In the first year of children’s lives, they rely on their parents and caregivers for everything. As children approach 2 years of age, however, the journey towards independence should start with teaching them how to do simple self care tasks, such as using the potty and taking off their hats. We encourage starting to Read more about How To Teach A Young Child Self Care Skills[…]
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[…]
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[…]
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[…]
Before I had kids, I swore that my children wouldn’t be raised on television and media and I would never use a screen as a babysitter. For many years, we did not even have a television in our house. I imagined that we would do enjoyable things together like baking, arts and crafts, and puzzles. Read more about Technology – Love it or Hate It?[…]
What is a teacher to do when she is given a student that is difficult to manage or has learning challenges? It seems like the go-to solution for some schools has been to recommend that the student have a shadow in the classroom. Sometimes, this is referred as an Educational Assistant or a Special Needs Read more about The Shadow’s Role in the Classroom[…]
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[…]
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?[…]