Parents and educators alike can benefit greatly from ABA training. This is Applied Behavior Analysis and it serves as the basis for the best treatments and therapies for children with any form of Autism. It uses very precise teaching procedures and relies heavily on the effects of positive reinforcement to accomplish its goals.
It is interesting to note that children with Autism or ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders) are going to display a wide range of different symptoms. For example, one child might have a much more severe form of ASD than another, and this means that the treatments and therapies might differ quite widely. The beneficial effects of positive reinforcement, however, will always serve as a key tactic regardless of the ways that the disorders manifest themselves.
So, with that said, what is ABA training? There are many ways that training is developed around ABA principles and strategies, and quite often the training falls under the heading of Autism Training. This is something used by parents and teachers alike to help a student or child to develop the kinds of behaviors that their disorder might be preventing them from learning. This training often places a heavy emphasis on the effects of positive reinforcement and can support a child’s efforts at developing such skills as speech, social, and cognitive abilities.
How are the effects of positive reinforcement actually applied to a teacher’s or parent’s strategies? Let’s say that a child with Autism is having a lot of difficulty with language or communication. The parents and teachers will work out a set of activities and plans for encouraging that child to independently seek to communicate or speak. The child will be motivated by their direct classroom experiences and the positive reinforcement provided by the teacher, and this is going to be followed up by the same sorts of nurturing encouragement in the home environment too though the tactics to foster communication will be a bit different.
This combination of precise teaching and positive reinforcement has been one of the few treatments that is advocated by medical and educational professionals. This is because it overrides the Autistic child’s inability to learn by observation. Instead, the child is actually taught how to learn by their parents and teachers through the use of persistent positive feedback and encouragement. While some might view this as overkill it has an amazing success rate and is something used by schools, educational institutions and parents with a great deal of success.
Garrett Butch is the father of a 8 year old with autism and the founder of Maximum Potential Group http://www.abatrainingcourse.com. Maximum Potential has developed courses that train parents and school systems how to work with children with autism. View one of our sample videos and contact us at http://www.abatrainingcourse.com/video-demos.htm
