Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy
Applied behavior Analysis therapy has contributed for many autism treatment programs carried out for autism-affected children. Many researches have showed that applied behavior methods are beneficial in improving the ability of learning, communication skills, adaptive and social behavior. Most of the treatments started in early years of the age of children with autism are benefited by this method.
What is ABA Therapy?
Applied behavior analysis is planned to improve the autism-affected children's behavior and the skills that are required to deal with specific situations. This analysis is based on the reinforcement principle by which the behavior can be improved by rewarding the desired activity, and the unwanted behavior also can be changed by removing reinforcement from it. Hence, the desired behavior will be accepted by the targeted person, as he or she will repeat that behavior naturally. This principle of ABA therapy can be applied for various treatment programs like incidental teaching, discrete trail training and errorless training.
Many experts in autism believe that autism-affected children fail to learn from the environment like other children. ABA approach provides teaching tools that can be used for consistent reinforcement and simplified instructional steps. The most important aspect of ABA therapy is that children treated by this method can live independent and can be socially active. This therapy is also very beneficial to the children who receive the early intervention. The major treatment programs based on the ABA method are:
The practitioner trains the child for desired specific behavior. If the child does not respond to the clear instruction given by the practitioner, the practitioner reinforces for the behavior. This activity goes till the child understands the instructions and responds to it properly.
Incidental training also follows the same method like discrete trail training, but focus is given on teaching different concepts and behaviors for the everyday experiences to that child.
PRT includes some ABA based techniques to learn crucial skills, which play important role in developing many other skills. Hence, if the child has improved one pivotal skill, the improvement in many other different skills can be seen. In short, the training focuses on the generalized behavior in the everyday life of the autism-affected child.
The practitioner teaches the autism-affected child every element of behavior to develop a complex behavior. This teaching goes on till that behavior become natural for the child. For all this, the practitioner uses prompting, reinforcement and behavioral observation.
The autism-affected children are trained for the language and communication skills using the applied behavior therapy. This verbal behavior includes the reinforcement on the complex language skills and its more use in everyday life.
In order to get better results from the ABA therapy, the parents and the caretakers of the autism-affected children should be trained in applied behavior analysis. It is also noticed that there are no side effects of the ABA therapy that makes the approach more beneficial than other approaches.
