ABA Q&A [1] Is behavioral therapy just about improving behavior?

🚨The most common hope is that behavioral therapy can deal with children’s tantrums, violent behaviors, self-stimulation behaviors of autism, etc.

However, behavioral therapy is not just about telling children not to scream and not to lose their temper and become stupid, but to teach them alternative methods based on the causes and functions of the behavior.

Before training begins, the behavior analyst will conduct two assessments:

🧐 Behavioral function assessment; find out the causes and consequences of problem behaviors, and make appropriate treatment plans based on the results to improve the behavior.

🤓 Ability assessment: Use standard ability assessment tools to test children’s levels in different areas, such as language, cognition, social interaction, self-care ability, etc., and then develop individual training projects.

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The behavior analyst will observe and test again. Is it a behavioral problem or an ability problem if he can't solve a problem?

🤪 Behavioral issues: Knowing how to do something but not wanting to do it

🥺 Ability problem: If you want to do something, you don’t know how to do it.

At the same time, ability problems can lead to behavioral problems. For example, if you don't know how to do homework at all, if you find it difficult and stressful and don't want to do it, you will use problem behaviors to escape, lose your temper, walk away, and resist doing homework.

🔬If it is a problem of ability, we will analyze the reasons, use the split teaching method "Task Analysis", and teach patiently step by step according to ability, so that we can complete it alone. At the same time, different teaching methods will be paired according to different project needs. For example: "Natural Environmental Training" is used for spontaneous language, "Discrete Trial Teaching" is used for cognitive projects, "Chaining" is used for self-care projects, "Relational frame theory" is used for logical reasoning projects, etc., depending on individual needs.

🎯Coupled with the personalized rewards and timetable "Reinforcer & Reinforcement Schedule" to strengthen different knowledge and encourage good behavior.

👋 Finally, it is necessary to cooperate with how to reduce assistance "Fading", application skills "Generalization", how to maintain skills "Maintainence" for a long time, and different post-processing work, so that children can perform naturally without treatment.

🎖The ultimate goal is to be independent and live a meaningful life in the future.

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✴️ Summary: It’s really complicated and difficult to explain clearly in one go. It’s not behavioral therapy just asking the children to sit down and obey. In the classroom, different teaching methods of ABA will be used to teach different areas of knowledge according to the needs of the children and the parents' long-term goals for their children.