For children with autism spectrum disorder, learning behaviors can be very difficult.  While most children learn easily from observing their peers and from the scolding and guidance of their parents, children with autism spectrum disorder have difficulties learning in these manners.  Inferences are often impossible for children with these disorders, and attention from scolding is not differentiated from attention for doing something good, which makes it seem almost impossible for parents to provide the care and treatment that children with autism spectrum disorder need.  Thankfully, ABA therapy can help.

ABA therapy, or Applied Behavior Analysis therapy, is a unique method of teaching and treating children with autism.  It works through discrete trial teaching, which is a series of lessons that break common behaviors and actions down into the most basic steps possible so that they can be taught gradually.  Prompts are used to help a child learn each step, and the prompts are slowly removed as a child learns to mimic the behavior on their own.

With ABA therapy, behavior management becomes much simpler.  Negative behaviors such as head banging, biting, and yelling are simply ignored and are warranted no attention unless the child is in danger.  Positive and appropriate behaviors, on the other hand, are rewarded with praise and positive attention.  This helps the child start to associate proper behaviors with positive attention and will help them learn to behave in an acceptable manner.  More importantly, over time this will help a child’s brain start to build new neural connections that will help teach them to infer proper behaviors and will actually help make it easier for them to learn behaviors and concepts on their own in the future.

There is no treatment for autism that is more widely accepted and approved than ABA, and the simple reason for this is that it is proven to be incredibly effective.  Many children who receive the treatment go on to learn in a traditional classroom, and most carry the skills that they learn with them well into their adult lives, using them throughout their careers.  ABA therapy is highly recommended for all children with autism spectrum disorder, and many school districts have learned that the methods taught can be effective for other children as well.  ABA is most effective when offered both at home and in school, and with early intervention, most children have an excellent chance of seeing a significant improvement in behavior as well as a significant reduction in symptoms.