of what we do. We are bound to make data-driven decisions and update or revise programs based on what the data tell us. However, it is possible to be so consumed with data that it interferes with learning. How well can a person engage and think on their feet if Read more about Choosing the Right Data Collection Method[…]
I once worked with a client who was doing really well with his programs, developing skills, and accomplishing goals. However, he had a “behaviour” that was driving his therapist crazy. She called to ask about targeting this specific behaviour within a protocol to try and reduce it. She said that it was coming up often Read more about When is Behaviour Worth Targeting for Reduction?[…]
Social skills should always be an integral part of any good ABA program right from the start. By social skills, I don’t just mean being able to play with other kids. In typical development, socializing starts very early – a baby making eye contact with his mother, a toddler pointing out an interesting sight to Read more about When is a Child Ready for a Social Skills Group?[…]
We can’t ignore that children have emotions. As behaviourists, we are trained to treat behaviours and not private events like thoughts and feelings. But how can we ignore that some of the little people we work with are struggling with managing how they’re feeling? We need to allow for our students to have these emotions Read more about Teaching Emotional Regulation with a 3-Point Scale[…]
Unless you have seven arms, taking data while trying to manage challenging behaviour is nearly impossible. There are many tools in our toolbox to measure and track behaviour, but the tricky part is knowing which tool to implement when. We might choose to take probe data for some teaching targets and trial-by-trial data for Read more about Using Partial Interval Recording to Track Negative Behaviour[…]