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A Parent’s Ultimate Guide to ABA Therapy: How to Support Your Child
June 30, 2023
By ABA Psychological Services
A Parent’s Ultimate Guide to ABA Therapy: How to Support Your Child
If you’re a parent or caregiver for an individual diagnosed with autism and other developmental disabilities, you may be curious about
ways to support them better while they go through their Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy.
ABA therapy is a highly strategic science, based on understanding behavior and making socially meaningful and positive behavioral changes. During this practice, individuals benefit from receiving support from their loved ones. This article will discuss ways to support your child during their ABA therapy and why this support is necessary for their skills development.
Ways To Support a Loved One During ABA Therapy
Parent involvement during ABA therapy is crucial for a positive outcome and achieving goals such as decreased problem behavior and increased adaptive behavior. Learning ways to support your child as they progress through therapy involves the continual practice of learning and growing. Work with your child’s treatment team to create a step-by-step plan that reinforces the behaviors they learn in therapy.
Some ways to work on skillsets and practice with your child reinforcing ABA concepts they are working on include positive reinforcement, sensory toys, expressive language, and more. Below we will focus on positive reinforcement and explicit language to benefit your loved one.
Positive Reinforcement
As parents, we are the most prominent advocates and cheerleaders for our children. Parent’s positive reinforcement, or the process of rewarding or reinforcing desirable behavior to increase the likelihood of repeated behavior, has been proven to help a child successfully form new skills and behaviors.
Some examples of positive reinforcement include providing specific feedback such as “Great job getting dressed!” “You did an amazing job doing your homework” when the child does something well. Also, providing highly-preferred reinforcers for fulfilling behavior goals is sound positive reinforcement, like giving Xbox or iPad privileges.
Expressive Language
Another form of parental involvement in ABA therapy, and how you can get more involved during home life, is encouraging expressive language. Expressive language is using words, sentences, and gestures to communicate with others, such as facial expressions (like crying, smiling), vocalizations (like laughing, yelling), and more.
While your loved one may experience frustration using expressive language, you can practice with techniques like imitating sounds, gestures, and facial expressions your child makes when they are young. Finger painting can be another way to express oneself, so try having them paint and tell you what they are painting.
Importance of Parental Involvement in ABA Therapy
As a parent, you can be the reporter and communicator with your child’s therapy team. You provide insights into their home environment, daily routines, abilities, and struggles. You have the unique ability to give the therapists a peek into their home life so that they can better build an individualized therapy program.
Book an Appointment with ABA Psychological Services Today
Ready to bring your child’s potential to life? At ABA Psychological services, we offer
personalized one-on-one ABA therapy with behavior paraprofessionals that help to provide the exact solutions your child needs.
Choose from our clinic-based services or our
in-home services and help your child become the greatest version of themselves today.
Book an appointment
or contact us today to get started.
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