Photo by Caleb Woods

Originally Posted On: Autism Spectrum Therapy for Your Child – Ally Pediatric Therapy

Creating a strong environment of education and emotional support is one of the most important aspects of being an ally to your child with autism. We always want to provide them with the best resources and opportunities to live a full life, and it starts with empowering them through the best autism spectrum therapy practices.

There are many different forms of therapy and treatment for ASD, and we have found applied behavioral analysis (ABA) to be the most modern and effective method for most children. It implements behavioral conditions to help address specific behaviors across many environments. Most importantly, it is very family-friendly, and allows for you to build a great support group into your child’s life.

Applied Behavioral Analysis is so effective because it works from a scientific understanding of behavioral mechanisms in real-life situations and reverse-engineers them into smaller behaviors. From that premise, a BCBA can do assessments to create an individualized program to pinpoint which behaviors they want to work on across the specific environment for that child and their family.

One of the biggest strengths of ABA therapy is that it can integrate friends, family, educators, and multiple platforms of specialists. The data collected and goals created will serve as a map of what behaviors need to be focused on or adjusted within the scope of the framework. Ultimately, ABA has proven to be extremely effective because its goals and outcomes are not vague.

While no case or treatment of ASD is the same, ABA looks to provide a structural foundation for adjusting most behaviors via a specific set of teaching methodologies. Progress is then tracked across a framework of treatment designed to show how each response is working over a period of time. From there, your therapist and support group can adjust certain goals and responses to refine the process.

The behaviors that typical ABA treatment will work with include:

• Life Skills:

  ABA teaches children with ASD to work towards independence in areas such as cooking, money management, cleaning, and transportation. Additionally, the structure of life skills teaching in ABA should allow for them to learn on their own in terms of health and safety, employment, and homemaking skills.

• Social Skills:

  Working with your loved one on peer relationships and social communication can build the backbone of a happier life in almost all environments. Children with ASD are often frustrated by not knowing how to react to certain social stimuli, and PRT training can help develop these skills.
  

• Communication Skills:

  There is a wide range of communicative behaviors that can be worked on with ABA therapy for children with autism. ABA can integrate with speech therapy for syntax and grammar, or there can be programming for reading, writing, and spelling skills. That is the wonderful thing about ABA – it is fitted to your child’s needs, and carries over a treatment plan for multiple environments.

• Health and Hygiene Skills:

  These can include and are not limited to dressing/grooming skills, eating habits and mannerisms, toileting skills, and other daily functions that can help a child with ASD become more independent.

• Motor Skills:

  In ABA, there is programming for gross motor skills, fine motor skills, and motor imitation (which is copying the actions of others). This is a great example of how using data and goals is so effective, as you can track progress in these realms extremely accurately.

These are just a portion of the major programming points that can be worked on in an Applied Behavioral Analysis framework. One of the reasons ABA is recognized as such an effective treatment is because its application gets broader and stronger as your child builds off of each lesson. The goal is for them (and you) to have an easier time finding comfort in common scenarios and environments in daily life.

At Ally Pediatric Therapy, we have spent decades honing our ABA programming and building a team of the best therapists in their respective fields. We work to create allies in our clinic, but also to help families develop a network of them to better support their loved ones.

If you are looking to enroll your child in ABA therapy for a brighter future, please reach out to us today. We’d love to have a conversation about how to get you and your family the support you need.