For parents, educators, and care providers...
When I was asked to provide some insights and copy for the launch of the new website, I provided...too much!! There are so many stories that I felt we needed a way to let our successes, and challenges be shared with the DD community. We invite your comments and suggestions for discussion.
A few notes about ABA
We utilize ABA techniques to help our clients diminish inappropriate behaviors and replace them with more appropriate behaviors. One way of doing this is to find out what are the client's reinforcing properties and then use a reinforcement schedule to help shape a behavior. Once we are able to determine what reinforces an inappropriate behavior, we then write a behavioral plan, where we manipulate the client's environment to eliminate those reinforcers.
For example, we have a client that would drop to the ground after getting off the van upon arriving at the Day Program. She would not get up and walk to the classroom. This was a problem because the weather was a factor. It could be raining, cold outside, or hot enough, where the asphalt would burn her, she would still fall to the ground and lay there. Through an observational technique called ABC recording, it was determined that the behavior was socially mediated positive reinforcement, meaning that staff would give her attention by trying to get her up off the ground. She would make this difficult by making herself heavy. Not only was this a health and safety issue for her, but it was for staff too, trying to pick her up.
So, what she wanted was attention (the reinforcer), she just didn't know how to seek it appropriately. The plan was to put her "falling to the ground" behavior on extinction (we ignored her, while she was on the ground) and give her attention, the moment she stood up. After a few days, she stopped falling to the ground and now, upon arriving at the program, she gets off the van without any prompting and goes directly to her classroom. This is just one example of utilizing ABA techniques to help our clients.
It can be challenging to determine a hypothesis of a behavior, but the real challenge is getting the staff to follow through on a behavioral plan and we've been very fortunate: Once a month, at our staff meetings, I provide a in-service training on ABA. Tomorrow, I'm going to talk about automatic reinforcement and how it effects our clients. At the homes, I provide ABA training twice a month. In a follow up blog, I'll provide a brief curriculum of this year's ABA training
When I was asked to provide some insights and copy for the launch of the new website, I provided...too much!! There are so many stories that I felt we needed a way to let our successes, and challenges be shared with the DD community. We invite your comments and suggestions for discussion.
A few notes about ABA
We utilize ABA techniques to help our clients diminish inappropriate behaviors and replace them with more appropriate behaviors. One way of doing this is to find out what are the client's reinforcing properties and then use a reinforcement schedule to help shape a behavior. Once we are able to determine what reinforces an inappropriate behavior, we then write a behavioral plan, where we manipulate the client's environment to eliminate those reinforcers.
For example, we have a client that would drop to the ground after getting off the van upon arriving at the Day Program. She would not get up and walk to the classroom. This was a problem because the weather was a factor. It could be raining, cold outside, or hot enough, where the asphalt would burn her, she would still fall to the ground and lay there. Through an observational technique called ABC recording, it was determined that the behavior was socially mediated positive reinforcement, meaning that staff would give her attention by trying to get her up off the ground. She would make this difficult by making herself heavy. Not only was this a health and safety issue for her, but it was for staff too, trying to pick her up.
So, what she wanted was attention (the reinforcer), she just didn't know how to seek it appropriately. The plan was to put her "falling to the ground" behavior on extinction (we ignored her, while she was on the ground) and give her attention, the moment she stood up. After a few days, she stopped falling to the ground and now, upon arriving at the program, she gets off the van without any prompting and goes directly to her classroom. This is just one example of utilizing ABA techniques to help our clients.
It can be challenging to determine a hypothesis of a behavior, but the real challenge is getting the staff to follow through on a behavioral plan and we've been very fortunate: Once a month, at our staff meetings, I provide a in-service training on ABA. Tomorrow, I'm going to talk about automatic reinforcement and how it effects our clients. At the homes, I provide ABA training twice a month. In a follow up blog, I'll provide a brief curriculum of this year's ABA training
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